The Art of Faking

We, the humans, have a distinctive quality of faking. 

Every day we see different means of faking from our surroundings. Only a few, very few would strike our naked eyes, rest have become so common that we would ignore.
We can see multiple definitions for faking if we actually sit and google.

Nevertheless, faking may or may not happen for a reason. Faking at our friends, colleagues, teachers, cousins, and even at any stranger for that matter with incredible levels of perfection. How many of us know that more than 18% of white collar job people in the cities make "fake calls" every day during office hours just to waste time? They pretend to dial some random number and place their mobile phone over their ears as if they talk to someone! People in the offices especially having the laptop will always have multiple tabs open. Only one of it will be related to work and rest all will be their personal needs. Politicians give fake promises, footballers make fake moves which confuse opponents, movies give fake notions to the viewers, middle-class people would submit fake bills in order to get tax benefits, companies give advertisements with fake promises etc and even fake/hoax news on the internet, people use morphed images and forged signatures are all one or other ways of faking. What can be the benefits everyone is getting upon faking? Of course, the benefits are subjective and differ on a case by case basis. But the beneficiary is none other the person who fakes.

Why do people fake? it would be either to impress or to deceive in most cases. No point in blaming humans since even humans believed to learn the art of faking from their primate ancestors.

Animals do fake quite remarkably. Camouflage is the classic example of animals do fake. This would be either to escape from the predators or to catch its prey in the wildlife. But in either case, the cost of faking is their survival (including humans) !!! 

Survival is the key word not only to succeed but many a time to sustain and survive. And hence faking has its own depth, dimensions, and meanings in every single life of the mother nature. And hence, though the word "faking" seems to be sound negative, it actually has positive aspect as well.

Frankly, faking does require in the present world. It probably had designed and taught by mother nature to its fellow beings in order to survive.   

Whatever be it is, the levels of faking is reaching new standards in this part of 21st century. And this keeps growing into more advanced and sophisticated in the future as well !!

Liquor Ban in Kerala-a boon or a curse?

Recently Govt of Kerala (a Southern state in India) introduced a new law for banning liquor in the state by shutting down bars and beverage outlets in sequential stages. Govt prompted to this decision was however due to the excess consumption of the liquor (than the national average) by the Malayalis (People of Kerala are generally called as 'Malayalis') and this decision was welcomed by various religious leaders. As part of this, 418 liquor bars (owned by different private owners) have been shut down by the Kerala Govt and also started closing down 10 Govt owned Beverage outlets  (where packed liquor bottles are sold officially in retail prices) each in every month. And remaining 307 bars are also given official notice to shut down which ultimately got a court injunction until reviewing the case thoroughly. If this remaining 307 bars are also shut down, then the supply of liquor in Kerala will be limited to only executive bars and five star hotels which however are very less in number.

Failed attempts from the West

Kerala is not the first state or province which impose liquor ban. Various countries initially implemented the ban and later got failed due to the extreme loss of revenue. Liquor ban was a herculean flop in many countries including Russia (during 1985-1987), USA (during 1920-1933) and other western countries. In Russia, prices of vodka and beer had been doubled or tripled, while supply was decreased. Besides, Gorbachev himself conducted many awareness programs for alcohol ban. People who were caught drunk at work or in public were even prosecuted. Finally they revoked their decision of liquor ban because of huge revenue loss (around 100 billion rubles in Russia). After revoking, even until recently, Beer was considered as soft drink in Russia and was made available in super markets.

No liquor ban even in Vatican!!!!

Many Christian priests in Kerala have supported the decision of Kerala Govt's liquor ban. I don't understand what can be the biggest motivation for these religious leaders to comment on liquor ban. since the biggest irony is, there has no liquor ban ever introduced even in the Pope's sacred place of Vatican till now nor did any Pope request for this ban. May be because they might know this is not a feasible option.

