Empathy- “path”etic to see lack of “Em”otion

           It has been really painful to witness death of family members of a couple of my dear friends in the recent past. The lamentation and the grief that the families went through were shocking to say the least.

 

But more than the grief that these families experienced, I was shocked to see the behavior of some people after the news was conveyed to them. Many people enquired about the address of the affected person and conveyed that they wanted to visit and would join with me to convey their condolences the same day. But, when we finally started to the friend’s home, we found that most of them had dropped out. Considering the fact that some people really get disturbed on seeing the family in grief and are advised medically to not attend these events and giving the benefit of doubt to some others who are really busy and are unable to attend, still it is shocking to find that many people who expressed willingness to attend dropped off. But when I asked some of these persons the reasons, their answers were “ the place is very far from my house”, ”I shall try to combine this with another relatives place that I would be visiting in a few days”, “ I did not feel the need to go to”.

 

It is really shocking to see that human life and values have gone this cheap in this mechanized world. I have witnessed in a lot of these bereavements, the comfort the family of the deceased obtain when they have a shoulder to cry upon. I do not expect these people to change their ways and empathize with the affected, but at least they could avoid lame reasons for not sharing the sorrow of the affected.

Thoughts on Indian Cricket

            In a country where cricket is considered a religion, it is essential for my post to include one on the game, especially considering the recent exploits by the Indian cricket team. The Indian cricket team played admirably to beat the Aussies and continued its good run by thrashing the English team. There have been eulogies all over terming the Indian cricket team as world champions. Let us analyze whether we truly deserve these accolades.

 

The last year or so has seen us winning the T20 world cup, the one day series in Australia, the recent test series against Australia and now the one day series against England. If you find the common factor in most of these triumphs, it has been the strong opening batting of Sehwag and Gambhir, the lethal opening spells from Ishant and Zaheer, captaincy from Dhoni (not to forget his batting) and occasional exploits from almost every member of the squad.

 

But, regardless of all this, I feel that the Indian bench strength has not yet been thoroughly tested and even the top performers of the last year have not faced challenging tours abroad in testing conditions, especially in say, New Zealand or South Africa. The retirement of Ganguly and the likely exit of the other members of the Fab 4 is likely to pose severe challenges to youngsters, who would be expected to fill in the shoes of these maestros. Where are the bowlers to step in, when we have an injury or a slump in form to either Zaheer or Ishant? Please do not tell that we have RP (consistently inconsistent), Munaf (poor attitude, he would be No 11 in a team of Number 11s) or SreeSanth (sits out more matches than he plays and whenever he plays, he is more renowned for his histrionics. I wonder how he appears correctly whenever we win a major tournament). How the Indian batting fares when the openers get out early and when say, Dhoni gets injured, would determine whether we are truly a team of world beaters. Dhoni’s batting in test matches abroad leaves a lot to be desired, though I should say, I am a fan of his composure and approach to the game.

 

Australia was pronounced as world champions after consistently winning test and one day matches all over the world. We are yet to win a test series against many countries on their home turf. But, recent performances indicate that we are progressing on the right track. It is time for us to introspect and give the youngsters a fair run and opportunity to excel rather than meaninglessly allowing Sachin to play his 419^th one day international and hampering the chance for a youngster, in a series already won by India against England. It is time for us to plan pro actively like a world champion before becoming one.

 

World Economy

I am sharing some thoughts on various topics, which have been drawing my attention, in recent times. Please feel free to share your comments.

 

 One of the topics that find a mention in every communication media and informal chats everywhere is the recession in the global economy and its impacts in India. Though I am neither a Paul Krugman nor an Amartya Sen to comment on this topic, the very talk of recession being applied in the Indian context, when in fact the economy is growing at a healthy rate of 7-8%, is indeed a pessimistic view. Let us reserve the discussion about whether the numbers captured are accurate to a later post. Though the percentage growth in net profits has fallen, the growth by value of India Inc is higher over the previous year.

