Learnings from Ladakh

It has been on my mind to write this down. A trip to a hill station in summer could at best make up for a travelogue. However, Leh, the remote Himalayan town up north in India, left me diving deeper into world of meanings. Here is a small account of what I reaped. It IS a long post...



Play of colors in the Karakoram range ahead of Leh

Leh is the capital of Ladakh. Ladakh is a territory, a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. Ladakh touches China on one side and Pakistan on another. It touches the ancient silk route. The town overall has a Buddhist air. The history is filled with attacks and influences Mongols, Persians invaders and hence it has a mixed populace of Buddhists and Muslims. At the altitude of 3.5km above sea level air is already thin. It becomes thinner and more difficult to breathe at the height of 5.6km above the sea level at the highest motorable pass-Khardungla, which connects to Leh.  Being a border town military is everywhere. Take a snapshot of a market place and one in ten people in the crowd is a military man. It is a desert at high altitude, nothing really grows there in terms of vegetation. Six months of the year, people live solitary life, cut-off from the rest of the world as tourist season gets over and white (snow) is the color of everything around. This was for a quickest introduction of the place, now here is what made this trip so very special for an insight seeker-

1.       SURVIVING THE LACK OF OXYGEN AND THE BUSINESS: I had never experienced what it means to be in a less oxygen situation, till now. Closed rooms without proper ventilation for corporate meetings was the closest reminder to what I felt there. If cash is ‘oxygen’ for business, then yes, we felt it several times at my company. We were caught off guard by the ‘mountain sickness’ as we were just air-dropped into a high altitude, without pre-emptive medication. When there is a lack of oxygen, you develop headache and feel giddy. Sense of orientation goes for a toss. We were advised to reduce are physical activities i.e. even walking, to the minimal during this phase of acclimatisation.  Rigorous activities burden the breathing apparatus even more. So best idea is to sit in the room for a day and catch-up with the family, organise things etc. Thinking of the slow-down times, while it is good to keep trying for new sources of business we must remember that ‘too much activity’ will actually drain us out. A simple thing like taking a flight to meet a prospective customer needs to be weighed carefully as flight costs a lot of money. Try to get the things done as much as possible on internet. At the same time, if you try to sleep due to drowsiness, it will lead to a coma. Sleeping is the worst thing one can do when there is less Oxygen. Now, this sounds like a common sense but the problem is amplified in real situations.

Also, the people who travelled on road to reach this place were better off in tackling the altitude sickness compared to people like us who were just air-dropped here from a regular city. We also didn’t take the highly prescribed Diamox tablet early enough, thinking that we are strong enough and tablets are for people who never go to gym J. When the hard times hit, people who usually splurge are hit the worst. The stamina that appears as stamina in good times, is different from the stamina in bad times. While parents always insist on ‘not to spend too much’, no child really listens. This was a grim reminder to some basics of life being so omnipresent.

2.       Compassion and  gratitude: We took a cab from Leh to go to Nubra valley- an area in the plains of Sarayu river, 100 km away from Leh. Khardungla pass connects Leh and Nubra valley. The famous or rather infamous Siachin glacier is just ahead of Nubra area. The tortuous hilly ride through the snow capped roads, was being beautifully negotiated by our cab driver Akbar Ali, a young man from Kargil area. While we were tackling the breathlessness and lying still in the car when there was a jam on the road due to other cars’ tyres slipping in the snow, he was the one jumping around to help other drivers. I had noticed that he had a peculiar way of adjusting the radio knob in the car. Later we realized that Akbar Ali does not have an index finger in both the hands. On top of that two fingers were conjoint in both the hands, effectively reducing the palm to three fingers. We didn’t realise this all this while, as all his interactions and driving was flawless. After the tense moments of driving on the edge of the mountain for hours, we stopped by an open ground after Khardungla– a riverbed, to take a stroll. I asked him if it bothered him to have hands like this. He calmly answered, “ This is with me since me birth. Many people are born who have much worse situations with their body and they live through the life with them. I am thankful to Allah that I can drive and earn my living”.  My mind went through several instances in personal life where I was frustrated with ‘I want more’ syndrome.

 

Akbar Ali puts chains the wheel to plough
the vehicle through the snow on the road

On the way back I read some posters on a public wall about focus on ‘compassion’ in Buddhism. Tough living conditions of the region and ‘compassion’ as an overarching life value, makes people ‘grateful’ to the supreme creator for what they have. With compassion and gratefulness, tough times can become the most enriching times.