Neither the Pope has given any message on the significance of liquor ban nor given any timelines on the implementation of liquor bans in any christian majority countries/regions. If liquor is to be banned, then wine which is distributing during the holy mass also has to be stopped though the latter is not using commercially. But this will hurt religious sentiments.

Reasons---for nothing??
Coming back to Kerala; Govt of Kerala is shutting down these bars citing poor qualities (in terms of infrastructure, liquor quality etc) and some stupid reasons. 

If the term "quality" was given supreme preference, then all govt roads, govt schools, govt hospitals, govt resorts, govt offices and organizations in Kerala should have been banned first, before closing liquor bars. Their next point was; male population (who works for daily wages) is spending almost half of their earnings clearly for alcohol consumption and it has become an addiction to those men who fall in that category. So if addiction is the second key word they are using, then "beauty" is an addiction for women. Every woman wants to be heard as beautiful or gorgeous or fabulous or any adjectives of that sort. An average urban woman of India squeezes almost 40-45% of men's earnings in their lifetime. So in that manner, can we ban the entire cosmetic industry?? Come on.... it is a 1.2 billion USD (7500 crore Indian Rupees) industry in India and expanding upto 3.8 billion by 2020 (Kerala of course can own at least 6-8% of this amount). 

Impact on Tourism

Kerala is a tourism state and is heavily dependent on tourism for its revenues which generated 260 billion INR (approx $4.5 billion) in 2013, growing at a rate of 13.31%. Kerala is named as one of the ten paradises of the world by National Geographic Traveler. Its unique culture and traditions, coupled with its varied demography, have made Kerala one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Around 60% of the tourists visiting Kerala every year are international tourists, basically from Russia, UK, Germany, France, USA etc. where in which liquor is part of their culture. The second reason why they choose Kerala is because of its low cost (mainly for stay, travel, food and liquor etc) And clearly not all tourists depend on five star hotels for liquor and so the liquor ban will affect the number of incoming tourists from next year onwards.

Rehabilitation of Bar owners and direct/indirect workers

We talked about negative impact on Kerala Govt, to the common people (consumers) etc. But lets see what is the situation of bar owners and their employees? How do they live afterwards?? Every bar owners have taken huge money from the banks as loans/mortgages for starting and then continuing this business. Around 30000 people are working as direct or indirect workers in different bars of Kerala. Govt has not clarified any measures whatsoever on the rehabilitation of either the bar owners or on these workers. By ignoring 30000 people means, it is straight-forwardly 30000 families will go income-less which will have serious social issues, that ultimately create severe social/communal imbalance in the society.

Economics--Liquor of black market

"Limiting the supply may not stop/curb the demand, it will find alternate sources". This is economics principle. If the doors of official or authorized sources close, then this will pave way for the black market people to brew their own beer and alcohol. This will create huge loss on one side for the govt. and there could be chances of many liquor/hooch tragedies in the coming years (because of alcohol poisoning or consuming spurious alcohols) on the other side. This will further isolate many more families into destitution basically by killing income generators of the family.

Verdict

I am not saying banning liquor is a bad decision. But the way the Govt have approached the problem was mere foolishness. Don't know whether any back-door politics is played behind this decision, but a state heavily dependent on tourism and liquor revenues is going to face a serious economic crisis in the years ahead, besides other social issues. So in short as of now, liquor ban is not contributing any positive aspect at least in the recent upcoming years.

The curious case of No.7....

What is common to David Beckham, Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bryan Robson?

Of course they are all legends, but beyond this, they all own same jersey number while playing in Manchester United...The famous No.7...

So what is No.7 for United??
A usual No.7 is a playmaker who may or may not score goals. But for United, a No.7 is a person who creates passes, gives movement and creativity, scores goals very often, takes exceptional spot kicks and corners, defends well if needed, gives width and depth to the team; in short, a person who is able to dictate the game properly. And if you see the number of goals scored by all these four players, all of them were simply ruthless goal scoring machines.

