Santa business module

SANTA BUSINESS MODEL

Christmas is round the corner and Santa is being eagerly awaited to deliver the goodies to children on December 24, as every year. With certain inputs from here and there and some little experience in marketing I thought of sharing the salient points of Santa's business model to show why is it so successful.

1. Santa started small. He chose his niche market carefully and concentrated on well behaved children. No point going all out with limited resources. 
2. Lean is not being mean when resources are limited so he started with just wooden blocks and then expanded.
3. Demand pattern is never static. So he changed to digital when digital devices became favorite with children.
4. He knew his date of delivery being December 24, controlling cash flow with the cheap line of credit and streamline material procurements, overtime payments and savings during the high income period was paramount. 
5. Living in North Pole with climate change taught him to use renewable energy sources, low or no waste and reduce shipping expenses. Going green was must.
6. He took help of his wife Claus, team of well trained elves and the eight reindeers to have a very efficient logistics. 
7. Last but not he least he never forgot his clients' interest. Service with humility have kept him in good stead for all these centuries.

Self obsession

Positive side Self obsession 

Self obsession has never been taken kindly. It is taken as the negative side of human behavior. Self obsessed people are selfish, intolerant, angry , egoistic and all that. But if we think little dispassionately we will find that self obsession is not all that bad. It has its own positive sides.

Self obsession is nothing more than self fulfillment and there is nothing wrong in that. A child is wants fulfillment of  his needs and is fully content when the needs are fulfilled. The happiness that surfaces on the face of a child after a feed or diaper change can match any true happiness. No one calls this child 'self obsessed. As the child grows up he realizes that no one will feed his needs and he alone will have to work for it. He does what he feels is right for fulfilling his needs. Is that wrong?

If I am obsessed with myself it means I value myself as no one else knows me better than I do. If I do not value myself no one will. If I do not feed or dress myself no one will.  So why not eat the best and dress  the latest? This way I have satisfied my needs and presented myself in my best to the whole world. It is up to the world to make sense. I have made sense to myself. This is the positive side.

If I do not beat my own drum no one will. So why not beat it lauder, loudest? If I have a camera and I do not take my own selfie and let the whole world know about it why am I carrying the load of that camera? This is the positive side.

You may say I consider myself the world that resolves around me. What difference does it make? If you want to revolve around the world so be it. I am not pulling the rug from under your feet. This is the positive side.

You may say I am selfish. When was the last time you donated your wealth and became a pauper?  I am not taking your share. I am just protecting mine. This is the positive side. 

You may say I prevail upon others and do not value others opinion. I never said if you are not with me you are against me. Similarly if I am not with you it does not mean I am against you. That is the positive side.

If I do not write this piece and show you how brilliant I am at this art of self expression/self modulation how would you know me? This is the positive side.

If you do not like the above and bracket it within "self obsession" it is your problem. 

Learning and practicing

Xxx LEARNING AND PUTTING IN PRACTICE

If learning was the guarantee of putting in practice what was learnt, we would have saints inhabiting this planet. That was the purpose was learning in the first place, isn't it?

The first thing we were made to sing in the school assembly was "he Prabhu Anand data gyan hamko deejiye.........(Oh God, the giver of happiness, bestow knowledge upon us....)The another one was "wah shakti hame do dayanidhe............" (Give us the strength oh! God of kindness...........). The prayers went on praying for truthfulness, good behavior, free from sins and all those virtues that all humans aspire. Similar prayers might have been sung in schools all over India. The prayers was a daily routine up to high school as far as I remember. More than 10 years of praying.

Since then most of us have read volumes of material of these virtues and every day we are flooded with still more on social media. If that was not enough we are surrounded by god men and god women, spiritual leaders, not forgetting our daily trips to the places of worship.

How come that learning has not been a part of our practicing? Why could we not practice what we learnt? 

Neither the prayer nor the subsequent learning could make us a good human being. This has no clear answer. May be we were not meant to be good human beings in the first place. May be those who composed that prayer and those who penned subsequent learning material did so after lot of introspection. If so they must have done so after crossing their prime and realized the mistakes they committed and wanted to tell the young generation and anybody who cared to pray, read or listen not to commit similar mistakes. Ultimately we had to go and pray. 