3.       Innovation for the people on fringes: All this while our focus on innovation has been on the ‘mass products’. Businesses seek ‘scale’ before an idea can be realised. Business viability is not a bad word. It is the very essence of the trade. However, thinking of a few situations made me ponder on alternative way of looking at it:

a.       BSNL v/s Airtel etc. : In the fringe areas, only mobile service present till the last Indian border post is BSNL. While we are gasping for breath at Khardungla pass, one can see tall mobile towers smiling at US. OFC cable or Optical Fibre Cable owned by BSNL has put the marker stones all the way up there. Despite all the dirt in the public spending, it is only an institution like government who can link up the people living on the fringes of existence. Union budget 2013 mentions 1200 crores for setting transmission lines between Kargil and Leh. Yes, border towns need to be pampered a bit more.

b.      Toilets for the snow capped habitations: ‘We have a toilet but it is all frozen’- was a constant comment through the journey up the mountains, as ramshackle restaurants and even military settlements refused to provide a place to even women. Now, this is a genuine problem. Digging a pit and patching it up is the only way even Army seems to be managing there. On one side, Lonely Planet guide, talks of saving the precious drinking water and not use ‘flush toilets’ in the fragile ecology of Leh, on the other side, there is no alternative to the toilets. Wondering if ‘bio-digester’ toilets area reality and should be promoted by organisations like DRDO to stretch them beyond trains on to the mountains.

Modular structures for shelter are in rudimentary state

c.       Solar so much: We have been involved in a few assignments from the social enterprises. Bio-fuel, solar lighting, solar heating, electricity savers, safer kerosene stoves etc. Focus on solar energy is tremendous with unveiling of the Solar Mission 2020 by the government of India. My team mates have been to other remote areas like Kutch in the West and Gangasagar islands in the East studying the right solar energy solutions for people on the fringes. Here in Leh, I saw the ubiquitous solar PV panels even in small houses. At one of the road side restaurants I also saw a solar concentrator (picture below). Laddakh climate is supposed to be the best suited climate for efficient solar electricity from Photo Voltaic panels (sunlight with low temperature is best suited as compared to in Rajasthan where ample sun is accompanied with high temperatures, resulting in significant drop in per square inch electricity generation fro PV panels). I also remember a discussion with conventional battery manufacturer who was keen on making battery based LED lanterns. When I asked then why should people use battery based lanterns in today’s world while Solar is in, his reply was simple –‘It is just easier’. Indeed, it was the case when we were faced with frequent light cuts, no street lights and unpredictable weather which could go cloudy anytime. Battery based LED lanterns were better to manage. The home-stay we rented, had a solar water heater. But it also had an electrical heating override. Means the days, when there is no sun, electrical system does the job. So the solar is arriving and needed but not fully yet.

4.       Cattle-class to Luxury class: General category travel in trains was anointed to be cattle class travel by one of the Indian ministers. I abhor that way of travelling as I spent several years travelling that way. So we hired a taxi (large car) just for two of us. It was a jolly ride till the road had no snow. Once the tyres were deep in snow, vehicles with less occupants inside start slipping and virtually blocking the entire traffic on the narrow stretches. Our driver commented that all the jams are due to tourist vehicles which travel with 2 or 3 passengers at max. Locals travel in mini-buses/Jeeps which are full to the brim and never face the problem of getting stuck in the snow. Something similar all air travellers must have noticed- more than plane is loaded, journey is less turbulent due to more wing loading. In fact, in our journey we had to plead to some people travelling in those mini-buses to grace our car, which they happily did. Luxury gets redefined in some contexts like this one.

5.       We all are just visitors!  We were there at Leh for just five days. Not at all enough to get the sense of the place. People take up voluntary work with NGOs like Snow Leopard Conservancy etc. and stay there for months to support the cause as well as build a sense of connect to the place. Visitor or ‘tourist’ label on us unsettled something within, till I saw a quote by Dalai Lama XIV in one of the local shops –

 

“We all are visitors on this planet. We are here for one hundred years at the very most. During that period we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives. if you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true meaning of life.

I have studied Indian philosophical systems including Charvak’s, which says that ‘eat, drink and have fun- there is nothing after death’ and also other systems including Buddhism which believes in reincarnation. At the monastery in the remote town of Disket, I happened to speak to a monk about a painting on a wall depicting the karmic cycle. In the center were three ‘poisons’ of this existence namely ‘Ignorance, Attachment and Desire’, which keep a soul hooked on to the karmic rebirth cycle  (see http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/six-states.shtml#.UYsZSyDrbIU

for more details) .

 

    (Karmic Cycle depicted on the fresco behind in Deskit Monastery)

Such plaques for unsung soldiers who died in the duty
of protecting the country, are strewn everywhere

 

Apart from others what interested me was the concept of ‘demigods’ who are higher than the humans but not relieved of the cycle.. Demigod are still bound by the world of jealousy- depicted in a scene where tree grown on one side is giving fruits to the other households and both are fighting. It was interesting for a student of modern psychology and having studied Maslov’s pyramid of needs, that beyond the needs for self-realisation, there are several births to get rid of the basic needs/poisons :).

Live to Love Ladakh! Juley!!