When Cantona left United in 1997, Beckham inherited No.7 jersey and when the latter left United in 2003, it was Ronaldo who was destined to wear the famous No.7 till his departure in 2009. While Cantona revamped the significance of Captain's armband and lead from the front even in United's tough times, Beckham made almost 200 assists for United and netted 100 goals, mostly from free kicks (Beckham played a crucial part in United's treble season of 1999). Even Ronaldo was no different from the other two and helped to bring 10 titles including three Premier league titles, one FA cup and one Champions League to the Red part of Manchester.

2009-2014 (An era without a distinguished No.7)
Ever since Ronaldo left in 2009, United seriously lacked the pace and creativity in the midfield and so was in a desperate pursuit for finding a suitable heir for this jersey. Alex Ferguson's (who was then Manchester United Manager) next attention was to keep on gambling by giving No.7 jersey to different players. First in the lot was Michael Owen who was brought from New Castle and then was Antonio Valencia. Fergie even offered this jersey to Shinji Kagawa, but he denied because of too much responsibilities and pressures. Though Owen and Valencia scored some goals in various games, they both hardly make any impact (both on the pitch and off the pitch) unlike other No.7s' created in their own tenures and both requested Fergie to find other alternatives for No.7 shirt.. Even the fan base of Cristiano Ronaldo and Beckham (when they were playing for Manchester United) were more than the fan base of all the players in half of the European teams combined. Even David Moyes (in his short term of 10 months) who succeeded Ferguson was not able to find a suitable No.7. Since Ferguson somehow managed to bring League titles to Old Trafford within these five years even without great players, the Reds fans weren't missing No.7 so much. But United's miserable run in Premier league started as soon as Ferguson left and this was enough and more for the hardcore Red Devils fans to scream for a better manager and a better team with a distinguished No.7.

Angel Di Maria
Even before commencing World Cup 2014 in Brazil, Louis Van Gaal has been appointed  as new Manchester United Manager, in a mission to rebuild United team completely and getting back their old winning ways, which they lost during Moyes' tenure. "King Louis" was virtually unaware of the significance of No.7 shirt upon arriving. While eagerly rebuilding the team by buying new players and sell unwanted players, the Dutch Master Manager entered into an expensive adventure by bidding Angel Di Maria for a British record fee of £59.7 M from Real Madrid which was hugely criticized by football pundits and even the fans because of "value-for-money", and gave him No. 7 jersey.

Angel Di Maria becoming the Real Angel of the Devils
But slowly, the Argentine was getting fit into Van Gaal's jig-saw puzzle by either scoring or creating goals in virtually every game for United and showed justice for the No.7. For Maria, United is a good platform for building his career forward. And for United, Maria will be a great value addition in the left wing who brings pace, power, supply and creativity which United was heavily lacking ever since Ronaldo left in 2009. This symbiosis would be a key factor for the Red Devils always.

Let Manchester United win or loose titles, but surely...surely, Di Maria will be their crucial man in the coming years...

Can Tata Zest really zest Indian consumers?

It has been quite a while that TATA Motors (formerly Telco) was out of the competition in almost all segments from entire Indian passenger car industry. Not only automobile pundits but also every Indian (who drives/owns/aspire for cars) can't still digest the irony that the mother company of Jaguar-LandRover is struggling hard in the Indian market just because of poor quality and design specs.

Almost all their products (NANO, which launched as world's cheapest car, their old hatch back, "Indica", which launched a decade and half ago and its sedan version "Indigo") failed to convert into numbers that clearly leaving n-number of questions to world's seventeenth largest motor vehicle manufacturing company (Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Motors).

TATA Motors has revitalized their product portfolio by launching a new car, TATA ZEST on August 12. From the style, design and interiors to the power, handling and performance, it is quite evident that their engineers have spent fairly decent time in order to create a "wow" factor in the minds of Indian customers. The response, as expected, was overwhelming with more than 7000 bookings in the inaugural month of August.

