Fly The Nest!

If we ruffle the pages of the history of some men and women who have been successful in business in recent times, we can put our finger on the winning veins responsible. Those people may have fought many odds to become successful.  One of the many odds they must have fought right in the initial stages is facing family concerns and seeking permissions to either start a new business or take a completely different career path. In India family businesses are held very tightly and so management of the business is always by a few elders of the family without letting any controls go down the line. The elders take key decisions and others in the family often have the responsibility to implement decisions alone.  Conservative mindsets and going the beaten path have been commonplace in family businesses for long. Though it is good to be focused on the core family business and trying to grow it, it pays to intently look at new opportunities but many family organizations have not done so resulting perhaps from unwilling attitudes and conservatism.

Some of the successful people have made their mark by taking a different course to achieve their goals and driving their strategic thoughts into implementation to become successful. These people may have been born in a nuclear business family in India but may have taken steps to steer their efforts into undiscovered and unexplored territories of business and become successful. Some of these successful people in business may have been in a family, which may have never done any business too! The spark in them has made them leave the comfort zones of their own homes and family business and strive to pursue their dreams to become successful. In India it is not too easy for a member of a family that runs a family managed business to fork separately into starting something on one’s own or reinvent the business to take it in a different direction even if capital is not drawn from the family business for the individual’s initiative. It needs the family permission and the convincing of so many elders in the family for letting the individual go his way. After all, according to the family elders it is the reputation of the family and its business will be at stake when someone from the family goes separately and more so if his business would fail!

I often ask myself questions about a few companies that did well being market leaders in their category and are now not to be seen prominently in the category at all - Why did the great instant relief pain balm company based in Chennai not diversify or expand into a large business though the company has existed for long? Why has the Haryana based cycle manufacturing and marketing company taken too long to come up with its product range diversification understanding current needs of its target customers whereas a competing cycle manufacturing company diversified into motorcycles at the right time spotting market opportunities? We can cite many such examples of what I call, organizational lethargy on the one hand and organizational velocity on the other. Only some leaders in a few organizations have taken the lead in the next generations to take the business to new highs! In many organizations perhaps even leaders with the spark have remained quiet for some reason or the other and have sailed along conservative tides. I am reminded of the eagle among the chicken fable where the eagle grew up in the chicken coop among the many chicken. It did what chicken did and believed it was a chicken too. It took a naturalist who came across the eagle among the chicken to cause its relief into the wisdom of its own realization.  The eagle left the nest. And the rest is history. In situations of this kind, in the corporate scenario, we need such naturalists in elders in family managed businesses to encourage the younger generations to realize themselves and soar high. In many instances we find the next generations themselves playing a significantly responsible role in catapulting the organization to a new high. They need encouragement and not an intrusive help that may hinder their own decision-making capabilities. The popular story of a young boy helping the butterfly break out of its cocoon where the boy’s good intentions land the butterfly in trouble impressed me. As the butterfly is trying to break out of its cocoon, the young boy pities the hardship the butterfly is undergoing and breaks the cocoon open to help the butterfly come out. The butterfly does come out but with a swollen body and shriveled wings! The butterfly needs to break out of the cocoon on its own as the struggle enables the fluids flow evenly into the body and wings to strengthen the butterfly for the rest of its life! Listening to their heart and mind and led more by an innate leading than by virtue of their experience, these successful people have dared to move into their new territories with confidence. We see in the Holy Bible in Genesis, Abram pays total heed to the Lord who said to him, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing“. It’s all a new beginning when God’s blessings too accompany one’s efforts.

In retailing in India a few such leaders have left their nests to play an important role leaving legacies behind to take their family organizations into the next orbit, of course, with the consent and the blessings of the elders in the family, though. They have won laurels for their companies and for themselves and the winning streaks in them have shown results time and again. There are lessons to be learnt from such leaders who have weathered storms within families and in the environment to become successful. A few elements of their character and qualities have set themselves apart. They have not only sold themselves to their family members and elders but also won over in the marketplace as well.

In a Western context, this phenomenon of family businesses managed by the members of the family in succession as CEOs is unheard of. I have a friend in Lincoln, Nebraska who has a very successful pet food business and his children are not involved in his business at all. With a typical mindset of mine, when I still keep asking him about the interest of any of his children taking his business over, he quizzically looks at me trying to understand the logic of handing a business down to his posterity! He can do anything with his business and the children work in various other organizations without even thinking about having any stake in their dad’s business. But in India, the story is different. There is a lot more emotional attachment to business as it is more often inherited and passed down generations as well. Many businesses have come to naught because of family divisions often messed up badly without seeing the light of day as a result of divided market valuations (more families use the same brand name after the division of business with their own brand extensions!). In such a situation it is often better to let the next generation take their own course to excel in what they can do and achieve. An MBA classmate of mine whose father has a successful coffee growing and trading business down South has unaccomplished dreams in his career as the business is still managed by his father. My friend who is approaching his fifty is almost at his wit’s end as he is not able to start off on his own as such an effort will create ripples in a peaceful family business environment and he rightly or unjustly compromises business growth opportunities for maintaining peace in a joint nuclear family.