 

HIRING GOOD PEOPLE : ETHNOGRAPHIC CUES

This is a topic that every HR manager and every business owner can go on and on. Despite hundreds of kinds of psychometric tests, personal interviews and many guru- insights, it still remains a fuzzy area. I have gone wrong in hiring multiple times in last fifteen years for my company. But I also checked with some business owners who run an empire of millions and sometime billions of dollars. They say that even they go wrong many times, despite being equipped with big paraphernalia of HR brains & filters. Some of the things that we have done differently have really worked. Here are some insights that I have generated so far:

1.  DINNER TABLE FILTER: Can this person be taken to the family dinner table?

This was a very simple filtering advice given to me by one of the clients I worked with. And it does seem to provide an answer for a good-teammate selection. Person’s external polish that his/her qualification and degree provides gives way to his/her real self in a long stretch interaction. Small nuances of how to address, elders, women, subordinates etc. can throw light into a person’s value build-up and his/her longevity into the organisation.  This is rather conservative yet innovative way to look at people. And believe me; it applies to all levels of hire- right from office boy to CEO. After all, we spend some important part of our life in office. It is essential that we are COMFORTABLE in everyday interactions with the new person over a long time.  The ‘interview varnish’ that people put on at the time of first interaction, gets worn off very fast and their real self starts coming out and reaches every available ear if not eyes, if there is something amiss.  A similar filter is ‘airport filter’- imagine you would be stuck on an airport for long hours with this person. Would you like to spend that time with this person without needing to mentally shut-off?

 

2. RABBIT-TORTOISE FILTER : Speed v/s Longevity

A rabbit runs fast but take naps in-between while the tortoise is slow but steady. We all know this. In a business scenario, we need both the profiles; those who can outperform others in SPEED, as well as those who can OUTLAST everyone else. Rarely, we get both the qualities in one person. I have always been baffled with the latter. Those who are super sharp, super articulate and a bit of street-smart – the rabbits- are also like ‘hired-sharpshooters’. They come, do the job and move on. They don’t stay with you forever. My company (many companies share this concern) is a training ground for them. They know how to milk the best of every world they get in. They are easy with people and generous with words. They are the Rabbits of our filter. We need them, time to time, in different shades and intensity.

Tortoise of our story is usually slow. They come usually from humble backgrounds. They are thoughtful and watchful of what they say and do. They are quick learners because of the hunger for going ahead. They are aware of the distance between them and the Rabbits within the company. They are consistent. Rabbit may arrive in office at 11-12am (and goes for a smoke every now and then, and claims that his/her working style is ‘non-linear’), while our tortoise is a bit old fashioned ‘linear’. He/she arrives at the regular time and does not leave till the mandated task is done. In parties they don’t show extra-ordinary talent and never a cynosure and an instant hit. They are mild with criticism and generous with empathy with fellow mates. Their work is not super brilliant. It just about meets the requirement. You need the Rabbit’s brilliance and garnish to make the work ready for delivery. However, they are the pillar of stability and peace within the organisation. On them rests the mandate of carrying forward the values and the legacy. They are honest flag bearers of what needs to be continued. Change is not their cup of tea. Change can be brought about by infusing a fresh breed of Rabbits into the team.

 

3. LOST & FOUND FILTER : Old friend in the new town

It has a strange pull. People who worked with us and left for different destiny, one day find themselves again facing us. Sense of familiarity and the expectation of the new energy they bring in from previous experience, together present a heady mix for a growing team. Team mates usually welcome such inclusions and relish the sense of home coming. Corporate world is replete with cases of returns and magnificent second stint, including the most famous one is of Apple’s chief.

4. NATURAL GROOVE FILTER : What drives a person

We hired a web-programmer long back. Very soon we realised that it is not going to work out as he started stumbling on every assignment.  However, as a person he was good and gelled well with the team. With some heart-to-heart talk with him I found out that he actually abhors the ‘computer’ work, but got into it as it seemed to be only ‘safe’ career option. He liked working with hands and showed me several pictures of some crafted objects in his backyard workshop. Well, I tried something new- we had a need to setting up a ‘model-proto-making’ facility within our company and just gave him a mandate of making it happen. To my surprise, he not only set it all up but also worked at the prototypes better than any professionally trained people I had seen. He worked hard without worrying about working hours and soon became an important pillar of the organisation. I used to introduce him as ‘master craftsman’ at our company, a designation which he probably never imagined but relished. Recently, he started his own model-making business and we were happy to provide him some referential work. He became an extended network resource who can be relied upon for a good quality work even in odd and demanding situations.