This initial response for Zest was more of a matter of necessity for sustenance in Indian market than getting back their lost 4th position (in terms of sales volume) in Indian car industry. Zest has got stiff competition from other companies like Hyundai (Xcent), Honda (Amaze) and the class leading Suzuki (Dzire). Though the initial bookings surprised everyone, September sales has shown even Zest doesn't make any impact on sales.

So where does the problem exist??

Zest has refreshing appeal in looks (both interiors and exteriors), good performance and with a decent delivery lead time. And we know, Indian customers are least bothered about the unexpected demise of former MD of TATA Motors, Karl Slym in Thailand hotel room, which also cannot be the reason by any chance. So where exactly does TATA fail?. If it's the general perception of the Indian customers about Tata products, then how come they received 7000 bookings in August.

So there must be an explanation...A very..serious explanation!!

Decoding TATA.....
Indian customers are always admirers of high quality diesel cars for which Tata seems to give least preference which resulted in under performed diesel cars (except Vista which has got reasonably better performance). Besides, after-sales-service of Tata has progressively degraded year after year in the recent past. Usage of poor quality spare parts forced the customers to visit the service centers more and more often. But all these points have now been seriously taken care by Tata and working hard to use better vendors for quality spare parts in order to improve "CRM" part of Sales. And when we come specifically to Zest; its the Diesel Automatic version (which is reported to be the world's cheapest diesel automatic car), that actually amazed the riders, but unfortunately has got a lead time of 7-8 months for delivery. So as of now, its a waiting game for Tata, inorder to have a change in all these above points including the customer perceptions. Tata's plan of launching a dozen new models in the coming years will surely complement Zest in TATA's growth path.

These new models which are launching in completely new platforms and using new advanced technologies, many of their current weaknesses will soon get converted into opportunities. BUT ONLY TIME CAN TELL THAT!!! YES..TATA HAS TO WAIT AND SEE THEIR FUTURE AHEAD....

"Sir..250rupees...Chalega?"

The other day, when I was walking along a road in Bangalore, an auto guy drove ahead and stopped just infront of me blocking me and asked for a ride. The moment I told him the place, he replied with a weird smile “Sir, 250 rupees, baittiye (meaning: 250 rupees, shall sit inside?)”. Knowing the place exactly (not more than 1 mile), I said a big NO!!! and kept walking. He again came and told “Sir, 200 rupees, chalega (Rs 200, OK?)” again I said No. He then desperately asked, “Aap bathayiye, kitna dega? (meaning: Tell me how much can you give then?)”, and I said “meter charge” (meter is common in Indian auto-rickshaws to track the distance covered and shows the corresponding final amount every passenger needs to give for the entire journey). I know the place is nearby, having hardly any traffic signals in between, with comparatively fewer traffic, this cant be Rs. 250. I barely gave any attention when he opened his box of explanations for 250 rupees.

I am just one person among the public who has been exploited by the auto-drivers in Bangalore. Asking almost 20 times the actual price (which doesn't happen even in cocaine/heroine market) that needs to be curbed immediately inorder to protect the mass-exploitation by the rickshaw drivers. While I was in a pursuit of the inside-outs of this auto rickshaw-industry, interestingly I dig out some facts (don’t know whether this is completely true or not) inside a quarter of 2 months.

Basically two factors, the auto-drivers are looking for; one is the skin-tone and the other is the language. If they come to know that one passenger doesn’t know Kannada (an Indian regional language), then auto-drivers always quarrel for the auto-fare with him/her in Kannada only. Some will fight back with the drivers, while some others don’t.

I met one auto driver in Bangalore who has been the rickshaw driver for the past 25 years. He justifies all the criticisms, “Bangalore has changed a lot; a lot of bus services have started, new routes designed, many flyovers erected, introduction of Bangalore metro, and above all, more than 70% of the passengers are IT people who are either having their own company cab service or are comfortable with the Volvo bus services. So a normal auto driver hardly gets 5-7 rides a day for which he has to travel 7-10kms (at an average) to get one passenger.” He remembers, he even travelled more than 20kms without getting any single passenger. So this “high-price” can be used to compensate the operating expenses.