More often it may be worthwhile to just fly the nest!

Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani

The Auspicious Akshayatritiya!

Come 22nd April 2023, we’ll celebrate the auspicious Akshayaritiya in India! The day of Akshayatritiya, as said in our Indian mythology, is believed to usher luck in everyone’s lives. Akshayatritiya is considered to be one of the most sacred days of the year. It falls on the third day after Amavasi (no moon) in the Hindu month of Vaishakha. Also, it is said that the Pandavas received the Akshaya Pathra (the legendary copper vessel) from Lord Krishna on this day. "Akshay" in Sanskrit means imperishable or eternal - that which never diminishes. Therefore it is one of the most popular dates in the Hindu calendar for investing in valuables. It is believed that buying jewellery, the ultimate symbol of wealth and prosperity, on this occasion assures prosperity, luck and success. Akshayatritiya is the festival of prosperity celebrated across India by many, irrespective of which religious faith or social cluster they belong to. Hence, starting any new activity or buying valuables on this day is considered to certainly bring luck into homes and success into families. It is belived widely that giving gifts on this day assumes a good deal of significance as the act goes to prove that one gifts ‘prosperity’ to the near and dear or a loved one and not just any material thing. The day is particularly considered auspicious for buying long term assets like gold and diamond, including ornaments made of the same. It is also an accepted belief that buying gold on the day of Akshaytritiya brings good luck throughout the rest of the year. It is also a long cherished belief that purchasing gold or diamond jewelry on the auspicious day of Akshayatritiya would mark the beginning of one’s perennial relationship with wealth!

Many have been buying the precious metal on this auspicious day for so many years now as a matter of habit to invoke the goddess of prosperity and luck. So people do throng the doors of jewellery stores right from the early hours in the morning till the day ends. Who would like to miss the day without buying any precious thing and run the risk of not getting lucky the whole year? Here is a day designated for the purpose of buying gold and diamonds to satiate the need to bring prosperity into the life of the buyer. Akshayatritiya is marketed well by all the stakeholders of the gold and diamond industry in India. Retailers do their share of the trick or gimmick to bring customers in large numbers to their stores to buy gold and diamond jewellery. As one thinks about the many customers who would visit jewellery stores on the very day of Akshayatritiya, crowds may throng at the doors of the jewellers and one wonders  how the gold buying experience is going to be for the customers on that day. Many may not be so lucky to get the right experience in our jewellery stores on that day even though the gold that they may buy on that day shall bring good luck for the rest of the year.

Will retailers make such precious shopping pleasurable on that day for customers? Will there be sweet gold and jewellery-shopping memories a shopper can be helped back home with? Many jewellery buyers seem to sweat a great deal finding it tough to go through the process of shopping on that day. Stores offer deals, discounts and buy-back promotions, vying to get their space in the customers’ mind often confusing one out of his or her wits. For some other customers the price build-up with wastage and making charges is often confusing. For some others the question that may come to mind is why any wastage charges should be levied by the jewellery retailer on gold coins as they are just minted and not filed or finished as jewellery is done, for the metal to lose even any small element of it!

Ø  Customers would expect to have the right shopping experience and also get the right value for the money spent on that day. Progressive jewellery retailers are expected to stock new jewelry designs for this occasion. How delighted customers may feel if jewellery stores open their doors for business on the day of Akshayatritiya as early as 6.30 am and close only at the last hour of day!

Ø  When jewellery retailers sell "Lakshmi-inscribed" gold coins and diamond jewellery that would bestow customers with all the benefits of material blessings and good luck, they should see that they adopt transparent and best business practices such as the declaration of any ‘value addition’ above the cost of gold in a tag attached to the ornament itself for customers to read easily.

Ø  Purity of gold sold should be certified through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) hall-marking process. BIS hall-mark conformity on the part of the jewellery retailer would instill confidence in the customer on the purity of gold sold in the store. Similarly for diamonds, the jewellery retailer must ensure the award of a certification from trust-worthy institutions like the Indian Gemological Institute (IGI), Gemological Institute of America (GIA) or International Diamond Laboratories (IDL).