 

5. OTHER ENERGY FILTER : What’s behind the office veil

You can see the degrees a person carries. You can also see the list of other organisation he/she has worked in. In creative professions, a visual portfolio of work also works wonders. But there is always a lurking need to know more. What does a person do beyond the office work or during weekends- this discussion yields some important insights on the person’s life & energy channels. If a person is a die-hard movie-buff, on slight prompting he/she would go at length about a movie’s plot, direction, presentation etc. Passion drives this world. A passion & quest for excellence in one field gives respect to passion & quest for excellence in another field. This also provides a good connecting point to colleagues beyond office hours. It helps to have colleagues who have very diverse interests and who follow them passionately. 

Engineering the Design

ENGINEERING THE DESIGN

“Engineers who join this institute are told to forget engineering”. A head of a prominent design institute of India was heard speaking at an event. It was like déjà-vu. I heard that many times while I was in my design school. There were two kinds of students inducted into the design school – first, those who join after twelfth standard and spend five years in honing their skills as a designer, while the others join after engineering or architecture for half the period i.e. two and a half years. And as one would imagine, usually there would be marked difference in some skills i.e. sketching, between the two streams of design students. But was ‘freehand-sketching’ the only thing and everything that ‘design’ had to offer to the world? Well, at least this was the idea percolated within the designers. Engineers would be ‘denounced’ in every discussion around ‘design and creativity’, as the ones who can only be either a good manager or at best work on more ‘engineering’ centred projects. I was surprised to hear a senior designer in a consumer durable multinational company that he never asked designers with additional engineering degrees to work on ‘form and styling projects’, because he ‘knew’ that they won’t be good at it. This discussion however does not absolve the abysmal status of engineering education, in general, in the country where out of 7,50,000 engineers graduate every year. Not one tenth of them are readily employable. The entire aura generated out of this discussion makes an engineering graduate-now-designer disgusted with the whole idea that he/she is rather CHAINED into ENGINEERING to do anything creative. My discussion is limited to the perception of engineering within the design and so called ‘creative’ community.

Now after so many years in the profession I have seen that the other side, the businesses who consume design, had a different story to tell. Many clients- especially the SMEs, usually had some concerns expressed right in our first meeting. They would invariably tell us, “Whatever you design, need to be producible. We have seen far too many designers who give us sexy renderings/images which fail on the manufacturing front and the entire project loses steam ”. And we would tell them that we were well grounded in technology & manufacturing as much as in design, so no need to worry. I have seen in past my partner & co-founder of Onio, Prakash, sorting out some of the most perplexing problems in design-to-manufacturing journey. That started right from the first assignment that we did with Godrej Security Equipments Division on home security doors. He worked with the Godrej engineers and even workmen on the shop floor to make them understand the new design and help them overcome the resistance to change. It is not that these problems only surface in heavy duty product only. We worked for almost 5 years at a stretch on ‘perfumes and cosmetics field, designing perfume bottles, crème jars and respective packaging. Problems of realisation of design were present here also. A commanding knowledge of manufacturing processes gave us an upper hand whenever we were involved with a manufacturing company. A great skill in design and similar finesse in execution are not two mutually exclusive skills as they are believed to be. Situation has not changed after so many years when now many consumer brands just ‘marketing companies’. They get all the stuff manufactured in Taiwan or China. When they call us for design intervention, the questions remain the same- “will you design be realisable? Can you solve the manufacturing issues that come up through the process”?

Engineering is not just about solving manufacturing process problems. Current education system has made the grand profession of engineering, look like a mindless-tailor of physical products and structures, which lack sense of well-being. The strength of the field that coverts SCIENCE into something usable as a product or a structure, is missing. Engineer, understands structuring, much faster than many other people. Structuring information, or structuring a product- engineers are trained to think structures. When we took up a complex brand strategy assignment, this was ‘STRUCURING SKILL’ that came handy to put several contradicting factors together to make sense. Not all the time in your daily life, you need to BREAK AWAY. We follow structures of relationships, civil laws, organisation, religion, food regimen, etc. etc. There has been some great mind or minds that put things for us in a structured manner to make life simple (barring a few who went to ridiculous extent of creating ‘Seven laws of ...’ on everything).  The man who made ‘metro’ train possible in India in record project time and with exemplary project management skills, Mr. E. Sreedharan is a civil engineer. It was a feat in the circumstances that India imposes on any project of the size of Delhi Metro. Goa’s chief minister Mr. Manohar Parrikar is an engineer from IIT Bombay. Jairam Ramesh, ex-minister from the Ministry of Environment, who did some pioneering work in his area, is also an engineer from the same college. Several chiefs of large Indian businesses have engineering degrees (it is only recently that their sons and daughters are being sent to get a MBA degree from some foreign university and more recently to Design colleges as well). There are several people I know who are heading powerful banks and financial institutions abroad, are basically engineers. Why did the banks hire engineers and not just economists or Chartered Accountants only? Because it is believed that  financial institutions need a great analytical mind who can quickly sort out an amorphous situation into a structured and predictable model. I am not proposing that all the engineers should go and do banking business or famously ‘sell soaps’. But the point being driven is that there are a few core skills engineers acquire apart from solving technology/manufacturing problems, which are of immense value across the fields and design cannot be an exception.

