RETAIL RUES

Retailing in India is a major attraction for many multi national companies. Many have opened their shops; and a lot more are doing so on a war-foot basis. Indian retailers also have come off age; and are setting up retail chains across the country. Some are outsmarting many of their multi national counterparts, in strategy, brand building and the speed in which these shops are being set up.

Consumer satisfaction is something that is expected to follow these retail initiatives in India. Apart from accessibility to latest what the manufacturer has to offer in its category; service is what would make the difference between the ways of shopping in these chain stores. Or that’s what every customer is hoping to enjoy as part of shopping experience.

About a few days back; I had to buy a memory card for my digital camera. In my office area options to buy this item are many. I could do so in GK Vale, Fotoflash, Whizz professionals, Kodak Shop or in any of the small time retail counters. Also, there are a few retail chain stores – with one just across the road. So, I decided to do some shopping in this retail store – hoping for a quick and reliable solution.

When the digital camera was shown to the counter sales person, he offered me two choices. Either to go in for 4GB card or 1GB card. I just handed over my camera and asked him to fix whatever is best. He gave me a 4 GB card at Rs. 990/- and demonstrated that it works and no hassles. The whole thing did not take more than 10 minutes - a pleasant experience, in an air-conditioned environment; fluent English speaking customer care oriented staff.

Headed back to office; and switched on the camera. My camera just does not recognize that it has to power on when I press the button. Everything was fine a few moments before; and the only difference now is that I have added a memory card. My camera saying “unable to recognize card” – so I knew what to do. Back to this retail store; for an enquiry as to what’s causing disobedience in my camera after adding a memory card.

The counter sales person did all that he could – and declared; this camera does not support 4 GB and I have to replace it with 1GB. So be it – decided and the card was replaced. Now comes the customer service part.

The counter sales person does not want to refund the difference of about Rs. 540; instead he wants to just hand me over a credit note. Credit note comes with a rider – exchange this for any other purchase within the next one month!. I did not have enough time to argue with him – had a flight to catch.

First of all – he only suggested; offered and fixed a 4 GB card, which apparently my camera is not capable of handling. Now he has replaced it – within a matter of 10 minutes, with a lower capacity card. But just does not want to return the differential cash.

I really wonder what kind of customer service is this – is the customer service that we can expect from these retail chain stores are restricted to air-conditioned environment – or uniform clad staff with a nice smile and chanting of – what can I do for you, Sir ? in English ? This is something totally unacceptable – if there is a refund, it is the duty of seller to return the cash immediately. I really want to brush up my memory, and to recollect the provisions of Sales of Goods Act, 1930 or Consumer Protection Act to see what one should do in this scenario. In what way this so called modern retail chain store is different from ‘kirana store’ owner, who gives you a small toffee instead of returning small change ? This reminds me of one more interesting thing – one of the pioneers of retail chain stores in India, calls all its staff as Customer Care Associate; whether they are in front office or back office jobs. Even the Managing Director is designated: Managing Director and Customer Care Associate!!. Hmmm – feels good when you are a customer and reads it on their name boards; I guess.

I am waiting for 30 days to get over – to go into the store again and to buy something against this credit note and to see what reaction awaits me! Will he tell me that it is more than a month; and the credit note is now invalid!! Hope not – I am always positive, may be the influence of my blood group – B+ve, you see!!!.

VOTE TO OUST

One of the very important news items that caught my eyes in the last one week was recalling of three elected representatives from the posts of president of Nagara palika (Municipal Corporation or city civic body) in the State of Chattisgarh. This is one of the historical elections – as the voters stood in a queue to give their verdict on these three presidents. Voting in India is synonymous with electing their representative; but here is a case where they voted to strip the president ship of their earlier elected members.

The debate of people’s right to recall an erring or non-functioning representative is pretty old in India. So old that some of the contemporary politicians does not even know that such a debate was making rounds a few decades ago. Or it could be the case of not remembering it, as the same would not benefit them!!!. There are very few or handful people like visionary leader late Jayaprakash Narayan, to empower the electorate with the right to recall their representatives. The lobby, who opposes such revolutionary ideas and consequences, has ensured to bury these events and debates over a period of time.

It is very interesting to know that such a law exists only in two States in India today. The other State being Madhya Pradesh, from which the State of Chattisgarh was carved out as a separate State. In the year 2001, a similar incident had taken place in Madhya Pradesh, which again sparked off the debate as to whether such a law should be made applicable in every other State in India. If made, should it cover the whole of elected members including that of Legislative Assembly and Parliament?

