escape velocity

Theyхотелско обзавеждане were happy-go-lucky middle-class software engineers, having finally arrived in life with a job in a good top-tier IT company. Their loyalty was regularly rewarded with stock options. Their wives’ fathers found them ‘stable’ enough on Shaadi.com to give their daughters in marriage. Their banks declared unbounded love for them by giving them a housing loans, car loans, Plasma TV loans and ‘Gold’ credit cards. And many of them recently moved in to their new apartments. Proud parents and happy relatives filled their lives. All was well, until everyone of them woke up one morning to learn that their CEO turned out to be a conman, ponzi scheme maker, fraudster of a global scale!!! All of a sudden, the sticker of company logo on their car looks embarrasing, so does wearing the company identity badge on their way to work, no one seems to know the future of their company, everyone’s speculating and gossiping, it’s top management has crumbled, and it’s stock’s fallen to pennies. All of this for no fault of the employees. They’ve been a sincere and loyal employees. And, they are now rewarded for their sincerety by slashing salaries for the next two months, and giving every one in 5 chaps a pink slip.

Adding to their woes, the next day, their banks send them short messages that their credit cards have been blocked as the bank’s exposure to their company has turned out to be a risky proposition. Their lenders are calling in to check if they can pay the monthly installments on all loans. Neighbours and curious to know what’s happening in their lives. All of a sudden, everyone in the colony seems to know that these blokes work for this infamous company. Their morale’s hit a new low, local media companies want to know how they feel on camera. Television channels and newspapers are ripping apart their employer’s name. Suddenly, everyone of them seems to be guilty by association…

And, so is the case with every one of Satyam’s 50,000+ employees. Poor chaps. I sincerely hope their tough times come to pass. No one deserves to be pained because of a few assholes like Ramalinga Raju, his family and cronies!

As large institutional players entered the Indian retail business, many debated the death of small kirana stores (as mom and pop shops in India are called).

Many financial newspapers like the Economist flip-floped with articles once predicting the demise of the small shop owner, and once discussing whether big retail can survive in India.

People like Kishore Biyani from Future Group made statements like “Kiranas have clearly won the first round” blah blah!

After going on a rapid expansion spree, the CEO of one of India’s larger Retail groups, Aditya Birla Retail  tells the Economic Times that fast growth and wrong choice of locations coupled with high rentals is to blame for all the mess-ups.

I guess there are many more reasons apart from those being laid out, and somewhere no one is admitting that they screwed up in assuming that the Indian growth story will result in a retail business environment similar to the ones seen in the Western world.

I feel retail giants in India recruited highly paid management executives who had no clue about the market they were operating in, and who experimented with their employers’ monies! And, large retail businesses are growing in general, so no one’s head is on the chopping block! Well….not yet. And, there is nothing for them to fear considering the overall retail business in India is set to grow at 13% a year!

I for one believe that India isn’t and will never be a country designed for large format retail to rule the roost. The country does not have the right transport infrastructure to support such establishments to begin with.

Countries where large format retail rules are countries with transport infrastructure and urban planning that facilitate such shopping experiences. These countries also do have a more-or-less homogeneus average customer profile, unlike India where only a small percentage of the population can afford a huge shopping basket every time they step out! A majority of Indians buy what they need on a daily basis or a weekly basis at most. Vegetables are picked up every day, and the average housewife does not walk to the supermarket everyday. Only busy software professionals, BPO workers, working couples and singles tend to pick up processed/pre-cut vegetables. It is here that the vegetable vendor around the corner turns out to be convenient.

Most, rather all supermarkets do not have proper parking lots, nor do people like to drive to a supermarket to shop for a couple of dollars. Supermarket chains do not deliver at home, small stores do.

Why don’t companies interested in the retail business develop models that are more suited for Urban and rural Indian customer profiles keeping in mind the fact that infrastructure, transport, social and economic realities of this country are really not suited for large format retail, atleast not in the way it is, today!

Why don’t they experiment with home-delivery, catalogue shopping, discount retail etc. Why not optimize on retail window space and deliver some from warehouses. Many housewives in India telephone their local kirana store and order stuff by phone!!! Large format retail businesses seem to be too stuck-up!

Typically, long distance bikers pick up “touring motorcycles”. Having said so people do manage riding long distances on other motorcycles as well. Touring motorcycles are heavy in build and have ergonomics that enable long rides with minimum strain on the neck, spine and back. On good motorcycles, a day’s ride aims to cover anywhere up-to 800 kilometers, dawn to dusk. Ofcourse, a lot depends on the road quality and traffic.