Have you slightly got convinced by his comments? Though we know it is exactly not the same situation for the drivers in other metros like Mumbai, Delhi (where taxi-meter would be “on-condition” for any ride), but we can somehow compare both cities to an extent. So if the drivers of Mumbai are able to compensate their expenses despite following the “meter charge” rule irrespective of the kind of passengers that get in, it is pretty clear that the above comments of our fellow driver is a big LIE. Many say this high price is because of the huge liquidity of the “IT-engineers” who is never a significant population in other metros which emphasizes the fact that it is the "passengers" who ignited such a culture in Bangalore and never the auto drivers. Moreover since it is meter charge in Mumbai suburbs, public prefers auto-rickshaws very often. So there may never arise a waiting period of travelling 7-10kms to get one passenger which was that Bangalore driver’s justification.

No matter who the culprit is, the authorities should take a proactive action inorder to avoid a “certain-consequence” in the near future. Bangalore already witnessed some odd protests from the public regarding the huge fares. There should be a benchmark or upper limit for the price for a particular distance and the authorities should release ordinance or circulars, mentioning the rules and fares so that the public will never get exploited. Infact “share-auto” system is not very common in Bangalore just as in other metros like Chennai, Mumbai etc. which can also be implemented or promoted.

One final note: 

Petrol wastage

But anyways, Due to this continuous running by the auto drivers in Bangalore in pursuit of a passenger, they might never count how much petrol has been wasted. When a private analytics firm conducted a survey on petrol wastage by rickshaws in 2010, Bangalore was on 2^nd position by wasting 0.25 l/per driver/ per hour. Reports suggests there are 1,50,000 rickshaws in Bangalore. Just imagine, these many rickshaws waste almost 9,00,000 ltrs of petrol everyday from Bangalore itself (this petrol wastage from rickshaws is nothing but 20 billion INR every year when simulate into indian currency). This huge petrol wastage rings a buzzer-alarm in a heavily oil consumed country like India. 

Maruti Suzuki-kitna deti hai

In the past two weeks, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) have been extremely busy working on corporate branding by showing their very famous “mileage-ads” amidst every Olympic event. Infact they rather chose advertisements in order to mask their lock-out hassle in Manesar plant, Haryana. On the other side, the ad which captions “kitna deti hai? (meaning: how much it gives)” attracted several millions because it points promptly onto the mindset of a typical Indian who always looks for “more value for less money”. God knows why they chose this particular ad since there are more than half a dozen ads portraying their n-number of unique features like service station availability, mileage etc. and numerous campaigns like “count-on-us” campaign, “India comes home in Maruti Suzuki” campaign etc. 

kitna deti hai-ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzW7Sxzkr1Y 

India comes home in Maruti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbX8e4seGoY

service station ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaiWDwEfMGM&feature=related 

What’s in a mileage??

Indians certainly never need an introduction about what mileage exactly is; but it is significant to note that who can be the target customer when talks about mileage. It would be undoubtedly “the middle class” which itself creates an impression that MSIL caters only to the middle class (not even upper middle class who has the potential to spend 1-1.5 million INR or even >1.5 million INR for a car); which is nothing but narrowing down their target group.

It’s quite senseless to bring mileage factor for brand association when talks about an umbrella brand like Maruti Suzuki. It’s been reported that people who buy cars worth more than 1 million (like Kizashi, Grand Vitara or even high end versions of SX-4 and Ertiga) would be more performance oriented than looking for “value-for-money” which incidentally discards mileage factor. And hence choosing one or two particular models for conveying the mileage aspect would have been a better option.

Mileage ad - in Olympics???

Another big question is the time at which they aired the ad, London Olympics; which stands for ultimate sports and sheer vigour. They could have come up with some new ads regarding their upcoming launches, or ‘Olympics-inspirational-ad’ just what HERO MOTO CORP. did or branding any sporty versions of Maruti like Swift sport, or SX-4 etc. It’s true that they are not interested in spending money for creating new ads and hence selected a cost effective way in the turbulent time, but hardly make any sense amid Olympics. Though Maruti however succeeded in not losing the brand image (due to their lockout problem) by showing their mileage ads, generally these kinds of functional ads (like toothpastes and other cosmetic products’ ads) will never be suitable on big events.