Many are of the opinion that such a system is impossible to implement in a country like India. Here in case of a parliament member, he may be representing about 15-20 lakhs of people; in a constituency spread across the area of about 40-50 kilometers. Also, some are skeptical that such a law would only add to the existing problem of short lived assemblies and coalition politics. These people take the help of the fact that even the United Kingdom, the mother of all parliamentary democracies, has not empowered such right to recall the elected member.

Just imagine how nice would have been the system, in which you make your elected representative accountable; be under the examining microscopes of his electorate. Possibly, this would have paved the way for faster developmental work in their constituencies.

Though this was reported in almost all dailies around the date of election (June 17th), none of the media has given its due importance to such a great event in the history of democracy. I do not remember to have seen any coverage in the visual media (of course, I do watch less of the idiot box), and the news papers covered it in a page having ‘also happened’ kind of news. Understandably, visual media did not find it very interesting compared to some gossip of a movie star or a cricketer, as this would not generate enough of TRPs.

Readers Comment : Moral of the Story.

One of the reader has identified the moral of the story for my post : Modern day Management stories : Thank you dear for the comment.

Moral of the story : Gadha hona bhi koi bura baat nahin hai!

MODERN DAY MANAGEMENT STORIES

Have you heard the story of " The Washer man and the Foolish Donkey" ?

To refresh your memory, and for the benefit of those who have not grown up listening to this moral story, it goes like this…

There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray,the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.

Moral of the story " One must not engage in duties other than his own"

Now take a new look at the same story…

The washer man ( J ) was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet. The dog's life didn't change much,except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed a " meets requirement" . Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around. The donkey was rated as " star performer". The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards. Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a job rotation…

Moral of the story ?? ... please do comment here, what according to you is the moral of this modern day management story !!!

Disclaimer:All characters in the story are not at all imaginary. Any resemblance to person living or dying of work is purely intentional.

CRUDE SHOCKS

Crude price created history by hitting US $ 140 a Barrel – is the major topic of discussion among handful of people who track the economy. Headlines of all business newspapers and business section of dailies are screaming at the top with bold letters about this phenomena. Crude created history recently by hitting $ 140 a barrel!! This rise has been abnormal and more than double in the last one and half years time. Crude price was hovering around US $60 plus during June 2007; and started its upward journey from then onwards.

Most of the economies today in the world are import oil dependant; thus naturally everyone has an interest in the subject. More than interest, it is the fear that is generating the interest in oil prices.

One of the main reasons for the increase in crude price is the widening gap between demand and supply of crude. Higher demand is attributed to higher consumption by emerging economies such as China, India etc. Of course, of late there has been a tendency of blaming emerging economies for scarcity of products. This was demonstrated by both President Bush and his Foreign Secretary Rice, recently while attributing the reasons for shortage of food grains in the world. However, if one looks carefully at the data available, consumption of petroleum in US is raising at an alarming rate – from about 15 Million Barrels per day in 1985 to 21 Million Barrles per day in 2007.

While there has been an upsurge in demand, supply has not been increasing in the same ratio! Though there has been steady increase in crude production since 1983, compared to 1975 the production of crude has been lower currently. Price and demand of crude is very nicely depicted in the following graph.

There has been talks in private circles that this is one of the measures taken by the US to strengthen its dollar, by creating more demand for oil; and as internationally oil is traded in US dollars. Possibly this explains the sharp increase of more than doubling in oil prices in the last two years; during which time US is facing its economic problems and also weakness in dollar compared to other currencies!!.

India needs about 3 million barrels of crude every day. However, India can meet about 23% of this demand internally, through crude production. Production is currently estimated at 700,000 barrels a day!. Also, it is noted that the demand for crude is growing at 7% per annum; and the imports are growing at 9% p a, leaving its impact on Government finances and balance of trade account. Trade deficit, which is estimated at 10% of India’s GDP will worsen due to higher import bill on account of oil.

A very interesting question on this continued surge of crude price is – what it is going to hit soon? According to Gazprom, a Russian Company which is a leading producer of crude in the world, come 2009, we will be talking US $ 250 a Barrel for crude. I am sure, this prediction is something which can send half the economies in the world out of track. Goldman Sachs projects a little less scary figure of US $ 200 a barrel by end of 2009; and ONGC seals the dreams of lower oil prices by saying three digit figure of crude price is here to stay.

Impact of this substantial increase in crude prices is going to show its effects on every economy soon. The first signs of increase in inflation is visible in every economy and so in India. Inflation is such a demon that it hardly needs an invitation to destroy an economy. Unfortunately; the increase in crude, and the resultant increase in Petro products in India is going to having a telling tale on its economy soon.

WHAT'S IN A NAME ?