And towards the end, I would like to recall an inspiration that drove me to the design profession. Leonardo-da-vinci, the grand master artist, architect, biologist and machine design, weapon designer- all bundled in one, of the renaissance times. While at IIT, studying mechanical engineering, I was sitting in the library most of the time and learning of Vinci, copying his sketches multiple times and trying to understand what drove this genius to think about everything under the sun. A human mind is capable of holding several contrasting faculties of knowledge. It is the modern education that makes to tunnel-visioned and fogs the brain when it comes to contrasting streams of knowledge. Let the world be born again with more holism in knowledge.

Time has come when Design as a profession, at least in India, has to embrace engineering in its full blown dimensions. Time has come to wash the bourgeoisie mindsets of those in creative fraternity to open the eyes to a reality that ‘creativity’, at an ‘idea’ level is just worth nothing till it cast into something of a physical reality. It is time to ENGINEER the DESIGN a bit.

 

 

Envisioning a global Indian consumer brand

It is not too far. Omens are on the horizon. Mahindra, Tata, Godrej are only the visible names that are acquiring the marquee consumer brands across the globe. There is an entire cadre of small to medium scale Indian enterprises that have ventured out to acquire global parent companies, consumer brands, design studios and other allied service companies to further their global ambitions.

 

Hindustan Motors - Creator of Ambassador car,
could have created a world brand. So near yet so far.

 

So far, by and large, all the acquisitions made by these companies are in the careful-entry mode. Indian managers want to get a psychological entry into the space without upsetting the existing scheme of things. They are learning the rules of the game. Indian acumen & ferocity of business is yet to show up. No doubt, business has to be run as usual but the changes will come and will come slow. The brands and their key managers have been wire-fenced from the Indian influences. Being involved in one of such studies, I know that there is a fear of direct revenue loss, should things change overnight.  More than revenue loss, it is the loss of mind-share in the eyes of the global buyers. The buyer who is used to seeing certain faces and certain way of communication does not want to be a radical innovator in a purchase process. His brand loyalty also comes from the ‘interactions’ and not only from the product. However, the change is imminent and we will see some brands emerging on the global arena with a distinct Indian signature.

Indian signature does not mean just an Indian acquisition and brand being run by an Indian management. I am talking of distinct brand character that is based on deep rooted Indian ethos. Now this, may not be applicable the already existing marquee brands. But it could be a totally new kid on the block travelling the journey of a garage start-up to king of consumer brands within a span of few years.

We have seen some already popular Indian brands in the market. Tata Nano is the name of choice. Though it has not created a market for itself in India as envisaged, it has definitely carved a clear niche in the global consumer’s mind. People are aware of Nano as a car. However, Tata Nano and Chotu-Kool refrigerator made by Godrej (for bottom-of-pyramid consumers), both do not represent the ethos of Indian mind truly. ‘Frugal’ or cost effective design that has come to be associated with India is an aberration at best, to what rich Indian legacy has to offer. ABUNDANCE and not FRUGALITY is a core Indian tenet. FRUGALITY as in pragmatism and minimalism is fine. But if it means just material reduction, making the structures weaker, not accounting for the long-usage comfort, bad-aesthetics- then this is not what India stands for. Being poor, was not a choice for India. India has been a land of riches and that is what the Indian mind is currently yearning to get back to. When we talk of rich, it is about being ‘value abundance’. So when we speak of products ‘LONGEVITY’ is one of the abundance that would emerge to be one of the Indian ethos in the global brands. When VOLVO stands for SAFETY and FERRARI stands for flamboyance and speed, and Indian brand should stand for LONGEVITY. Nano, surely is not about longevity.

Next things, that is deeply Indian is ornamentation. Argument is that it is quite oriental as a value. Yes, it is oriental. But that is okay to be universal oriental value. It is Indian as well. Ornamentation is seen as ‘abundance’ in India. Ornamentation assures the Indian mind that a lot of care has been poured in materialisation. Ornamentation presupposes abstraction. And that is where it distances itself from Western realism. Focus on realism has forced the aesthetics of minimalism on the world. Indian consumers, who are lured into the land of minimalism as styling, are just tasting a new dish served to them. Soon they will get tired of it. Return to the home flavour is the human tendency. When a global Indian brand is envisaged, it will be as much about ornamentation as it will be about longevity. I use a term called ‘samagra’ (which means ‘comprehensive’ in Sanskrit). Somewhere SAMAGRA is also about multi-sensorial experience. What we get when we go to a temple- ring the bell, touch the deity, taste the prasadam, smell the ‘dhoop’- it is always a complete sensorial experience. Samagra on a broader sense points to this ‘enveloping effect’. Car companies in India are getting better at it. Ask Hyundai!

