Technology is the way Forward

It is very easy to pick up a conversation with known people around in India. The common topic being corruption! I was having this casual chat with an uncle of mine who had some serious thoughts about what the Government or the Reserve Bank should be doing. Here it goes – first, the value of the rupee should be brought to One- Tenth. Which means that today if you hold a hundred rupee note, its value will be Rs.10. And so will be the price of any product/commodity/service. Or if you are earning Rs. One Lakh a month, it should be treated as Rs. Ten thousand a month.

In other words, what he meant was to reduce the number of currency notes and the actual value of a rupee goes up. So his idea was to change the denomination, print new notes with the new valuation. The old notes would be null and void. People who hold the old currency should go to the Bank and exchange them with the new ones. And there should some cap on the maximum amount of currency one can exchange in a particular month. So there will be good Regulations. This could help curb black money, people generally won’t get this false pride that they are getting paid too much (especially the younger generation and the rising salary levels and so leading to price increase in everything including real estate). Yep, great ideas for fiscal correction. Sounded interesting!

Another thought was – which is the main driver for Black Money – It is the income Tax. Why doesn’t the Government abolish Income Tax totally? Let the Government find other avenues to generate revenue.

Bold thoughts! All these are for the Government and the biggies to decide…

And then there could be other ways as well.

A few years back as a guy with a sweet tooth, I spotted an interesting kiosk at the corner of my office building. It was a chocolate wending machine. You need to send an SMS to a particular Telephone no. with a code and the chocolate gets dispensed automatically instantaneously. You don’t have to pay cash. The cost of the chocolate gets added to your telephone bill. Brilliant isn’t it? I didn’t have the change for buying the chocolate, but my craving got fulfilled.

Like how we have now nearly paperless offices, can we get in to a Currencyless world? Now quite a lot of bill payment processes have become easy Online. You don’t need to stand in queues to pay bills. You don’t need to stand in queues to get tickets in Black! We have come a long way indeed!

Mobile communication, Internet etc have brought gadgets together and made communication easy. You can have a good free chat with your Sister sitting in your drawing room watching her on your 46” screen.
People at the lower levels of the Social pyramid have seen the value and the power of the Mobile phone. It adds value to their business. Saves them time.

Can we take it a step further? Automate all the transactions electronically.

Let the Smart cards & Biometric gadgets do the job. You authorise transactions through a combination of technologies. And mind you, You need not remember multiple passwords – your finger prints and eye ball can take care of authentication.
Whether it is payment to your nearby grocer or the payment to your domestic help, the payment can be done electronically. You don’t need to carry Boarding passes or tickets – it can be taken care Biometrically! The UID/Aadhar is perhaps attempting some of these.

The masses have learnt to use the Mobile Phone. They will learn to use the computers as well if there is some value in it for them. I am sure our Software Wizards will make extra User Friendly applications to suit the different classes.
The nearby Kutchi grocer will soon engage a Computer operator to keep a check on the transactions.

And all transactions could be done online and electronically. Whether it is for routine purchases, payment to any Service Provider or towards Buying property or Registration, the transactions are to be done electronically only.
New opportunities could emerge for manufacturing different types of gadgets, card readers etc. New Apps would get created. More new employment opportunities in the Ecosystem instead of the traditional stuff! And the bar gets raised at every level in the Social Pyramid.

Wishful thinking!

Reduce the dependency on Currency notes in every transaction. Black money may fade away one day.

And hopefully Technology & Education will prevail.

The Life of a Sales Man

When I started my career as a Salesman 17-18 years ago, there were many views from my well wishers about the profession. Some people felt that it was a stupid job. The perception that Salesmen were generally seen wearing ties, carry a bag, roam around conning people. But some of them felt that it could be progressive for my career and they felt that I could fit in well there as they thought I was good at networking and communicating.

Quite frankly I didn’t have a serious vision then about making a big career out of Salesmanship as I probably didn’t know what it was all about. Since some people motivated me that I would be smart enough for that profession (Am I?!) and also there were not many going for such roles from my Alma Mater as most of them went abroad, I plunged into it. My first job was with one of the most aggressive sales driven organisations of India. Not that I was enjoying the role that I played. There was only one Motto – get orders! But I had my own rules of playing the game. It was quite a learning! Meeting customers, convince them on the products that we had, or we never had etc etc… and within the purview of my rules. It was a challenge! And slowly I started to believe that yes, it indeed is a fantastic role to play.
Life was quite different when I started with the profession. One had to meet the customers to educate them about the products, talk about the market, provide competitive analysis etc. The idea was to sell the product that you have. The sales trainers would say that you need to understand the customers and provide value to them, nevertheless you actually ended up “selling” what your company wanted you to sell.

But over the years, the selling phenomenon had gone through series of changes. The customers are well versed than yourself regarding the product, Thanks to Internet.

The Customers are far clearer as to what they want. And they are more aware of Competition and competitiveness of any product. You don’t need to offer value nor do you need to give them competitive quotations. The customers know it all. The way they negotiate is much different from how it used to be earlier. They have target pricing and you need to match the target pricing. Now the role of the Sales person is reversed. He no longer sells what the company makes, his role is to convince his company to make what the customer wants!

So what makes a successful salesman today – Is it the glib talk? Is it the personality? Is it knowledge? Is it the capability to “manage” things & people? Or is it…

I can list many things here. But my final take on the role of a Salesman today – He is the partner to the customer. It doesn’t matter what your designation is, whether you are a Sales Executive or a General Manager or Managing Director.

The Customer is still the King, and what matters is the trust worthiness. Everything else gets taken care!

BRANDING

I have been curiously watching many Companies started within this decade or two and what makes these Companies tick?

There have been many successful Brands/Companies created globally. For example – Microsoft, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway to name a few… And a plethora of Indian Companies like Tata, Reliance, Infosys, Wipro, Airtel, Kingfisher etc have done themselves extremely well in the last many years.

What makes them Leaders in their categories? No doubt they are now Great Brands/Organisations and are all internationally recognised. In my opinion, the most important factor that makes the Company/Brand – is the passion and the vision of the Founders.

The Founders are the Brand themselves first and their good will get transferred to the Organisation/Brand that they create.

This factor is often seen in other areas as well, apart from Businesses. For example – Bollywood celebrities like say Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan or for that matter Sports Icons like Sachin Tendulkar. They have all become leading Brands thanks to their Hardwork and passion. Infact, Bollywood celebrity Shah Rukh Khan is known to have said “I am an employee to the brand called SRK “.
Most of the leading Companies/Brands are known by the Leaders, their personality traits & charisma and the message that they personally wanted to convey.

And then the Brand is born!