Controversies do not seem to be getting over for Bangalore New Airport. Ever since the plan for a new Airport was conceived, there are arguments, counter-arguments, public interest litigations, agitations and public demonstrations. After weathering all the earlier controversies, now the Bangalore New Airport is facing a naming controversy.

What’s in a name? opined one of the famous English literary figure – Was it William Shakespeare? Wordsworth? – whoever it may, after all what’s in his name? What is important is: had this great poet survived to see today’s agitations and demonstrations for the naming ceremony, he would have never said that line.

Look at the kind of controversy this naming issue is generating. If we take a deep look into this – we realize that every caste, community, political group is active in generating this controversy. May be after analyzing all this only Mr. Bruner has washed his hands off by making a statement that Central government only has the authority to name an airport !!.

The vociferous Vakkaliga community, backed by its politicians and so-called social activists, want this airport to be named after Kempegowda. No second thoughts – Kempegowda was the founder of Bangalore; was known as good administrator and it is important that he be remembered for generations to come. However, for that, don’t we have enough of memorials in his name?

Here comes the Dalit voice, who wants this airport to be named after Dr. Ambedkar. Hello friends, why an airport in Bangalore has to named after Ambedkar ? What’s his contribution to Bangalore – or to its airport ? he is not even from Bangalore – right ? He is a person of national importance – and this nation has created and is also creating so many more memorials in his name. Don’t bring him down to the level of a State or a Street.

The other majority community of Karnataka – Lingayat’s want this airport to be named after Basavanna. God – what is the connection of Basavanna, who was one of the famous social reformers, to an airport?

Muslims do not want to be left behind in this issue as well – they want this airport to be named after Tippu Sultan!. One group of people from the arya vaishya community want this airport to be named after one of their community person, who was an aircraft engineer during the early part of 20th century!. There were some group of people who want this airport to be named after matinee idol Rajkumar as well.

Though there are enough good reasons to name this airport after Visweswaraya, it is pity that neither the authorities nor any group of people have taken up this matter. One reason is that he is from Brahmin community; and this community has never shown their collective bargaining power unlike all other communities. Since Brahmins as a group are not politically vulnerable to these gimmicks, none of the political parties have given any thoughts to this issue as well.

Bharat Ratna Sir M Visweswaraya is from Devanahally taluk, a great engineer who is considered to be architect of modern Karnataka and Bengaluru; it is through his efforts that Bengalurians have drinking water today and so on. Is it not a right thing to do by naming this Airport after him? Or is it that I have also added one more dimension to this naming controversy ? Hope not.

Update on Bangalore NEW AIRPORT

One of the reader, who has used the new AIRPORT recently, has sent in the following update. Thank you dear.

Now that the airport is about 3 weeks old - things are a little better than it was when the airport was only 3 days in operation.Today,(13/6/08) the aerobridge worked well and the toilets worked even better ( a week back toilets were out of order).The airport certainly has a world class look.There are good options for food.The free wi-fi internet works well.

Every aspect of the airport is well thought of except for the chairs for the CRPF on duty at the airport entrance (glass door entrance). In an otherwise slick glass and steel look - they sit on rickety chairs which look like they have been got from the old HAL airport and should have no place in the new scheme of things.

Congratulations Mr.Brunner, well done!

An airport proud Bangaluruian

Readers' Comments:

One of the health conscious reader has sent this comment to be published - of course, it makes lot of sense.

"Drink as much Beer as you wish, after all, it is cheaper than gas. However, drive only if you must - irrespective of the price of gas.Driking Beer may ruin your health.However, noxious fumes from your car could ruin others health.Burning gas harms the environment.You are not responsible to me for the state of your health. However, everyone is responsible to me (as i am to everyone else) for what they do to the environment.
You will do good to the environment and your health if you make your car guzzle alcohol (ethanol)while you abstain from it.

Please pay heed to this thought - it not all gas!

Yours
Environment Friendly, Health Conscious "

We appreciate your advise. My idea of publishing that was to highlight the rise in petro products.

FIRST DAY, FIRST LOOK at BANGALORE NEW AIRPORT :

"Dreams come true" - screamed many news papers, announcing inauguration of the Bengaluru International Airport, at the outskirts of the city. This new airport has been in the news - ever since it was conceived and everybody was convinced that a growing city like Bengaluru needs a better airport than the existing one. That way the new airport has been hogging the limelight - and the headlines in newspapers, on many occasions. Delays in project, project funding, consortium coming to existence, approval by central Govt for new airport, ground-breaking ceremony, work-in-progress, delay in commissioning, postponing the dates for commercial operations, etc, had its share of news making capabilities and occupying headlines for over few years now. Needless to say, amount of land some of the politicians and government officials have grabbed has been the subject of discussions in and around the airport, including in city buses for over a few years! And this airport was even a subject of discussions in some of the election campaigning, when a chief minister of a neighboring state made it a election issue – to drive home his views that had it been congress in power in the state, this airport would have been ready long ago !!. All along many of us were kind of neutral – but we cant be any more now – because it is for real – airport is in operation.