Folks passionate about long distance riding look at time, distance and physical endurance as aspects to improve upon while taking on such activities. And bike enthusiasts in the West tend to participate in challenging events organised by folks like the IBA (Iron Butt Association) in the US, Far Riders in Australia etc. There are associations like the LDR (Long Distance Riders) in the US who certify rides in categories such as ‘Easy Rider (800 kms/12 hours)’ and ‘Full Throttle (1600 km/24 hours). For example, the IBA also has a 100K club, exclusive for folks who have clocked a minimum of 100,000 miles (160,000 km) a year. Now, this is some serious riding done by ‘real bikers’. Serious bikers tend to be aware of their mental and physical fatigue levels, and they rest as needed. There are articles written on how to enhance one’s riding capabilities. It’s a science. And, long distance riders are safe, sane and responsible riders who wear the right safety gear whenever riding.

Now, while many countries have clubs for long distance riding, I wondered why India does not have any? For starters, we cannot afford good motorcycles. They simply don’t build or sell good machines here. The best engineered motorbikes in India are 100-175 cc 4 stroke Japanese machines like Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda etc., engineered for urban riding. The only 350-500 cc 4 stroke motorcycle we have in India is Royal Enfield, an old WWII relic that’s still producing and selling it’s trouble-ridden and outdated piece of machinery thanks to a great brand spin for the poor Indian bike enthusiast.

Secondly, we have very few good roads across the country, with really bad highway traffic in most cases. A good day’s ride in India means somewhere around 500 km. You can add another 100 km if you push yourself. Night riding is ridiculously dangerous as you’d have to dodge drunken truckers and buses racing to reach their destinations overnight, on time!

Thirdly, I don’t think we are an adventurous lot! Nothing adrenalin pumping gets us going, barring a few exceptions, and a few pretenders. This is not limited to biking….it’s everything! Everything to claim otherwise is simply hype! Most bikers in India today are youngsters in their 20s and early 30s who can at best afford a $ US 1500 machine, and a Royal Enfield is as close they can get to having an image that otherwise needs them to own a real cruiser or touring. And, for a country where you can at best clock 500 km dawn to dusk, where one might as well ride the distance on a 100CC motorcycle or better still on a Vespa scooter, a Bullet it self, is a fuel guzzling overkill! But since, the image of a biker doesn’t go with lesser machines, young motorcycling enthusiasts in India prefer Royal Enfields for their short rides. It makes them feel macho. And, they too, are happy wearing bandanas and behaving like ‘bikers’ with these short rides.

There are some exceptions, real rides in India, but you can count them on your fingers! In the last few years, quite a few Enfield biker clubs have emerged in India, as poor cousins of Harley Davidson clubs like the HAMC (Hells Angels Motorcycle Club) . Suddely we have youngsters on these old WWII 350 bikes wearing leather jackets and aviator coolers and ‘cruising’ distances that are usually covered by cyclists. Now, that’s embarrassing to say the least.

So! I guess, till we mature to become a market for good bikes, and have some decent infrastructure, good long distance riding in India is still a long way to go (barring a few good riders here and there).

It’s ‘obvious’ for companies to be established with a set of growth goals. You plan for X growth in ‘Year 1′ and 2X growth in ‘Year 2′ and so on. Local establishments aim to be regionally known, regional ones aim to go national, and national aim to go global. In a way, aspiring to grow is the only way (that most of us know) to stay in business. In some ways, it’s like running downhill, you’ve got to accelarate just to stay in balance.

Then again, there are some companies that do not have growth plans, or let’s say their strategy is to stay small and profitable. Not everyone manages to sustain themselves in such a state. Retail shops do. But not many companies are able to. Or, maybe some are. Some technology companies survive being small, and stay so by taking few projects, and also working on a niche area.

Micro breweries are another example. I just found this through the blog of 37Signals, whose folk seem to take up every opportunity to justify how to stay small and happy. I guess they believe their company has similar principles.

The posting refers to an article on Chow.com, where the interviewer asks Vinnie Cilurzo, a Microbrewer on the importance of their local company going national, to which he answers…

Not at all……I get calls from distributors all the time from all over the country. But we do this more for the lifestyle…..I can ride my bike to work. …..I think you can get caught up way too much in growth. We don’t have any growth goals.

I guess it’s good to be clear about whether one is in business to grow or to live a lifestyle

Blogs come in many avatars.  And, for someone following people’s writings through blogs, sifting through the various types of content can be quite exhausting.  But, thanks to new social utilities like Twitter and Facebook, I guess we are witnessing a culling in the blogsphere. I guess this is a good trend too. This way, Blogs would remain as focused and ‘information rich’ mediums, while other forms of information sharing moves to newer niche services.

People wanting to update what they are up to are switching to Twitter, and people who are trying to keep in contact with their acquaintances, share photos, talk about life etc, are doing so using Facebook.

Furthermore, the new Facebook has crossed over in to the Twitter space, with it’s ‘what are you doing now?’ feature, where people are litterally ‘twittering’ within a closed group of acquaintances. And to top it all, since services like Facebook only allow access to ‘friends’ we see more personal and detailed updates being shared with each other.

All in all, it’s nice to be witnessing a natural process of sorting of information dissemination happening on the Web, and I guess this is good.