Reflections

Is the consumer really the king, as a multitude of marketing books proclaim her to be? Or is it a mere empty nice-sounding statement? Recent events would lead the cynic to question the entire premise of “king” or “queen” or anything remotely comparable; conversely, these same events would lead the avid supporter to comment “It is a mistake”, or “it wont happen to me” or “This is a one-off event”, jumping to the defence of Corporate India, who cuts their paycheck in that they are employees in some company or the other. Well, the same Corporate India cuts my paycheck, and I see no reason to defend it, or not ask   some pretty hard questions of it. Before we continue, read this beauty from the Times of India Article : “ I am the real hand behind Maggi action, 'junior' food inspector says ” : “ Not to be outdone, Singh said he had followed the case for more than a year; … he picked up Maggi samples from a Barabanki market on March 10, 2014. "We sent them to a Gorakh...

To the Naval Officer with whom I had this discussion: If you are reading this, please accept my thanks for your Armed Forces training and job insights and our comparisons with organisational life and trainings; this idea came to me while we were engaged in our discussion, as you will hopefully recall... As previously noted in earlier articles on my blog, corporate India has been shaken to its core by a recent series of scandals and scams that have cut across the entire spectrum almost; with the bad news coming from Mining, Pharmaceuticals, Banking, Telecom, Coal etc. I have previously argued in my blog of the need for introspection within the hallowed corridors of power in Corporate India, and of the need for a re-visit to the the basics to set things right. In the course of this analysis, we looked at the external environment, which has changed quite significantly, with very, very heavy competition and the resultant pressure becoming the norm of the day; I further argued that th...

This is the 2nd part of the article :  http://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/2013/05/corporate-india-work-stress-and.html This has been a tumultuous year for the corporate world - with sting after sting leaving companies and corporates red-faced, and running helter-skelter to check the damage. Ranbaxy and Cobrapost, taken together, have hit some of the biggest names in our corporate world. This is nothing to celebrate; neither is it anything to mourn. It is in fact an opportunity for corporate India to introspect and put in place systems and processes that can lead to an image improvement, as well as better on-field performance.  Are these incidents systemic, or are they sporadic? And, if they are systemic, what are the systems and processes that are causing this? First of all, the Cobrapost sting affected almost the entire banking spectrum without exception. Something so widespread cannot be a sporadic happening. This alone forces me to painfully conclude that this is a...

Image courtesy: The Economic TImes Now add one or two other little tit-bits of information that make the picture complete... first, the rising incidence of stress and mental ill-health, as was brought out on a recent report on the IT industry - and second, the rising family tensions and divorce rates. Add the two - and you have the makings of a shakespearean tragedy. I am making an extremely bold move in this article - openly criticizing these matters while being a member of corporate India. But something will have to be done; I dont know whether this small contribution will help or not... Look at the data: this is the company perspective presented. Employees are facing excessive work pressure and longer hours - and 36-38% of companies accept this. If you ask the employees  - especially in private- this number is likely to double - or more. This is also far higher in India than elsewhere. Thus, this is a local phenomenon. Most critically, look at the most damning com...