I am one of the frequent flyers – using the airport facilities quite frequently. Passengers like me, must have been thinking reaching out to airport would be a nightmare !. Anyway, my nightmares came true – on the very first day of commercial operation of Bengaluru new Airport !. Eversince I heard that the new airport is coming up at Devanahally, I always feared the fate of passengers who will have to fly Bengaluru – Chennai from this new airport. To reach this new airport from southern part of city – it would take not less than 2 hours. Add this to 1 hour of compulsory check in time before the departure. In all one would have to keep minimum three to four hours in hand to catch a flight – whose flying time is 35 minutes !. And from Chennai airport to city centre – add one hour. In all about 5 hours of time to reach Chennai, which can be achieved on road!. The very thought of this use to make me feel tired even before embarking the journey. I don’t want to depress you readers by saying getting into Chennai weather from Bengaluru itself is a big de-motivating factor!!

My flight to Chennai was scheduled at 3.50 pm. I had to book a taxi from my office in Koramangala. Since it was a Saturday, I was hoping the journey would not be a pain – in the sense there would be very less traffic on streets on Saturday afternoon. Afterall, we are in silicon city – where many of my colleagues from IT and ITES sector would not come out of weekend hangover!. This is the belief and kindles the hope that the city roads would be free from chaotic traffic and endless pollution. However, I wanted to reach the new airport with more than one hour in hand to flight, to take a tour of the airport. With all the hype this airport had created over a period of time, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing the new airport, expecting a world-class facility akin to Singapore or Hong Kong airports. So decided to reach the airport by 2 PM, to catch flight at 3.50 PM

As a first option to reach airport, I selected airliftonline taxi from their website. I was impressed by the services of this provider which was mentioned in my friend Bharat Ram’s blog. Details provided by Bharat was so alluring, I did not want to look beyond this service to reach airport. So entered my travel details on their website on Friday itself. Provided all necessary information and as assured on the website, was waiting for their call, confirming the timing for the taxi to pick me up to airport. However, considering the fact that it would be their first day of operations, and it is a long way to airport, I decided to keep a “plan B” handy. Second option was the “vayuvajra” service of BMTC. Called up their helpline to find out the nearby stop and timings to reach airport. I was told that they have a service from near Forum mall to Airport. That was quite a song to ears. But here comes the rider – the service operates between 8 AM to 11 AM; and then resumes again between 5 PM to 9 PM. Is it not funny – to time arrivals and departures only for 8 hours a day? that too in an international airport? Whatever – I was clear - this is not an option for ‘Plan B’ for the day!.

The only option left for me to reach airport was our ever dependable call taxi. So, booked it – to come for pick up at 12 Noon. My calculation was it would take two hours in journey and I would reach airport by 2 PM. And then look around for an hour and check-in. So far so good!. The expedition to airport now starts.
I was eagerly waiting for taxi – from 12 noon!. I was not worried till 12.30 PM as I had enough time to reach airport. As usual the transport provider gave all usual excuses – taxi is in petrol bunk; to fill in petrol, driver is on his way, caught in traffic jam and what not! Finally, the taxi reached office at 1 PM. Still enough time to catch 3.50 PM flight.

Though it was a city taxi – driver did not want to put the meter down!. When I kind of shouted at him for this adventure, he says – airport drop is Rs. 750 – and now the taxis have changed the per km charge to Rs. 15/- with immediate effect for the airport drop. I had to protest – first for the delay and now for this unilateral decision. Though I was in a hurry; I did not want the driver to have his way, which according to me was taking the benefit out of situation!. With my protests and cajoling – I could bring it down to Rs. 12/- per km and payable only for the actual kilometers.

Journey to airport started – at sharp 1 PM. Driver promised me to take to airport before 2.30 PM. His confidence got the shot in the arm with smooth sailing across the first hurdle – MG Road. We thought it would take at least 30 minutes – to reach High point and Palace street. But we made it in less than 25 minutes. I still believe in the saying – job well started is half done! But later realized – it is only well begun – and the half done is a state of mind – not on road; at least that day in Bangalore!.