 

There is no doubt that the Indian economy is closely coupled to the events happening across the globe (mainly the US) and the repercussions in India are already seen in the decreased industrial productivity numbers and the decline in net profit growth rate over the previous year. But, the fact that the Indian banks are relatively free of risk based assets, compared to their global peers, is indeed heartening. Also, the RBI has been taking measures to increase the liquidity of banks and hence the loans given to industry. These steps could drive the interest rates lower, spur companies to invest for expansion in order to meet anticipated increased demand. But, the real dampener is that it takes time for the interest rate cuts to be reflected in the loans that Corporate take. So, many Corporate already facing a liquidity crunch could resort to job cuts and increase short term profits. This move could be counter productive and result in slackened demand, which could amplify the slowdown in growth. So, the Indian Corporate should look at various options to stimulate growth rather than taking the easier route of job cuts as a first measure.

 

 

 

Snapshot of recent happenings

It has been really long since I penned my last blog, thanks to ICL and IPL. I wanted this blog to be different when compared with my previous posts and hence instead of concentrating on a specific topic, I would like to bring out my thoughts on topics that have influenced me over the past few months.

 

1)      Food Crisis at Its peak: These are torrid times for chief economists and policy makers the world over. The ruling UPA would not have imagined a worse situation, hardly a year to go before the general elections. The government has been taking measures to tide over the food crisis by banning exports of rice, reducing import duty on items etc. The question that I would like to ask here is “If the farmers are not assured of a good return on their produce by way of exports, how would they be motivated to continue growing these primary crops instead of moving to alternate crops?” The Government could do a couple of things in this regard

•  Eliminate the effect of too many middle men and ensure that farmers get the motivation to grow the primary crops; Ensuring that the farmers get the Minimum Support Price as promised would be a right step in this regard.
• Rather than banning exports of crops, it makes sense to ensure that hoarding of food items and essentials are prevented. A good way of estimating this is by monitoring the Public Distribution System (PDS) and preventing leakages.

 

 

2)      Banks Bail Out, Advantage India:

 

While the whole world was blasting India for its laid back financial policies during the 90s and the early part of 2000’s, post the sub prime crisis, it seems that all is well with India. Though India has also been affected by the crisis, albeit in a smaller scale, it sounds interesting when we find that the policies prevalent in India are now being followed by these foreign banks and Organizations. In India, we find a practice of the Central Bank with the assistance of other financial institutions rescuing ailing banks. This policy was widely criticized by these supposed foreign Central Banks. Now, life has come a full circle when we find that the US FED and Bank of England playing a vital part in rescuing struggling banks. Conservative India and its policies, at least in Banking Sector, serve as a helping hand for the struggling West

 

3)      Corporate Social  (Ir) Responsibility:

 

I cannot think of many Organizations in the Indian context who feel that have a Responsibility to the society. It feels sad to see that in this modern India, companies are eager to get that extra dime of nickel to their profits by not caring about the choice of their employees’ workplace, its accessibility, whether the place is free of health hazards etc. We witness several instances of offices of Corporate close to dumping yards which puts employees’ health at risk. It is a high time that these issues are regulated than a mere blind focus on regulating only the companies’ financials

 

4)      Enter- T 20; Exit- Test Cricket/ 50 Overs format?

 

T-20 has captured our imagination to the hilt. The question that arises throughout the cricket fraternity is the impact of T-20 on the other existing formats. I strongly feel that 50- Over cricket stands to lose as Test Cricket would always retain its charm. Test cricket is a purists’ delight and has its own target audience. Infact, the advent of T-20 would fasten scoring in test cricket. But, T-20, in addition to adding new audience is eating into the traditional audience of 50-overs cricket. After the power play overs, a 50- over game crawls to a snail’s pace and the momentum picks up only during the slog overs. The cricket administrators, though take all the kudos for the success of T-20, it is no wonder that T-20 would result in lessened interest in the 50- over format. As Cricket aims to globalize and venture into unchartered territories, T-20 could be the format to attract the global audience, who are so used to watching matches of a shorter duration in other Sports.