Third thing that Indian ethos stands for is surely EMPATHY. The land which gave birth to Buddha and Mahavir should be the first one to understand the pain of others. Ergonomic, Culture-aligned, Environment friendly & Universal design (inclusive design)- these are four sub-tenets of EMPATHY. These sound clichéd but keeping them in the first cone of focus is what is needed while conjuring up the new global brand. More often than not, businesses run to copy a success of an existing product, brand and thereby, end up copying only the ‘tactical’ end of the success, not the core DNA that shaped it.  EMPATHY needs to built into the core DNA of the global Indian brand. This value goes on to define the service interactions in more pronounced way, not only the product.

VERSATILITY is what is in the DNA of India. No object here is usually used for only single purpose. Idea of multiple usages is another example of ‘dematerialisation’. It saves materials & energy. So while west could have ten different spoons for different kinds of foods and connected scoop and spread devices, Indian mind would rather look at ‘two in ones’. Entire philosophy of ‘Jugaad’ is also a testimony to this virtue.

Indian consumer brands have gone miles ahead where they were ten years back. Today, walking into a VIP luggage showroom is an equal experience (if not more) compared to a Samsonite showroom. Mahindra is running full steam in the auto market while the rest of the players are cringing at the low sales in the domestic market. Aesthetics and Style quotient has gone up several notches. However, manufacturing quality of Indian brands remains a big concern still.

I would surely put the next paradigm change into global brand scenario as FIVE-SEVEN years from now. And this change will see some Indian brands rising. I want to be one of the drivers for sure J.

 

 

 

CITY BRANDING IN INDIA- INNISHARI WAY

I have been using ‘5000 year old culture’, as a referential phrase for India, while speaking in several forums. I have not seen this phrase being used anywhere in the ‘incredible India’ campaign so far. I have been wondering why has the chronological reference not been taken into account for branding India? May be I missed seeing it. At least all the major airports of the countries I frequent, don’t have it. Wonder which other country can boast of this fact and actively promotes it? KOREA, yes, when you land on Incheon airport, at Seoul, South Korea proudly announces that their culture is also 5000 years old. When I went to Indonesia, well they were talking of way more longer.. millions of years.. neolithic ages  J. Yes, Indonesia was the land where the remains of legendary ‘Java’ man (Homo Erectus) were found (Java is not the programming  language alone, it is an island in Indonesia with an ancient cultural roots). 

But none of these countries we spoke about so far have the sense of ‘country’ or ‘city’ branding what the western countries have. In Berlin, I saw huge shops selling Berlin Souvenirs. The souvenirs, unfortunately, were nearly all, made in China (just like all the London souvenirs). However, it was a big business. At least the imagery that was being printed out on these souvenirs was consistent. It is a different point that they were also selling some ridiculous items like broken chunks of erstwhile ‘Berlin wall’.   Imagine, purchasing pieces of ‘Wagah border’ wall one day...

One of the visuals for Pune branding by Innishari

Anyway, no one brands their city like Americans do. ‘I love NY’ t-shirt has been seen in literally every major city in India. People wear it probably just to show either they or someone in their family or friend circle has been to this city. Sometimes, people wear it just because it looks ‘cool’. The graphic is bold and makes a statement. Americans can brand literally everything. India is still recuperating from its colonial penury and making a very slow progress on these things which only occur to a nation once there is some wealth. While roads and bridges are criss-crossing the country and nearly every airport is undergoing an overhaul right now, there is no thought on MESSAGING on the airport. One sees, aluminium clad walls thatched all over the country in a race to make the airports ‘world-class’. What is lost in this race is a more settled feeling of ‘permanence’ and ‘cultural signature’ of every place.  Bhutan has shown the way. Thimphu airport does not copy the architecture of these ‘modern airports’. But such cases are rare in India. Kerala was the only state which took up the state branding much ahead of the country’s brand and successfully culled out a niche of ‘God’s own country’.  Tourism soared into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Last week Indian Express reported the Pune city branding initiative by an upcoming start-up ‘Innishari’ that had created a set of modern visual narratives on Pune. This was put up in a local mall as a part of the ongoing Pune Biennale.  A series of seven visuals presented were in a mixed style- ‘realism’ and ‘abstraction’. Realism makes it understandable and abstraction makes it refreshing.  Realism connects to masses and abstraction connects to the intellectuals. Pune as a city has so far been identified only with a picture of ‘Shanivaar wada’, a rather not-so-grand a fort made by Peshwas. Beyond that Pune has little visual identity. A city that is bubbling with more than 5 million population out of which hal f of them directly connected with IT & manufacturing industry; where something unique amongst Indian cities- 300 German companies have found their home; which is the cultural and educational hub for western India, cannot be merely depicted with a picture of one fort (the restoration of which, too needs to be taken up seriously by the government)!