So the point is; be sure about the suitability (with regard to time and occasion) and worth of an ad before going for its official airing!!!

NOKIA – Connecting people?

Nokia, now more or less like a serious heart patient on a ventilator, is striving hard for its sustenance in the market. The brand once was synonymous to cell phone, the brand which once was more popular than the star icon - Amitabh Bachchan, the brand which has captured the minds of several millions; is now almost vanished. Nokia finds extreme difficulty in coming out of that status quo even after launching many new models. The “former No.1’s” dismal performance continues in the international telecom market for quite a long time.

It was not an overnight journey for Nokia to reach the top of the world. Hard work, continuous innovation, customer knowledge base etc. marked their success in the cell phone market. The way they custom made the cell phones according to the needs and desires of the customers was tremendous and should be highly appreciated.

Nokia – where did the mistake happen?

Everything went quite well until the time arrived when they started underestimating the term “smart phone”. It was in early 2008, when a consortium of 34 companies (Open Handset Alliance) started working in a project called “Android”, for which Nokia hardly gave any attention.

In India, soon after Micromax launched an Android phone which priced as less than 3.5k, many companies started launching their low end Android mobiles. The high brand value of Google, price and the customization factor tempted the public to try those models which inturn helped Andoid to gain popularity and this further prompted Samsung, LG, HTC and other companies to launch their different models to utilize that demand fully. Slowly and steadily Android gained strength eclipsing many of its competitors (iOS, Blackberry-OS). The high brand value of Apple, the unique apps of Blackberry, cheaper and efficient Android phones of Samsung, LG, HTC; all these factors literally squeezed Nokia from all sides and ultimately pull them out from the market. The lag in identifying the emerging competitors marks the beginning of Nokia’s fall in the smart phone segment.  

Nokia-Microsoft deal

Nokia refused to join the consortium (Open Handset Alliance) and decided to continue with their Symbian and Windows mobile OS hoping a success to the latter. Microsoft however welcomed this move of Nokia for obvious reasons; Firstly Windows mobile-OS became obsolete due to the extreme failure of their highly anticipated and high budget project, MS-kin (MS-kin was a $1 billion project, but Microsoft apparently withdrew their MS-kin cell phones exactly 48 hours after its international launch) in 2010. Secondly as per the deal, Microsoft had the rights to handle the software interface which includes the usage of various apps (E.g. ‘Bing’ search engine) which itself create huge revenues for Microsoft. Thirdly the deal gave Microsoft a platform to use Nokia’s authorized dealer network as Microsoft’s official “marketplace”. As a result, the relationship could not result in converting into numbers for Nokia.

Nokia now

Nokia has been trying with their new models (Lumia 900, 800, 610) in recent times to create a pull in the market. Despite its high brand endorsements and other marketing efforts, the new products however generate rather poor acceptance due to many reasons like substandard technical specifications (no flash, no Bluetooth file transfer, no video calling, no USB mass storage mode etc.), absence of Android and relatively high price compared to its competitors. Apple and Blackberry are not going to provide their OS to Nokia by any chance which finally gave Nokia left with only one chance; to stick with Windows OS only. And hence in June 2012, Nokia made another deal with Microsoft with a view to launch Windows 8 (mobile version) on their new cell phones. Nokia cannot expect an immediate response and acceptance from the public. They surely have to wait for quite a while as we all know “It takes a few seconds to destroy a brand, but will take years to revive”

Now let’s wait and see what Nokia has reserved for the public and how the public respond to the new Windows 8-enabled phones of Nokia.

Note: Nokia has become a failure only in smart phone segment. However in the segment of low end mobiles, still Nokia has a decent market share.