Billa review without revealing its storyline

As it happens with all Ajith movies, the film “Billa 2007” has received a great opening. The tickets for the first few days were booked in a few hours. There has been heightened expectation from the movie, this being the remake of Rajni Kanth’s earlier flick. I happened to watch the movie on its second day of release. This review is a neutral perspective of the movie. I have not attempted to reveal the story line.

 

 

First the positives of the movie: The first thing that draws you towards Billa is its racy entertaining screenplay. The director has deviated himself from unrelated comedies, sentimental scenes etc. In fact, except for Prabu, there isn’t much dialogues delivered by the lead cast. The film proceeds at almost the same pace throughout which by itself is a commendable job. There are not much logical loopholes, atleast on a comparative basis with other Tamil films. The acting has been awesome, atleast from Ajith and Prabu. The other noticeable aspect of the movie is that it does not try to deviate from its original. In that sense, it has been a tribute to the original. Only the locations and some subtle changes to reflect the modern times like the use of a pen drive in place of a diary. The car chase scene has been superbly picturised. The suspense element has been well maintained, which would be great for the scanty numbers who might have missed out on the original Billa. Credits are due to Nirav Shah, the cinematographer of Dhoom-2 fame. Yuvan’s re- recording is praiseworthy, though he can focus more on delivering quality numbers(songs) than just making up the numbers.

Now, coming to the dampeners. Except for Prabu ,Ajith and to an extent Rahman, the other characters are not strongly carved out. Even Nayanthara’s character is not strong enough and her character doesnt do anything significant in the movie. There are some logical flaws like the underworld gang bothered more about retrieving a pen drive and not worrying about whether its contents had been already copied.  The 2 item numbers are needless when u have 2 glamorous heroines adorned in skimpy costumes all the way through. Nayanthara looks more glamorous and appealing than Namita. When Ajith shoots a dozen people before a coke can drops to the floor, there are numerous instances where people miss shooting him in point range. Afterall, he is the Billa. Also, it is hard to believe that the duplicate Billa replicates all mannerisms, gait and voice of the original Billa when you do not have video footages for the same. Seeing photos of Billa and then acting like Billa doesn’t sound logical 

Overall,it has to be said that Ajith, Nirav Shah and Vishnu Vardhan have combined to give a thorough entertainer. The film is worth a try for its cinematography, packaging and for Ajith’s wonderful on screen presence.  

T-20: The Rapid progressive Indian?

A lot has been said about the triumph of the Indian cricket team in the T20 championship. The team played admirably in the most abbreviated version of the game and brought in an entirely new set of viewers to the game. It was not surprising to find that a ten second slot for the India- Pakistan final was sold for around 6-7 lakhs. The hype surrounding all the victory had not even died when the Australian team imposed their authority in the longer version (50 overs) of the game. The margin of defeat was substantial in most of the games. With the series delivered on a platter to the Aussies, it was left to the last match of the tour- the much awaited one-off T-20 match.  Though the Indians had won the world championship, the momentum was with Aussies after the one day series triumph. But, this was a day in which India showed that their T-20 triumph was not a fluke. The Indians showed an infectious enthusiasm in the field, batted and bowled with purpose and were deserved winnersWas this the same Indian team that was crushed by the Aussies some days back?

What was the difference in this team over the one- day team?  Bang came the answer- youth, exuberance, fearlessness, aggression. These qualities were given the chance to expose themselves in the abridged T-20 format.  Are these qualities the facet of only this T-20 cricket team?  Are they not the qualities of modern day India ?   When I seemed to think about this, I noticed a striking similarity in the qualities exhibited by this breed of players with our economy as a whole.

1)     With a consistent growth story reflected by all economic indicators, a booming sensex, surplus inflows of capital, an increase in gross domestic savings, there has been a buzz in the global economy about India similar to the buzz about the T-20 Indian cricket team

2)     The T-20 team looked like one daring to conquer the world and was aggressive in intent. The Indian economy too looks to be a prominent player in the global arena (if not one already). The Indian economy has been in recent times been able to show an excellent growth even without foreign inflows.

