Straight Bat

So here’s another one about one of my favourite topics. Sachin Tendulkar. A few months ago, Sachin ditched his trademark curls to go for a straight one.

A big decision this could have been, after nearly 40 years of sporting the Curls and having managed the celebrity status. I wonder what prompted him to do that. But the moment he did it, we could see many news papers and journals talking a lot about the Salon or the Personal Care Industry. The market valuation of the Industry ranged from Rs. 6000 Crores to Rs.12000 Crores in different journals. Perhaps this difference was due to the fact that there was no concrete data available on the so called Personal Care Industry. Tendulkar’s this one act opened up many avenues, much more than the regular advertisements of “Bald prevention” which are generally targeted towards the needier ones.

The Personal Care Industry blokes were quick to ride on the free publicity they got out of this magnanimous act of Tendulkar of sporting for a photograph with his straights.

Mr. Tendulkar – you brought more recognition and visibility to this new industry. Look forward to see many  more such new industries getting opened up!

The Mobile Revolution

It is a very well known fact that the mobile phones have revolutionised the way of communication in India. India has the second largest mobile penetration in the world.

One of the major factors that triggered this growth, apart from the techno savvy youth and urban users, the real penetration was due to the usage of mobile phones in the subsistence market places. This has been validated by lot of research papers on the impact of technology and consumer behaviour in the Subsistence Market places. This means that people at the lower base of the pyramid found a good use of the mobile phones favourable to them. Despite the cost attached to it, people found it to actually increase their productivity or help in maximising their revenues. This actually led to the huge increase in the customer base ranging from Auto-rickshaw drivers, peons, servant maids, to priests and teachers. 

In this process, the most interesting concept that got invented was the concept of missed call. “Give me a missed call” became as popular as saying, “Hello, How are you”! A unique concept prevalent only in India, and this actually helped people in increasing their productivity and their revenues. Perhaps this was one crucial factor in driving the mobile penetration growth in India.

As they say, Necessity is the Mother of Invention!