Disruption - The Constant Change - Part 1
I have been seeing the RuPay
logo for sometime in various locations, knew that it was some new credit/ debit
card but honestly had never given a thought to it. It didn’t matter, it didn’t
interest me, it didn’t affect me – so I never educated myself about it.
I then saw this news item.
It prompted me to read some
more and here are a few snippets for further reading.
Now if you want to know about
RuPay a bit more please do read the following articles.
Now, this blog is NOT about
RuPay, it is about Disruption – which today is the only constant change in
life.
Let’s look back to the early
eighties. Every major shampoo that was being sold was from large companies. Then
into this market came an upstart – CavinKare with Chik shampoo. Read more here.
While the promoter can say
that the brand derived its name from his father, the fact also is that Chik –
in local south Indian languages resonates or means “small”. This Chik shampoo
was just Rs. 1. What exactly did the product do? It created a new market amongst
millions who were left out due to their inability to have a “cash outflow” of Rs.
15/ 20 in those days by making this single use product affordable. The users
were daily wage labourers, the poor and marginalised who did not enjoy being
dirty by choice. Also the big manufacturers did not sell shampoo through small
kirana stores or in rural areas in
villages and the hinterlands which Chik did opening up a new lexicon – Rural Marketing.
This was like that apocryphal
story of 2 salesmen in a jungle seeing hundreds of tribesmen without footwear
and one says – no market opportunity and the other says – huge market opportunity.
One too many companies do this mistake because they don’t embrace change, don’t
see change and even when the change is presented to them on a plate they shrug
it off with the arrogance of superior knowledge. In short, they have stopped
learning.
Disruptions happen when your
hunger to learn grows and you keep asking questions – never mind even if they
are stupid. Those who don’t do either invariably get swept away in the Tsunami
that invariably follows. More importantly whatever your own position, knowledge
and even the claim to have information, remember – you don’t know what you
don’t know.
The secret is to ask questions
with an open mind and try your best to look at issues from the others persons
point of view. To share a personal anecdote.
Selling a technology product
for personal safety solutions to the armed forces – I had no clue about the
industry, customer, product, technology and was an ignoramus. Attending
customer meetings with juniors and peers I was aghast at the level of
technological information needed and my level of ignorance. Then came a day when I had to
attend a meeting with an elite unit of the armed forces all on my own. Ready to
make a fool of myself, I played dumb and asked the obviously busy commanding
officer how we could help him and what information he needed. His answer - listen, I don’t want to hear all your
technical mumbo jumbo. All I want to know is what are the ammunitions against
which it will protect me, what is the weight and what is the price.
THAT was a huge learning
experience for me. I forced a change in our marketing strategy wherein we
stopped presenting and being the technical experts but simply looked at these
simple 3 things. I can say proudly that our then company brought in disruptions
in the industry, government & defence circles, introduced game changing
products and made a difference to many who would by using the product live to
tell the tale.
So, when I read about Visa and
Mastercard running whining to Daddy to help them I cant but help think – people
never learn do they? The importance of reading and researching to learn from
history and to keep an eye open to learn from everybody around us is crucial
for sustained success.
Here is a more recent example
of what can happen even at a big picture global level when you don’t
read/research.
The most ardent of Modi
admirers were sure that his exposure to issues related to foreign affairs and
international diplomacy was minimal let alone have an understanding. It was to
be Achilles heel. Many were waiting for him to stumble and fall even as the PM landed
in the USA but as this report indicates even the POTUS was revisiting his strategies
on the eve of his meeting since they had made incorrect assumptions. But all
credit to them since their team had historical data and they studied it in
time. The rest as they say is history. This is what makes USA a great nation
often.
Success & failure is a
part of life and politics is the art of making the impossible, possible &
more importantly when a leader can strategize a domino effect in the market/ society
– these can have good/bad impacts. When a leader keeps his plans close to the
chest because there is always what is referred to as – Stated reason and Real
reason – fear & uncertainty is understandable.
Let’s look at the changes that
have happened at the economical/ political level in India as an example. To
start with the present.
When you link #JanDhan
- #Demonetisation - #Digitisation - #DBT
- #Aadhar -
#Cashless
- #MSME - #Ayush - #SwachhBharat
- #MakeinIndia
- #Mudra & see the disruption these
can collectively cause on Indian society - it's beyond humungous. Not just
politicians but even senior officers & top management be it in Govt, public
sector or private sector these changes are difficult to handle. Yet the govt must
depend on the same existing system/team to bring this change. The results will
not be seen overnight but the disruptions will be seen immediately. The older
senior members who lead these programs will be those to whom change is disruption
and causes anxiety. The team below, much younger and who will implement will likely
be excited at change. The result of any
such change is not always success but they change the direction of a country's
economy. These various initiatives have a tenuous link between them and right
now it’s the disruption phase that you see prominently.
The commentary on this continues in Part 2 here.
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