Soon after this, the nightmare started to show in real – the first of the series to come in the form of traffic jam at Windsor manor bridge. With every passing minute, I was getting restless. Driver kept on promising me, he can reach me to airport sharp 2.30, provided he need not encounter this jam. It took good 20 minutes to make anything called decent move out of the jam under this bridge. By this time driver has made amends to his promises – now he can reach me by 2.50 PM; along with a rider – provided there is not much of a problem at Mekri Circle. I was also hoping so; rather dreaming it will not be. But reality was different again.

Before encountering problems at Mekri circle, the BDA junction wanted to add its share to woes – made me literally strangled for about 30 minutes. No movement of whatsoever in the traffic condition. While in car, I realized - no way the driver can reach me to airport before 3 PM – and that only means I would be late for my 3.50 flight. I had to call my secretary and get the flight changed – from 3.50 flight to 5.20 flight – Jet airways. This was the only option I could think of to salvage the situation.

After the BDA junction the next hurdle was at Mekhri circle – and for again good 20 minutes – by the time we left this junction it was almost 2.30 PM. After this the ride was on pretty expected lines. Not much of hurdles – and the driver has changed his expected time of reaching airport to 3 PM !. But the actual time when I reached airport was 3.15 PM.

All along the way, I was imagining a huge, big and neat airport – ala Singapore / Hong kong type!. This airport had created such a huge hype in terms of its capacity, facility etc., the expectation were running high in my mind. The moment I reached airport, the first thing came to my mind was - alas, not big enough for a growing city like Bangalore.

Airport is neat, clean – no second thoughts on that. There were enough check-in-counters, but people had gathered in front of every counter with show much of anxiety and disappointment written all over their faces. There are more than 15 kiosks – but none of them working. Worst part – there was no sign or information that the kiosk is not working; and in front of every kiosk passengers are desperately trying check in through kiosk. Possibly the first day glitch – systems are not working! Every flight is delayed – some by almost two hours!. In the hindsight, had I not changed my flight, I could have managed to catch my flight of 3.50 PM, even at 4 pm.

I really wonder, whether this airport is sufficient enough to handle the burgeoning flyers of Bangalore? There are not enough chairs to sit in the check-in area; possibly the idea is to make the passengers to enter into security check-in area immediately?

There is a huge shopping area on the mezzanine floor; which is security check-in area. Half of this shopping area is occupied by Shoppers Stop. I really wonder how many will shop in though. It is huge; and quite disproportionate to the size of the total shopping area in the airport. Was such a huge shopping arcade was required – that too in a domestic departure terminus? I wonder.

One welcome change is the food court. It is quite thoughtful of the management to provide sufficient options for food. After such a long and tiring journey, one needs something – not just to satisfy the taste buds but to recoup some lost energy in reaching the never-in-sight airport!.

Seating in front of entry gates is just not sufficient. These days most of the flights run full; and the average flight capacity is about 150 passengers per flight. But in front of the gate, we have hardly 50-60 seating provided. All others have to hang around the shopping mall or the food court. I did not get a chance to sit, with that my plans of checking out the wifi enabled services of the airport remained a dream to be realized at a later trip to the airport.

The pranks by first day at airport had its share of joy in many more places. It could be the announcement system, information kiosk or even the bus-service till the aircraft, everywhere we had problems and problems. The best was something told by one of the co-passengers, who had traveled in the morning from Chennai and landed at the new airport. After landing announcement was made that since passenger-boarding-bridge facility is provided all the passengers were requested to make exit from the front door only. But it took more than 15 minutes for the passengers to make a move through the exit – problem was, the passenger boarding bridge gate was locked and the key was misplaced!!.

On my return – after a good two days, I found still some of the teething problems were ruling the airport. Luggage arrival was the choking point this time; and at least there were loads of people to assure you that everything will be alright in a few minutes.

At the exit hall, I noticed one welcome board, which I found funny. That’s why I clicked a photo and attached here. Bengaluru International Airport, reads the board – welcome to Bangalore !
Return journey from Airport to city was not that painful. Traffic was much less. Work was completed at one of the bottleneck - BDA junction, and the traffic flow was smooth. In the days to come, the vayu vajra – the hitech bus service of BMTC to airport, would gain lot of popularity. It will not be a surprise if all the return passengers start using these bus services and a day might come soon, wherein the taxi guys from Bangalore would ask for double meter, as they would not get any passenger returning in their unfriendly taxis.

Take a look at some of these pics of this airport here.

TIMELY AD

Time is right for this ad to appear even on billboards ! Just when the petrolium product prices have gone up, this has started doing rounds on mails. Keep an eye on the billboards - who knows we might get to see this, when everyone is feeling the same way!