3)     The T-2o team played as a team with not much focus on individual glory. The Indian economy growth story, though started off with IT, has expanded to all sectors. The recent boom in the indices was contributed by sectors like power, engineering, metals and capital goods. Thus we are seeing a growth contributed by many sectors similar to the team effort shown by team India in T-20

4)     Will this Indian T-2o team keep winning like it has been doing now? No.  Similarly, the Indian economy cannot grow at this sustained pace and will drop down a bit. But what has been gladdening is the purpose and intent shown at this point of time.

5)     What would ensure in future the success of this T-20 team (in other formats or even in T-20) and success of the Indian economy would be whether it has strong fundamentals. This T-20 team might be given a hard lesson or two when it lands up in Australia. But if the Indian cricket administrators show a long term perspective by setting up state cricket academies which replicate the effort put by National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, we could see the emergence of a future talent pool which is not only talented but also has been trained using the latest techniques and is equipped mentally too.    Similarly, in our economy, inflation could raise its ugly head, Industrial figures (like IIP) might fall and there would be some market corrections which are bound to happen. But, if the policies by our Government emphasize thrust on strong fundamentals and a patience towards administering policies in areas like capital account convertibility, dealing with FII’s , an inclusive growth where the weaker sections of the society are not left behind, the Indian growth story would remain intact 

Beware of cheap money swindlers

The most interesting thing about life is “life” itself. It exposes us to a variety of people and events which have an influence on us. When faced with similar situations in the future, any human being who wants to progress would consciously try to apply what one learnt in his/ her earlier encounter.  Though I had seen this happening umpteen times in my own life, an other facet of human nature, which is linking similar incidents and observing a phenomena, came to the fore this week. Herewith I am narrating some incidents which happened this month.

Incident one: The first day of the month brought my friend, who works in an IT firm, his salary and along with it a shock too. He had been charged with deductions like accommodation expenses and the guy had not even stayed anywhere other than home. He demanded that his money be returned back but he was given a cold shoulder telling that the salary credit happens only once in a month and he would receive the money only in the next salary. My friend is losing out on spending the money when he needs it most and is also losing out on the return on the money he would have earned by investing. I agree that mistakes do occur but is it not fair to expect to correct the mistake at the earliest? How long will it take for the company to issue a cheque in the employee name? 

Incident two: The next incident happened two days after this. My cousin had applied for a credit card and his salary figures would make all the banks readily offer him a gold card. For some reason or the other, the bank rejected his application. The worst case was he got a call from some other bank which told him that his credit card application was processed and he would be getting his credit card soon. Is this what is called as cross selling? You would apply for a credit card in one bank and the worst thing is that the documents you submit would be with a different bank. The agony does not end here. He asked for the documents to be returned and they said “We will wait and decide”, why should they wait and decide to resend a document which they should not have had at the first place. When my cousin asked for the reason for the rejection of his application, he was told that the bank’s policies forbid them from revealing the reason. 

Incident three: My friend had deposited some money in a renowned bank. He had specifically insisted to issue the FD on the date in which he had invested. He was aware of the tricks that these guys would play. But even after saying all this, the date on his FD was four days after the date in which he had deposited the money, though the money in his account was deducted real time. But he was not able to ask as the bank authorities as the expense involved in traveling to the bank and the time spent on this would be worth more than the interest for the four days. But, this is how some banks are profiting by making use of the float money for their own use. Remember there are millions of customers and the float money they get would be huge 

Incident Four: My friend had an account with bank A which was not operated for some months. She issued a cheque to transfer the money from bank A to bank B. She was fined by both the banks for cheque bouncing. She was stunned as she had sufficient balance in the account for the cheque to be cleared. The fine amounts are usually large. When she contacted the bank, the bank official apologized saying that they had an automatic program to reject cheques passing through a dormant account. The bank activated the account without the customer asking for the same. Here, I got a new definition of activation of account. Is it the bank’s discretion to activate an account or is it the customers’. My friend was told that they would try to get the money reimbursed.

 Four incidents within a short span of time and no doubt a web were spun around in my mind linking all the four. What is the common thread that runs through all these four? They are ‘inefficient systems’, and  ‘ Greed of the branch offices of Corporate to make money at any cost’. Is there a way to avoid all these ? Public awareness is one way to prevent all these. At present, these Corporate are not bothered to correct their mistakes as only a few customers recognize these mistakes. How many of us check every line item of our bank statement? How many of us read through all the terms and conditions before applying for a credit card? How many of us fill up the entire application of a bank deposit or a mutual fund purchase. Due to lack of time and in some cases laziness, we ask the bank personnel to fill up the form and in many cases they include wrong information. So, it is not only they who are at fault. We are at fault in having allowed crimes like this to perpetuate.

So, Arise, Awake and Stop not still the cheaters are chucked out!!!!!      

Is Management education a farce?

There have been umpteen articles appearing in prominent newspapers and magazines highlighting the excellent placement offers received by management graduates of some of the elite institutions of India. While a sizeable chunk  of the Indian population are below the poverty line, living on income of less than a dollar, salary levels of a crore per annum to some management graduates would make even the satiated ones ponder about what is special about these intellectual souls? Why are these lucrative salaries offered for people who are just into their early twenties and have in many cases not even had the slightest exposure to the corporate world?

Students in these elite institutions have no doubt cleared some of the toughest competitive exams like CAT and XAT. A brief look at the criteria for selection to these institutes would make it clearer. CAT and other exams test a student on areas of Quantitative ability, Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability. Students who get into IIM’s generally have a score greater than 98.5 percentile. FMS has its own exam and XLRI too conducts its own exam. ISB takes GMAT scores mostly over 730 harping on the candidates having sufficient working experience (3+). Thus, students who gain an entry into these institutes usually have excellent quantitative ability, reasoning and data interpretation skills which are some of the key facets that top Investment Banks look at. Consultancy firms look to a detailed understanding of things, reasoning them and taking fast decisions. Thus, students who get into these institutes have some of the skills expected by these Investment Banks and consultancy firms even before their Management education, making them excellent fit for these jobs.

What value addition then does the Management education at these B-schools  offer? Many of the top Consultancy and Investment firms visit only these premier institutions as they are guaranteed even before interviewing or visiting the campus that they have students who can easily fit in the roles they offer. Many of these top firms do not even bother to visit other institutions as unlike Industries like IT, the requirements in Financial services and Consultancy roles are few and those few can be easily picked from only a few institutions thus reducing their search costs.

Students who get into some of the other top Institutes have scores which are just a few percentile below these students who get into these elite institutions and it goes without saying that they too have the necessary skills for these high paying roles. The argument is based on the fact that in a high stress exam environment, there is a high chance that students miss out on just a couple of questions and hence miss out on selection to these institutes. A two or three hour exam cannot be termed as one which has selected the best. Yes, agreed they were ‘the best on that day”, they cannot be termed as “best on any day” Students from the other B-schools miss out the chance to work with some of these firms as the recruitment policy of these firms is rigid and it might take a couple or more years for students from these other institutes to gain entry into these top notch companies and some huge sacrifices has to be made to get there in terms of time and money. Does it all show that the entry into a B-school is important but not the education gathered there? If we take a look at the syllabus and the quality of education provided at B-schools there seems to be not much to choose between them. In many cases, faculty members from these elite B-schools are visiting faculties for other B-schools and some B-schools have a mix of international and Indian faculties, thus presenting a global view.

What value then does the Management education provide? Are the base skills of the students alone sufficient? Is the brand value acquired by premier B-schools over the years as a result of imparting quality education  alone sufficient? Does the management education not equip students with the skills needed in a job environment? A management education helps the students in understanding a global view of things. It gives the students the confidence to present their view of things before an audience. It also gives them a knowledge of various methods of analysis, theories and views of people who succeeded. But when it comes to job screening, not many companies ask about what was learnt in the Management education. They have the confidence that students of these B-schools would have had the necessary education imparted and the recruiters do not usually take a  lot of time in testing whether the students had a good grasp of various subjects. The students are tested on areas of Communication skills, their desired career profile etc to identify if they are a fit to the Organization.

To sum it all, Management education exposes us to understand the events that happen in the real world and how specific problems were dealt with by companies through illustrative case studies. But it cannot match the practical experience that we gain at work. Recruiters in general are keen on candidates having the basic skills which many would be having  even prior to joining  B-Schools. Management education should be more oriented towards practical approaches towards tacking the real world issues and more importance should be given to intern projects than mere theoritical illustrations. Also, the recruitment policies of companies need to be more broad based and keen to identify the right candidates and not just keen on doing it the easier way going by only the Brand value of the colleges. There is no doubt that the top notch B-schools have some of the best candidates. But the point here is that there are others too who have candidates who fit the role very well Overall, it can be said that it is upto the Management of B-schools, the recruiters and the other authorities concerned t0 make Management education interlinked to the requirements of the job market to prevent Management education from becoming a farce 

Is Success the origin of Complacency?

The evolution of living beings ( I hate to use the word ‘living things’) on earth is a never ending process with Charles Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the Fittest” stating that the superior species on earth would survive unless natural calamities think the other way. We, the so called superior breed Homo Sapiens, would love to win wherever we go and attain whatever we tend to achieve. The Herzberg’s and Maslow’s theories of motivation are very good pointers with Maslow explaining the  hierarchy of needs and explains his motivation theory using the same. The human urge for success at the basic stage is meant just to satisfy his basic needs of hunger, clothing and shelter and strive to provide for providence. We find that a majority of the Indians are below the poverty line living on a mean income of less than Rs 30  a day. What does success mean to them? Success to them lies in getting the next meal. They are in a stage where they cannot dream of the next decade nor even the next day. Most of them are wage workers who are not sure if they would get some work the next day  A man whose has his basic and security needs met would love for recognition. Such a person would want to be praised and regarded as a person skilled in something by the others. Once that happens, he considers that he is a successful man. 

An interesting aspect to ponder here is “ Do we have the plans or atleast the dreams to progress to the next level”. Many of us would agree that we have the dreams but when asked about the implementation of those dreams, we would find it tough to answer. So, the question that arises from this discussion is ” Are we human beings short sighted?”. We have a desire- the desire could be getting the next meal for a poor man and to continue  being  recognised for an affluent man. Once the desire is achieved, we stay at that level with no major plans on how we reach the next level. Once we get a fat pay, we are satisfied with that without bothering about whether the path treaded now would take us to what we desire us to be. We do not take the plunge to move to the next level. A majority of human beings strive to be in their comfort zone. Let us assume that we get recruited for a new job and are given two choices- to work in an area where we worked earlier or to learn something new. A majority of us would choose the first option. Among the few who choose the second option, a majority would select it for the sake of projecting themselves as an ideal man in a learning Organization. When given a choice of locations to work, we would definitely prefer our home town though at the same time we would be ready to go on an overseas assignment any time. All these pointers show that we all love to be in our Comfort Zone. Why do we prefer to stay so? It is because of past experience. The success attained while working in that area of work forces us to stay in that role. The feeling that being in a home town and working has translated to a superior performance at work (which more HR managers agree too) forces us to try all ends to be posted in our home town.

 What do we do after getting a chance to work in an area that we worked previously while enjoying the comforts of home. A sense of complacency creeps in because we are the masters of that particular technology and we have the flexibility of coming to work from home. Learning drops tremendously and we realize this only when the project demands a new skill set which we are not equipped with. Thus, the past experience of Success could lead to lethargy at work. That is why Organizations are keen to shuffle employees and make them handle different tasks. One other way Organizations achieve the same is to make employees work in different shifts or under different supervisors. The change in shift timings would make the employee feel as if he has less time at work since his routines would happen at a different time altogether and he does not feel comfortable in handling this change. The motivation to please the new supervisor would lead to superior performance at work even though the employee does the same work.