Ø  As buying gold and diamonds are considered very auspicious on Akshayatritiya day, retailers ought to serve their customers well and help them buy gold and diamonds offering the right experience. Customers may visit jewellery stores in large numbers on this auspicious day and one often finds a serpentine queue of customers waiting to be served. Retailers must ensure that they have special counters for fast moving gold coins and see that customers are not unduly made to wait. Whatever it takes to be deployed additionally to serve customers – whether it is additional manpower or infrastructure, they should be organized to achieve operational excellence. As a best practice, well-organized retail stores in developed economies do not let more than three customers to wait in any queue on even very crowded occasions when footfalls are in large numbers.

Ø  Some customers may not be able to visit stores on that day and retail jewellers should serve them at their doorsteps through a Direct-To-Home programme. Retailers ought to go that extra mile to give the advantage of making advance bookings for gold and diamonds to be delivered on the day of Akshayatritiya. Such advance bookings if done on any of the specified days preceding the Akshayatritya day, they can even come with an extra offer!

Customers should be equally responsible to look for every aspect discussed above as a responsibility of the jewellery retailer to provide or comply with – whether it is the right quality product in the right purity with proper certification or getting the right quality of service.

One needs to look for any fine-print and carefully go through every aspect of promotions done by jewellery retailers during Akshayatritiya and check whether such offers have any significant benefits. It is also advisable to check the store’s buy-back policy especially relating to gold coins and diamonds as they may be used to make ornaments later. What may come at an offer now may be lost at the time one trades it back to exchange for making jewellery because of unfair discounted buy-back practices by a few unscrupulous retailers. 

Diamonds are also safe from an investment point-of-view considering predictions by experts that demand may far exceed supply in future. The possession of diamond jewellery is an asset always besides bringing special delight to the women in our homes. Many follow the ritual of doing good deeds on this day as it is believed that doing good deeds would bring 'punya' for a life time. What better deed can jewellery retailers do than serving customers sincerely to bring luck and happiness into their own stores and their customers’ homes? Customer service is the best deed that one can sincerely do on that day. Let the never diminishing good luck and success flow into all our homes this Akshayatritiya!

Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani

Of Expositions and Exhibitions...

As summer would set in, bringing along with it the two-month long exciting holidays, I used to look forward to the most exciting thrills of my childhood days back in hometown – the Circus and the Exhibition. The circus light would beam up to the skies every night announcing to a catchment of almost 5 km to 6 km radius, inviting and reminding people to visit the circus. The electric arc lights were said to have been first used to propagate circus in the late 1800's and since then they have been a signature tool used to announce/advertise circus wherever held. So the thrill would begin from looking up to the skies and end in bargaining some time from dad and mom to take me to the circus, making an eventful, pleasurable and memorable evening for me. I remember the day used to end with a family dinner in a restaurant and I used to be filled with the satisfaction of having had fun and mirth, which I would reminisce and speak about it to friends for days! The exhibition found its floors laid out in the municipal grounds, carefully timing after the circus is done and wound up; the exhibition used to have a great retail mix to cater to everyone in the family irrespective of the age of the members. Retailers sold all kinds of merchandise. Kids used to look for innovatively engineered toys and personalized key chains while moms pulled everyone to the aisle selling kitchen equipment and utensils! The exhibition was more than a hypermarket with a well-served food court also! The entertainment area’s attractions used to be the giant wheel (one could see the whole town from atop the giant wheel) and the merry-go-round. Instant photo booth, horror and magic shows, candy floss , popcorn and film shows were a huge attraction to the young and the old equally! In a thirty-day span when the exhibition used to be on in full swing, many would visit the place at least twice. I have seen loads of people from the nearby catchment villages visiting the exhibition. It was complete fun, frolic and fulfillment.

Countries promote tourism by organizing expos. In the last few years I have had the opportunity to visit Singapore Expo – Convention and Exhibition Center many times. The infrastructure the Singapore government has created is over 1.23 lakh square meters of exhibition space with exhibition halls, conference rooms and meeting rooms in an area close to 150 acres. It is said that the expo receives six million visitors every year who witness events like exhibitions, trade shows and consumer shows.

India has not lagged behind. India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO), the dynamic trade promotion organization operating under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India has created our very own Pragati Maidan spread over more than 60,000 square meters in New Delhi with exhibition halls and a large open display area. The facility boasts of a few hundred shows every year and hosts a multitude of visitors to the various events and shows conducted every year. ITPO has created such a state-of-the-art exhibition facilities in Chennai – the Chennai Trade Center (CTC) in 2001 and in Bangalore - Trade Center Bangalore (TCB) in 2004. TCB is a joint venture between ITPO and Karnataka State Industrial Area Development Board. Many new trade centers are in the planning stage in locations like Guwahati, Kolkata, Bhopal, Srinagar, etc. ITPO has also taken the initiative to provide assistance to state governments to set up Regional Trade Promotion Centers (RTPC). The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has done its best and yet doing its best to initiate and support the setting up of such state-of-the-art facilities to promote trade and consumer shows.