On hind side, may be I am writing this piece as me too have crossed the prime. 

Fact is we all are good people. Circumstances make us bad. And this a good excuse, an escape route. "What could I do?"- becomes the buzz word. 

Buyers and sellers

Xxx There are only two types of people in the world-sellers and buyers.

As a marketing man I see this world as a market place where someone is always looking for something and another one ready to provide it for a price which in business terms is called selling. When there is no one looking for anything this another one will creat someone for his merchandise which in business terms is called marketing. After some time there is little difference between the two.

Starting from commodities of basic needs like food, clothing and shelter to items required for final journey to the crematorium, there are buyers and sellers. 

In religion the smartest salesman was Jesus Christ followed by the followers of prophet Mohammad who spread the faith far and wide mainly my conversion. Even though they  had common origin the Abraham but both religions competed with each other in enrolling as many faithfully as possible. Today they have almost half of world population between themselves.

After religion it was forms of governments where smart selling was seen. While democracy and autocracy existed much before Karl Marx (1818-1883) their  position was challenged only after this great advocate of communalism presented an alternate view. It also changed the way humans conducted business under capitalism because communism provided a different view. The middle path was socialism. In each case there were expert marketeers. 

Today we have not only buyers and sellers for commodities but for everything our imagination will allow us to travel.

An emerging and developing society can not be judged by its religion or government or by its trade practices alone or by combination of all of these. Humans need more than bread, clothing and shelter and there comes the role of many other sellers. They are in the field of:-

Opinion makers- what is good for me.

Happiness- art of living and all that.

Love- straight, gay and all that.

Health- yoga and all that by Baba.

The best part is if I am a buyer here I am a seller at some other place. At odds it becomes difficult to establish if I am a buyer or a seller. It also becomes difficult to know who is more happy and satisfied the buyer or the seller. 

All sellers are peddling their wares and promising heavens. All buyers are wanting maximum for minimum. 

Sellers are creating artificial shortages. Buyers are buying more than what they need. 

Sellers thinking to change trade more profits. Buyers thinking to change trader for better deals. 

Sellers making products to last least for repeat sale. Buyers looking for products to last for a life at least. 

Sellers tempting kids to demand for their products. Buyers as parents either pampering or tempering their kids. 

It is amply proved that the world is inhabited by sellers and buyers. Rest of the classifications like happy or unhappy, honest or dishonest, loyal or disloyal , truthful or liars, capitalists or socialists, democrats or communists, haves and haves not, etc etc are just different names for the same group of people. Human basic character is selling an buying. 

Making an omelet

You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs

Demonetization in India of 500 and 1000 rupee notes has inconvenienced many particularly the class of people who have no plastic cards or other banking facilities. Those who have them and many others like Mr. Sunil Alagh could very conveniently say  'why you need cash'? True, why on earth people need cash. He goes further to add that there will always be some inconvenience for a greater cause which is eradicating the menace of black money. He is in effect telling us that 'you can't makE an omelet without breaking some eggs' and he right. May he eats lots of them everyday for breakfast. 

Barter system was good and humans started trading with exchange of goods and services and do so even today in remote villages. During this 'moments of sacrifice' some people resorted to barter system. This is a good sign. Going back to roots is always welcome and who knows it better than party in Government who have been rooting for the return to roots in the field of education, culture, religion. Left to them they would even undo the history of last decade or more and make India a Ram Rajya  having started with Demolition of Bari Masjid. 

Yes, we all know some eggs do get broken for making an omelet but for whom? Those who can afford them or those who make do with salt and a piece of home made bread? And if they want to, they don't have money to buy nor flash a plastic card nor transfer money by electronic wallet. 

Yes, we know it will be over in few weeks, may be months but by then there may not be those hen laying eggs because they can not be fed for want of money. The doctor reaching after the death of the patient. 

Let us go to barter. You never know when the Government would say again that the notes you are holding are no more legal tender. You never know when the Government would ask you deposit your money in banks but not allow you to withdraw. 