Let us not confuse between shedding complacency and leaving our existing expertise. Once we are skilled in something, it would be better to explore ways in which we can improve on that skill. Once we achieve the same, we can think of areas in which the skill can be applied. This is “Continuous Improvement” while leveraging our existing skills. Getting rid of Complacency does not mean trying to excel in areas which do not suit us or leaving our existing skills accumulated over the years on one fine day and looking to unexplored pastures. It is all about striving to constantly improve in whatever we are doing.

 Success is after all not a bad thing, the confidence it generates should be used constructively to strive to achieve greater deeds. It is only when we don’t have the inclination to learn or when we do not want to explore new avenues just for the sake of it that the staleness or to coin it in a phrase that we are often exposed to (thanks to Indian Cricket) “Complacency” creeps in, it is a dangerous sign. If we get carried away by Success, it would spell the Origin of complacency and even the origin of our downfall

How to get rid of complacency while doing the same routine? The best way would be to continuously find newer ways to complete the task. Another way would be to keep learning things that would be useful to us whenever we have time. That would prepare us at least mentally in handling tasks of greater difficulty in the future. Another way to tackle the issue is to meet with our superiors and request for a more challenging role highlighting the capabilities that we have to fit the role. Even if we do not have the capabilities, we could stress that we could cope up with the task if some training is provided.

To cap it all, Success is the motivator but it is up to us to constructively use it and let us not allow smugness to slow the progress of humanity.

India’s Disappointing World Cup Performance-Lessons Learnt

While the anger at the tame loss to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has been mellowing down, many of the avid fans are still at a loss to explain what hit their team during the World Cup. India has always been a poor starter in World Cups with the 1999 and 2003 editions being prime examples. But, the same Indian team triumphed 3-1 over the Windies and 2-1 over the mighty Sri Lankans hardly a month before the World Cup. India also brutally knocked off the Windies in the warm up game and had a good outing against the Netherlands too. So, it was natural for broadcasters, Ad agencies and Corporate India to be optimistic and to use the occasion to reap profits. But, the unpredictable sport had its first victim in Pakistan and then claimed its second casualty- India.

What are the lessons that these marketing people can learn from this Experience?

1)Company perspective-First of all there should be far greater accountability from the players. Performance based short term contracts on Brand Endorsements with a greater emphasis on variable pay of around 50% to start with  is the way to go about. This is not done to spur the player to get a greater reward but to limit the losses to the Company through advertisements in case of sustained poor performances from the playerresulting in a significant drop in his brand value.Thus, the reduced risk of Brand endorsement would help the Corporate.

2) Broadcasters perspective-While the television rights for future broadcasts are bid, the broadcasters should go for a short term period stipulating the necessary clauses in the Agreement stating that the early exit of the team would result in reduced pay for the bid. This would reduce the loss to the broadcasters arising from reduced TRP’s and persistent demand from the Companies to lower the Ad rates. Thus, the loss (economic opportunity loss) in case of a poor performance by the team would go to BCCI as the effective rate of the bids will fall down as mentioned in the contract

3) The BCCI perspective- The BCCI in order to reduce its risk and to defend its exchequer would in turn go for a well devised performance based contract (it is already supposedly giving the final touches to this) which would keep a tap on the players and also would result in less outgo in case of poor performance

Thus, these steps listed would do more good to the Broadcasters and the companies releasing their ads. The cash stuffed BCCI would suffer but as mentioned, it will devise ways to mitigate that. Thus, India’s World Cup loss is a pointer to all that though this is a country that idolizes cricketers and deems them to be semi-God, they are equally prone to bashing when they perform poorly. Thus, in this volatile game of cricket, it is time for the Coporate India, Ad agencies and Broadcasters to be guarded and mitigate their losses rather than keep tainted hopes on the performance of these largely hyped cricketers