You go around the city and you don’t even find any poster that promotes the city. Whole city has been plastered with pictures of small and big time politicos. These posters appear not only on the designated hoardings but also on temporary structures that spring up as anybody’s guess.  Every small time politico worth his name has to put up a big hoarding congratulating some big-wig of his party on his or her birthday, or offering just a welcome note. Half of the faces put up there can be used to scare a child. City municipal council seems to ignore any sense of visual order or disorder against the political pressures. Same situation exists in several other cities. Beautiful cities of Lucknow and Cochin (where I have recently been to) show the same visual mess. This visual cancer can only be cured by a level-headed political leader who should put his foot down to save the city and ban the temporary hoardings. But along side, efforts of city branding like what Innishari has put forth, must be given space. In the eyes of a global visitor passing through the city, it will reflect the connoisseur pulse of its citizens.  This, I believe is the real DNA of Pune, a city that attracted me to it sixteen years ago!

Here is the recent press coverage of the event:

http://m.indianexpress.com/news/window-to-the-city/1060581/

RETAIL INNOVATION & ISSUE OF FDI IN INDIA

India is undergoing a Tsunami of sorts with scams and policy issues. The question of allowing 51% FDI in multi-brand (& 100 % in single brand) retail has come to occupy the prime time public mind share. The government & those in favour of FDI argue that it is a part of economic reforms that will generate 10 million new jobs in retail, will bring in much needed dollars to support the economy, bring supply-chain efficiency in the sector, elimination of the middlemen and a direct gain to primary producers /farmers. Those against the FDI are arguing that the large chains will wipe out the small ‘kirana’ stores and small retailers, will create new middle men, disrupt diversity & traditional systems and kill employment.
I see this issue on a wider sociological phenomenon of change while economists take care of the numbers. This change also brings in some upheaval, voicing of the hidden needs, emergence of new needs and hence drives innovation in the society. Here are some nuances of this change and how it will drive innovations in retail, supply-chain and consumer experience. All that is articulated does not necessarily support or reject FDI but articulates the connected side-effects.

Changing retail texture of medicine shops in smaller cities of India


FORMAT REFORMAT

Wal-Mart entered China in 1996. Today after 340 shops in 125 cities, 90,000 employees and a annual sales of $7 billion (less than 3% of what Wal-Mart makes in USA) it is far less than what was expected from the Chinese market. One of the reasons cited is that unlike western countries, where people like to live in suburbs and drive to large stores in the outskirts of the city, the Chinese preferred living closer to the city center. Long drives, in heavily populated Chinese cities are not as smooth as could have been in the western countries. India! It is no different. Leave aside the initial ‘curious crowd’ for a few months, chances are less that people will travel 20-30 km just to pay a little less for month’s grocery. If people do go there then stores must ensure that they have the entire ‘zing thing’ that Indian consumers are now used to. India’s own brand Big Bazaar did bring the very first India centric innovation in organized retail like open grain retail, tiny service additions like on-the-spot dry and wet grinding and a complete food-court in ‘Shop-Eat-Celebrate’ mood of CENTRAL. 

Another upcoming innovation worth watching is Future Group’s KB Fair-Price shops. These are smaller format just-around-the-corner stores which will be running on a franchise model. For all we know, the visionary Kishore Biyani would have probably also thought of the credit and home delivery which kirana stores offer to the regular customers. It would be interesting to see if the large trans-national companies adopt this model in India.

MEGATREND: AUTHENTICITY & PERSONALISATION

The other day on the way back from our Sunday eating out ritual, we came across a ‘leafy veggie seller’, selling on this busy street on his improvised auto-rickshaw. He said that by 10pm he would be sold out. My wife fell for the fresh stock of leafy veggies. This person drives around 20 km with a stock of worth around Rs.1500 (all sold out in a matter of 5 hours). His differentiation: Fresh out of the farm+ Personal connect with those who buy regularly from him, where he actually gets to oversell +Specialization ‘Leafy only’. No supermall can match this. Concept of a car-boot sale is new to India and it is coming with a tweak- instead of a car, it is a load-carrier auto-rickshaw. In times to come, we will see more of these specialized and slightly elevated small retailers serving the daily needs of Indian consumers. This is a white space as far as organized retailing is concerned.

DURABLE CONSUMERS

In the Rs. 35000 crore consumer durables industry in India today, the Korean giants, LG and Samsung together have around 30 to 40 percent market share in varying categories. Indian brands like Onida, Voltas, Godrej and Videocon were once written off against the superior Korean products have made a formidable comeback. While R&D is still not fully centered in India for many foreign brands (unlike Whirlpool), a lot of focus on ‘India Insights’ and related product research is surely heating up the innovation quotient in this industry. My company has been part of several such research and design exercises with Korean as well as Indian brands, which was unimaginable to be happening on Indian soil a few years back. Godrej’s refrigerator boasts of several innovations which were borne out of deep research. Now a global innovation story, “Chotu-kool” the mini-refrigerator for bottom-of pyramid consumers was designed, manufactured and innovatively distributed by Godrej, was borne out this steeped desire to understand Indian needs better than anybody else. Core mantra of insight and innovation is finally taking over the scale & distribution. Consumers have proven that only durability they want is ‘constantly right’ product. Brands and countries don’t really matter.