Yesterday I was at the Viveks Annual Expo 2012 organized at the Chennai Trade Center. Soon after inaugurating the expo, as Mr.B. A. Kodandarama Setty (Chairman & Managing Director, Viveks), Mr. B. A. Chandrashekar (Director, Viveks) and I were going through the aisles of the well-organized exhibition of multi-brand household electronics and appliances, I was going through memory lane; I remembered how I used to enjoy my visits to exhibitions! Crowds started thronging Viveks expo on the eve of the Tamil New Year day and the expo organized for four days is drawing multitudes of customers who would like to avail of special prices and exclusive benefits like interest free EMI on purchases. What amazed me was the use of the facility by Viveks in Chennai very appropriately to invite customers at the right time. Mr. Setty told me that retailers like Viveks would like to go with many partners and alliances in an aggregated mix every year to hold such expos on a large scale. He is right when he expects that a large expo organized by many retailers in an aggregated manner will be a huge success. Exhibitions can take products and services to unrepresented towns and new markets. Road shows can yet propagate products and services to the right target audience besides what the increasing popularity of digital marketing that uses many available social networking media, can do.

Majority of our Indian consumers live in small towns and villages. Exhibitions are relevant. Infrastructure is available. Even in towns and feeder markets we do have wide and open spaces managed by municipal corporations and panchayats. Our retailers should only have the will to explore the opportunities to organize exhibitions and expositions. Where there is a will, there is a way to delight many - the many who are yet to see retailing in its modern glory!

Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani

Sham by all means is Shame!

When I was working for Bata India almost a score years ago, the formidable footwear brand used to continuously achieve the top status in the list of top-of-mind (TOM) awareness brands among Indian consumers and it sustained its position off and on among other brands like Colgate, Surf, Lux, Dettol, Thums Up, Band Aid, Cadbury, etc. for quite a long time. The popularity of Bata was so high that consumers at large referred to any brand of thongs and chappals as Bata itself, instead of by the respective generic names. It was also a classic case of the Bata brand name becoming a generic name for footwear in India among the masses! Though the company never tried to extend the Bata brand name to non-footwear merchandise, save a few accessories like socks, bags and brushes, it did try its hand by extending a few of its own classic labels like Ambassador and North Star to apply to apparel only to meet with very limited success which did not last at all. Finally Bata aborted its own label apparel retailing. But local marketers adapted the brand Bata in a big way those days. One could even see Bata retail stores in small town high streets, merchandised almost the same way as original ones; one could see infringed Bata merchandise in the local markets; one could also not only see infringed Bata footwear but also merchandise ranging from inner wear to bags and bottles! The challenge for field managers like me who were very passionately trying to improve business in Bata’s own stores got affected a great deal by such spurious merchandise and such stores that had infringed Bata sign boards. I remember, there were days when we went all out in the interior markets with the mandate to bring perpetrators to book. Infringement and passing off of trademark were considered a big offence and brands like Bata were constantly after culprits and sought to trace each source and book all concerned in the entire pipeline – from manufacturing and distribution to retail.

A year ago, as I was showing off my prized acquisition, a Ballon Bleu, an elder colleague and friend said that he had a similar one - but graciously mentioned that it’s a feigned look-alike! He brought it to office to show me the piece of sham the next day and one could not believe how anyone could ever make out the difference between a genuine one and a fake in a such a high-end time device! In fact when we put it to test on a survey with a few of our colleagues almost an equal number chose the fake, mistaking it for the genuine one! My firend said that he purchased it in a fake goods market abroad out of curiosity!

Well, despite stringent laws against violation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in China, the Silk Street Market in Beijing thrives with prosperity selling spurious goods of various high-end brands in the mall. The mall is a seven-storeyed complex having an endless row of shops selling counterfeits of luxury brands! The mall in fact is said to be ready for a great makeover with its remodeling going underway currently. According to reports, the mall may focus on improving the quality of the fake merchandise and may sell merchandise soon in a brighter, bigger and improved ambience! Recent newspaper reports have said that China’s battle against IPR violations is said to be on a losing ground. Silk Street market has fast become a tourist attraction and the mall gets thousands of footfalls every day and it boasts of the visit of even eminent people among its tourist customers! As replicas are difficult to be differentiated from genuine merchandise and as they cost ten to twenty times less than the originals, the attraction for acquiring the fake ones is said to be on the rise as a general purchase behavior among touring and pleasure seeking customers. There is also a mark-up of 100% on all merchandise as the stores offer visiting customers the pleasure of bagging the benefit of aggressive bargaining, which the Silk Street Market is famous for. The ever-augmenting popularity of the mall may soon put Silk Street Market on the tourist map in parity with that of the Great Wall and the Forbidden Palace - as must places to visit and enjoy!

Sham by all means is Shame!

Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani