The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy. Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said. After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you." He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world! "I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought. With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again. One year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man. "I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller."And she led the old man away. The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
What is PQCDSM !!
In Office TPM Method, Each company will have to define for themselves, looking at all losses, which affect plant performance:
These are some examples:
P – Production output lost due to want of material
Manpower productivity
Production output lost due to want of tools
Q – Mistakes in preparation of cheques, bills, invoices, payroll
Customer returns/warranty attributable to BOPs
Rejection/rework in BOP’s/job work
Office area rework
C – Buying cost/unit produced
Cost of logistics – inbound/outbound
Cost of carrying inventory
Cost of communication
Demurrage costs
DEPB benefits – on time
D – Logistics losses(Delay in loading/unloading)
Delay in delivery due to any of the support functions
Delay in payments to suppliers
Delay in information
S – Safety in material handling/stores/logistics
Safety of soft and hard data
M – Number of kaizens in office areas.
In Broader way ,its a targets of TPM:
TPM Targets:
P
Obtain Minimum 80% OPE.
Obtain Minimum 90% OEE ( Overall Equipment Effectiveness )
Run the machines even during lunch. ( Lunch is for operators and not for machines ! )
Q
Operate in a manner, so that there are no customer complaints.
C
Reduce the manufacturing cost by 30%.
D
Achieve 100% success in delivering the goods as required by the customer.
S
Maintain a accident free environment.
M
Increase the suggestions by 3 times. Develop Multi-skilled and flexible workers.
These are some examples:
P – Production output lost due to want of material
Manpower productivity
Production output lost due to want of tools
Q – Mistakes in preparation of cheques, bills, invoices, payroll
Customer returns/warranty attributable to BOPs
Rejection/rework in BOP’s/job work
Office area rework
C – Buying cost/unit produced
Cost of logistics – inbound/outbound
Cost of carrying inventory
Cost of communication
Demurrage costs
DEPB benefits – on time
D – Logistics losses(Delay in loading/unloading)
Delay in delivery due to any of the support functions
Delay in payments to suppliers
Delay in information
S – Safety in material handling/stores/logistics
Safety of soft and hard data
M – Number of kaizens in office areas.
In Broader way ,its a targets of TPM:
TPM Targets:
P
Obtain Minimum 80% OPE.
Obtain Minimum 90% OEE ( Overall Equipment Effectiveness )
Run the machines even during lunch. ( Lunch is for operators and not for machines ! )
Q
Operate in a manner, so that there are no customer complaints.
C
Reduce the manufacturing cost by 30%.
D
Achieve 100% success in delivering the goods as required by the customer.
S
Maintain a accident free environment.
M
Increase the suggestions by 3 times. Develop Multi-skilled and flexible workers.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Success = Positive Approach + Right Vision
We all are use to be very egger about success. In fact no one wants failures to happen. Often we use to compare ourselves with others who are more successful than us and use to get tense. Everyone on the earth is unique and incomparable. God has gifted to everybody something different than others what we really need to count. Success often misinterpreted by individuals. What does success means to us? Is it about money? Power? Or luxury? Absolutely NO! Misinterpretation of success often leads to merciful life. Success is something related to satisfaction, which never comes only by money, power and luxuries. Success is nurturing family values, bonds of love and respect, growing affinity and trust driven relationships and finally success is piece of mind. When we run behind success, often we forget the definition. Success is something driven by you. No external factor can make you ride the ladders of success it comes from within. Someone has rightly said “if an egg is broken by an outside force ….a life ends, and an egg breaks from within life begins”. Things always begin from within. Deeply rooted cultural values, positive approach in every aspect of life, visionary attitude and self confidence are the things which make you twinkle in the sky of success. In coming paragraphs we will discuss about the meanings and boundaries of success.
Success Does Not Happen In Isolation
Very often many of us fear to share knowledge and expertise. They think that sharing the knowledge with team will reduce their own importance. What a merciful approach! Let us understand the importance of knowledge sharing by one small story.
There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honor and prizes. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something interesting about how he grew it.
‘The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors'.
"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir, "said the farmer, "didn't you know?
The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is in the other dimensions! Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbors and colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well.
The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.
Success does not happen in isolation. It is very often a participative and collective process. Only a team can do miracles.
So share the good practices, ideas, new learning's with your family, team members, neighbors if you want to be successful.
Come out from false boundaries
Many often our thinking belief uses to fall us in false boundaries. This becomes our ultimate limit. We often use to shrink our world in those boundaries and something beyond that seems impossible. Let’s explain it by a sort story told by one of my friend. My friend was passing by the elephants. He suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a rope tied to their legs. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful and magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.
“Well,” he said, “when they are very young & much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them and at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are
conditioned to believe that they cannot break away. They believe the rope can
still hold them, so they never try to break free from their bonds. And because
they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck where they were. The powerful and gigantic creature has limited its present abilities by the limitations of its past. Your
attempt may fail, but never fail to attempt. & choose not to accept the false boundaries and limitations created by the past.
Domain Knowledge is more Important
In the path of success it is very important be practical and know how the things can happen instead getting amused by short results ignoring the surroundings. Following sort story will elaborate the facts in a better way.
There was a family with one kid. One day the mother was out and dad
was in charge of the kid, who just turned three.
Someone had given the kid a little 'tea set' as a birthday gift and it
was one of his favorite toys.
Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when kid
brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water.
After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea from
father, kid's Mom came home.
Dad made her wait in the living room to watch the kid bring him a cup of
tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!'
Mom waited, and sure enough, the kid comes down the hall with a cup of
tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then she says to him,
'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get
water is the toilet??'
....Mothers know!!
"Domain knowledge is very important!!! Else your Customer/supplier will trick you out"
Know where to make effort
It is important to work smarter than working harder. We should know where to put effort otherwise it will end up only in waste. A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand Rupees.
"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer....................... 2.00
knowing where to tap................. ......... 9,998.00
Moral of story is . . . . . . . . .
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference....
Try to be a needle not the scissor
If want a greater success always try to build a good team otherwise it will never happen. I will explain this with an example of my village. A tailor was at work. He took a piece of cloth and with a pair of shining, costly, scissors; he cut the cloth into various bits. Then he put the pair of scissors at his feet. Then he took a small needle and thread and started to sew the bits of cloth, into a fine shirt. When the spell of sewing was over, he stuck the needle on to his turban.
The tailor's son who was watching it asked him: "Father, the scissors are costly and look so beautiful. But you throw them down at your feet. This needle is worth almost nothing; you can get a dozen for an Anna. Yet, you place it carefully on your head itself. Is there any reason for this illogical behavior?"
"Yes, my son. The scissors have their function, no doubt; but they only cut the cloth into bits. The needle, on the contrary, unites the bits and enhances the value of the cloth. Therefore, the needle to me is more precious and valuable. The value of a thing depends on its utility, son, not on its cost-price or appearance."
Similarly, there are two classes of people in the world-those who create dissensions and disharmony, who separate man from man; and those who bring about peace and harmony, who unite people. The former end up with hater and failures while the later end ups with success, satisfaction and piece.
Don’t conclude without knowing the facts
Concluding without facts or data is fatal. Before coming to any conclusion analysis of facts and data is very important. Decisions made on assumption results in disaster. One old man was sitting with his 25 years old son in the train. Train is about to leave the station. All passengers are settling down their seat. As train started young man was filled with lot of joy and curiosity. He was sitting on the window side. He put out one hand and feeling the passing air, He shouted, "Papa see all trees are going behind". Old man smile and admired son feelings. Beside the young man one couple was sitting and listing all the conversion between father and son. They were little awkward the attitude of 25 years old man behaving like a small child.
Suddenly young man again shouted, "Papa see the pond and animals. Clouds are moving with train". Couple was watching the young man in embarrassingly. Now its start raining and some of water drops touches the young man's hand. He filled with joy and he closed the eyes. He shouted again,” Papa it’s raining, water is touching me, see papa". Couple couldn't help themselves and asked the old man. Why don't you visit the Doctor and get treated your son. Old man said," Yes, We were coming from hospital only. Today only my son got the eyes, first time in life".
Moral of story: - "We must not come to any conclusion until we know all facts"
Don’t cry again and again on same issues
Rather putting brain towards little improvements, many of us becomes sirens without switch. Who get stuck on a problem and will repeatedly cry over it. What has happened or in what conditions you have been put, should be much smaller concerns than focusing what you are going to do and how you are going to deal with it. Only way to avoid problems is to solve it. A wise man once sat in the audience & cracked a joke. All laughed like crazy. After a moment he cracked the same joke again and a little less people laughed this time. He cracked the same joke again & again, when there was no laughter in the crowd, he smiled and said "When you can't laugh on the same joke again & again, then why do you keep crying over the same thing over and over?
Change the Way you look at a Problem
Many things which are worth less for us may be the dreams for others. Problems and circumstances always depend on way we look at them. From the same circumstances someone escapes to greater heights of life while many of us remains in same. What matters is approach and the way we deal with a problem either to run away or fight and win. Even you fight and loose, still it gives you a feel of satisfaction “I tried”.
Once there was a very rich person. Suddenly he got some infection in his eyes. He saw all the famous doctors of his time but no sign of relief. He continued to be in greater pain. He was very much disappointed. All his wealth was of no value to him.
One day a roaming monk came to his place. Though disappointed but with little hope he pleaded to monk to do something for his eyes to escape him from unbearable pain. The monk looked at the rich and smiled in piece.
“Son your problem is simple; the only precaution you take is never look at anything in any colour other than green. The monk gone away. The rich man has ordered tones of paint and everything in his house, office and even whatever was suppose to come in front of him has been painted green. Much money and effort has been put in to all this. Astonishingly pain of the eyes has disappeared. Rich man began to enjoy the normal life.
One the same monk came to his place was quite surprised seeing everything in green even servants with green dress and green faces. He asked the reason and the rich guy has explained about his tip for eye pain and what he did after that.
The monk smiled in calm and looked at the face of rich person. He said “son what only you needed was green goggles rather than doing all this”.
Baby Giraffes never go to school. But they learn a very important lesson rather early in life. The birth of a baby giraffe is quite an earth-shaking event.
The baby falls from its mother’s womb, some eight feet above the ground. It shrivels up and lies still, too weak to move. The mother giraffe lovingly lowers her neck to smooch the baby giraffe. And then something unbelievable happens. She lifts her long leg and kicks the baby giraffe, sending it flying up in the air and tumbling down on the ground. As the baby lies curled up, the mother kicks the baby again and again until the baby giraffe, still trembling and tired, pushes its limbs and for the first time learns to stand on its feet. Happy to see the baby standing on its own feet, the mother giraffe comes over and gives it yet another kick. The baby giraffe falls one more time, but now quickly recovers and stands up. Mama Giraffe is delighted. She knows that her baby has learnt an important lesson!
Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and get back on your feet. Success lies in being able to get up every time you fall.
By: Mahesh Singh
Success Does Not Happen In Isolation
Very often many of us fear to share knowledge and expertise. They think that sharing the knowledge with team will reduce their own importance. What a merciful approach! Let us understand the importance of knowledge sharing by one small story.
There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honor and prizes. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something interesting about how he grew it.
‘The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors'.
"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir, "said the farmer, "didn't you know?
The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is in the other dimensions! Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbors and colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well.
The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.
Success does not happen in isolation. It is very often a participative and collective process. Only a team can do miracles.
So share the good practices, ideas, new learning's with your family, team members, neighbors if you want to be successful.
Come out from false boundaries
Many often our thinking belief uses to fall us in false boundaries. This becomes our ultimate limit. We often use to shrink our world in those boundaries and something beyond that seems impossible. Let’s explain it by a sort story told by one of my friend. My friend was passing by the elephants. He suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a rope tied to their legs. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful and magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.
“Well,” he said, “when they are very young & much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them and at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are
conditioned to believe that they cannot break away. They believe the rope can
still hold them, so they never try to break free from their bonds. And because
they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck where they were. The powerful and gigantic creature has limited its present abilities by the limitations of its past. Your
attempt may fail, but never fail to attempt. & choose not to accept the false boundaries and limitations created by the past.
Domain Knowledge is more Important
In the path of success it is very important be practical and know how the things can happen instead getting amused by short results ignoring the surroundings. Following sort story will elaborate the facts in a better way.
There was a family with one kid. One day the mother was out and dad
was in charge of the kid, who just turned three.
Someone had given the kid a little 'tea set' as a birthday gift and it
was one of his favorite toys.
Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when kid
brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water.
After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea from
father, kid's Mom came home.
Dad made her wait in the living room to watch the kid bring him a cup of
tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!'
Mom waited, and sure enough, the kid comes down the hall with a cup of
tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then she says to him,
'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get
water is the toilet??'
....Mothers know!!
"Domain knowledge is very important!!! Else your Customer/supplier will trick you out"
Know where to make effort
It is important to work smarter than working harder. We should know where to put effort otherwise it will end up only in waste. A giant ship engine failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand Rupees.
"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"
So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer....................... 2.00
knowing where to tap................. ......... 9,998.00
Moral of story is . . . . . . . . .
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference....
Try to be a needle not the scissor
If want a greater success always try to build a good team otherwise it will never happen. I will explain this with an example of my village. A tailor was at work. He took a piece of cloth and with a pair of shining, costly, scissors; he cut the cloth into various bits. Then he put the pair of scissors at his feet. Then he took a small needle and thread and started to sew the bits of cloth, into a fine shirt. When the spell of sewing was over, he stuck the needle on to his turban.
The tailor's son who was watching it asked him: "Father, the scissors are costly and look so beautiful. But you throw them down at your feet. This needle is worth almost nothing; you can get a dozen for an Anna. Yet, you place it carefully on your head itself. Is there any reason for this illogical behavior?"
"Yes, my son. The scissors have their function, no doubt; but they only cut the cloth into bits. The needle, on the contrary, unites the bits and enhances the value of the cloth. Therefore, the needle to me is more precious and valuable. The value of a thing depends on its utility, son, not on its cost-price or appearance."
Similarly, there are two classes of people in the world-those who create dissensions and disharmony, who separate man from man; and those who bring about peace and harmony, who unite people. The former end up with hater and failures while the later end ups with success, satisfaction and piece.
Don’t conclude without knowing the facts
Concluding without facts or data is fatal. Before coming to any conclusion analysis of facts and data is very important. Decisions made on assumption results in disaster. One old man was sitting with his 25 years old son in the train. Train is about to leave the station. All passengers are settling down their seat. As train started young man was filled with lot of joy and curiosity. He was sitting on the window side. He put out one hand and feeling the passing air, He shouted, "Papa see all trees are going behind". Old man smile and admired son feelings. Beside the young man one couple was sitting and listing all the conversion between father and son. They were little awkward the attitude of 25 years old man behaving like a small child.
Suddenly young man again shouted, "Papa see the pond and animals. Clouds are moving with train". Couple was watching the young man in embarrassingly. Now its start raining and some of water drops touches the young man's hand. He filled with joy and he closed the eyes. He shouted again,” Papa it’s raining, water is touching me, see papa". Couple couldn't help themselves and asked the old man. Why don't you visit the Doctor and get treated your son. Old man said," Yes, We were coming from hospital only. Today only my son got the eyes, first time in life".
Moral of story: - "We must not come to any conclusion until we know all facts"
Don’t cry again and again on same issues
Rather putting brain towards little improvements, many of us becomes sirens without switch. Who get stuck on a problem and will repeatedly cry over it. What has happened or in what conditions you have been put, should be much smaller concerns than focusing what you are going to do and how you are going to deal with it. Only way to avoid problems is to solve it. A wise man once sat in the audience & cracked a joke. All laughed like crazy. After a moment he cracked the same joke again and a little less people laughed this time. He cracked the same joke again & again, when there was no laughter in the crowd, he smiled and said "When you can't laugh on the same joke again & again, then why do you keep crying over the same thing over and over?
Change the Way you look at a Problem
Many things which are worth less for us may be the dreams for others. Problems and circumstances always depend on way we look at them. From the same circumstances someone escapes to greater heights of life while many of us remains in same. What matters is approach and the way we deal with a problem either to run away or fight and win. Even you fight and loose, still it gives you a feel of satisfaction “I tried”.
Once there was a very rich person. Suddenly he got some infection in his eyes. He saw all the famous doctors of his time but no sign of relief. He continued to be in greater pain. He was very much disappointed. All his wealth was of no value to him.
One day a roaming monk came to his place. Though disappointed but with little hope he pleaded to monk to do something for his eyes to escape him from unbearable pain. The monk looked at the rich and smiled in piece.
“Son your problem is simple; the only precaution you take is never look at anything in any colour other than green. The monk gone away. The rich man has ordered tones of paint and everything in his house, office and even whatever was suppose to come in front of him has been painted green. Much money and effort has been put in to all this. Astonishingly pain of the eyes has disappeared. Rich man began to enjoy the normal life.
One the same monk came to his place was quite surprised seeing everything in green even servants with green dress and green faces. He asked the reason and the rich guy has explained about his tip for eye pain and what he did after that.
The monk smiled in calm and looked at the face of rich person. He said “son what only you needed was green goggles rather than doing all this”.
Baby Giraffes never go to school. But they learn a very important lesson rather early in life. The birth of a baby giraffe is quite an earth-shaking event.
The baby falls from its mother’s womb, some eight feet above the ground. It shrivels up and lies still, too weak to move. The mother giraffe lovingly lowers her neck to smooch the baby giraffe. And then something unbelievable happens. She lifts her long leg and kicks the baby giraffe, sending it flying up in the air and tumbling down on the ground. As the baby lies curled up, the mother kicks the baby again and again until the baby giraffe, still trembling and tired, pushes its limbs and for the first time learns to stand on its feet. Happy to see the baby standing on its own feet, the mother giraffe comes over and gives it yet another kick. The baby giraffe falls one more time, but now quickly recovers and stands up. Mama Giraffe is delighted. She knows that her baby has learnt an important lesson!
Never mind how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and get back on your feet. Success lies in being able to get up every time you fall.
By: Mahesh Singh
"HAVE BREAKFAST… OR…BE BREAKFAST!"
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling standalone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
"What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget
So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films
out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years.When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.
By Mahesh Singh
(From the column of management guru, Y. L. R. MOORTHI)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Does and Don'ts for Prevention and control of Pollution !!
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