We can see that the bar on organised Indian retail has already been set high. It will be interesting to see if sheer scale can scale this or more ingenuity and innovation will come to play. Consumer is winning for sure in either case, irrespective of the government.

(this is an abridged version of the an article I wrote, awaiting publication)

THE HAPPY GENERATION

Onio has been sending out a quarterly update of  happenings and inspirations on Innovation and Design at Onio, as a newsletter 'Onion Peels'. This time when we sent the newsletter one of the replies caught my attention. While the context is set in India, yet it applies to several other parts of the World. Also the things mentioned are taken for granted now, yet to imagine a situation a few years back reminds us of the blessings (our generation) have and that we are a part of the mega-change that is taking place in India. Story-telling is an art and this email brings out the best of a hidden story-teller in a scientist (the author of this email) par-excellance. Thank you Mr. Mukherjee for this wonderful expression.

"Dear Manoj,

Just wanted to give my feedback......

It was great reading PEELS and really reflects on a setup that's full of energy and transformation be it in Design or Branding.

It was especially interesting to read the experiences of Ms. Fee Schmidt Soltau that she has so eloquently brought out. What caught my imagination that standing on your terrace she noticed the change that our country is going through. Probably we are so much part of it and deeply involved in our small way that we just fail to notice.....

This also got me thinking on the changes that we are seeing in our life time ( I take it that we belong to roughly the same generation....). Some of the amazing things that's personally left me gazing and thinking sometimes maybe small but have affected each and everyone of us. I thought of just sharing them with you :

a. Would you imagine the great ecstasy when I used the ATM for the first time maybe just about  10 years back before which we all used to spend hours in the bank with tokens and waiting endlessly for our call..... One cannot wonder how we have been able to network this all over our vast country where you can access your account anywhere and anytime. Believe me I have been amazed when I could access this in remotest places which sometimes my tours take me....

b. A similar experience has been with Railway booking and I can't forget my initial days of service when I used to spend minimum half a day patiently waiting with a small form in my hand hoping that the counter shall not close for lunch. Now you can do the same on your laptop or mobile and we take it so much for granted. Just imagine the vast rail network and millions of people travelling....one would have thought this would not be possible in India.

Better graphics - better future -  Mumbai airport

 

c. Mobile communication is also one wonder of such change and transformation. Seeing the newspaper-man or doodhwala coming in a three wheeler (you no more see them on cycles)  talking on a mobile really brings a smile as again during my first posting, I was in Manali, HP where there was one blooming telephone in the post office and we would trudge 3-4 km on Sat-Sun just to see if it was working and if we could get in queue with a hope to talk to our families and loved ones back home.

d. One also cannot forget the revolution that that the auto industry has brought about. My office with 750 employees used to work in 1991 had two cars which were personally owned and we used to stare in awe when they drove by.....(can you imagine one was an open hood standard like the old Hindi movies with Rajesh Khanna or Dev Anand etc....). Today our office is so flooded with 4 wheelers that parking is a problem.

e. Another marvel I have witnessed is Air travel which we cannot but be in awe of. Could any of us imagine that in barely about the last 10 years this amazing change has happened. When I see families taking out their Dabbas in the 'no frill' flights and share parathas and achaar with their co-travellers it again leaves me wondering. Thats a WOW experience deep down....

There are so many other such amazing marvels that have happened in our generation that I feel fortunate as well as honoured to be part of it because don't forget that maybe 50 + years from now future generations will look back and wonder at what and how WE made it happen. That's the driving force that motivates each one of us ........

I guess that says it all since you and your team at Onio are so much part of it, churning out bright new ideas and innovating on a daily basis bringing about that change that shall make history. I personally have also gained a lot each time I visited you just watching your team strive with that positive energy and full of vigour."

 

Ms. Fee Schmidt Soltau had interned  with Onio an year back. She was involved in a cross-continental brand-strategy assignment with me. Briefly she touch upon some changes India is going through, in her letter. This feedback letter was from Mr. Alok Mukherjee, a senior scientist with one of the defence labs in India. As Onio, we have been privileged to be working on several assignments with defence labs and the brilliant scientist working there, in the past eight years. Mr. Mukherjee was the one who spotted us first, through a news piece on Onio several years back. It has been a wonderful experience working with him all the way through. As Onio, we are proud of the country's defence labs.