Age is merely a number

AGE IS MERELY A NUMBER IN THE MIND

This proved utterly wrong and the realization came too late. 

Well I was suffering from cough and cold and a little fever which was nothing new and all these years I was treating it with OTC drugs with good effect. I never visited my physician for common cold. Rather would make a joke and say common cold goes in a week if you take medicines or otherwise within a seven days if you don't. 

This time however it refused to subside in even after two days Crocine, notwithstanding. On the third day morning, I felt dizzy and fell down early in the morning . Got up dusted myself and hummed ' bin piye Mai to gira , (fell down without having a drink) . Head was still heavy and as I was trying to sip my morning cuppa, I felt like throwing up and I did.

It was enough for my wife to take me to the doctor. The diagnosis revealed high fever 102, low BP 90/65. Was prescribed some medicines and if no improvement in a day hospitalization . Next day I was in the hospital under treatment for which in medical jargon is as under

"Acute febrile illness due to viral pyrexia with posstural hypotension with vertigo and Dyselectrolytemia "

I am back home after three days in the hospital fully recovered and 50000/- short of my bank balance not forgetting the physical discomfort. My daughter flew in from Mumbai and other kept on line from the USA. One stupid misadventure at this age troubled every body.

I am posting this to all oldies with a request not to be as stupid I proved to be. There is no truth in what I made a title of this post. Age is a merciless number when we grow as far as our body is concerned. It is both in our mind and body. Next time you feel like this sort of or any sort of discomfort visit your doctor. At this age our resistance power takes a beating and cannot hold longer as it used to. The doctor is the best judge.

Internet

Was internet there from the beginning?

May be. Sanjay could not have given live commentary on what was happening in Kurukhetra battle between Kauravas and Pandavas. It was like having an Internet connection called in those days Divya Dristi. Now we pay to the service providers in money terms then it was paid in total submission to the Lord who could only connect the devotee to the happening arena .

If that be so, surely Facebook's great great grand father was there too. 

I do not however find any evidence of Adam or Eve updated their status any time any where. 

But that is asking too much of our ancestors. 

Let us come to recent times. Even our great leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Tilak, Mukherjee, Namboodaripad, Sarojini, Indira, do not seem to have used Facebook or any of its siblings. Neither political nor religious,  nor social, al nor scientific,  nor literary nor any one worth his/her salt seem to have used this media to reach the vast ocean of populace to convey their message. How come? Were they shy or introvert? 

Assuming Facebook existed and they were as chummy and available as our Modiji. We could  see Gandhi's status updates appear in his loin clothe in colorful prints and designs. He would have not stuck to plain whites only. We could enjoy Nehru's grand postures appear in his jackets and chooridars  sometimesy. Sometimes outside Parliament House , at times boarding or alighting an aircraft. We could see Indira in her colorful sarees shaking hands with American or Russian Presidents or Yasser Arafat. We could have seen most of them taking selfies with the greats of the world with whom they interacted. We could have seen Artists, scientists, writers and many others in different walks of life holding their latest creation and prizes with measured glee on their faces. 

Some one would argue that all such photographs are available as cameras were in use for filming and photographing every important event in history for the last 100 years or so. Before that painters did the honor. It is sad that color photography was invented much later and they had to contend with black and white only. 

But there is a difference. Then there was someone else commissioned to do all status updating. Now it is done by the person himself/ herself. There is no need for any commissioning as you can commission yourself as and when you wish. All you need a laptop or a notebook or a smart phone with Internet connection and of course a huge library of self portraits. Keep on alternating them one after the other till something new happens. Keep on digging into the past glory and refurbish it with latest available tools and update your status on Facebook or Instagram till you yourself are tired of this boring routine. You can now give your travel maps particularly when you are traveling by air. 

Thanks to Internet we are immortal now. We may not be there but our selfies will be. People not in the know of our final journey will keep on posting their birthday and anniversary wishes even after we are gone. Facebook will make sure you do not forget. By the turn of the century there will be many times more Facebook users that humans on earth. All living and kicking.