If we talk about innovations , researching on cutting edge technologies , working on new systems and frameworks , the immediate thing which comes to mind is the huge cost associated with it which does not always provide a good return . Imagine how many innovations and research never make it to the production environment . What could be the way in which companies can still get innovative ideas without having to spend too much on thier own workforce , that is surely learning from customer and involving him in your system to innovate.
Who would know customer better then himself , Customers are the biggest source of innovation . They can come up with any weird idea because it is not going to cost them any thing , they won't be afraid of failure (It hardly matters to them ) and they don't have any pressure from thier management to drive innovation in a certain direction only . One such idea is innvated by customer in Punjab , Dhaba owners of Punjab also purchase Washing Machines but not for washing clothes , guess what they make lassi in those washing machines. Just imagine if one of the negineer in Videcon would have come up with this idea that lets project our washing machine as Lassi maker also , what would have been reaction from his management ?
Now when customers have shown the way , they must be seeing a business proposition here , may be in future they can simply do some changes in design of washing machine and make it more suitable for lassi making .
Going forward it will be very important to involve your customers into your business , just imagine you end having a workforce of millions of people by using this methods and guess what you even don't have to pay these people . All you have to do is to listen to them carefully , understand them and thir needs and encourage them to provide feedbacks on any aspect of product and services . One other industru where I see this practice prevalent is media and entertainment , Many news channels have started making thier cutomers their reporters . They ask viewers to send any latest happening around them , You see now they are literally coveringentire nation without sending any one physically anywhere. What adds to this is tehonology which has made it all very simple.
So remember when next time you meet your customer , don't think that he is just customer , give him a new role that is of critique and Engineer for your product and he may change the way you do business.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Not a Mad Add but Great Add
The add is sincerely touching chords of emotions in the deep , it directly connect to your heart and you feel like attached to it . A labour cooking chapati for her son on open fire , every time she tries to turn the chapati , she burns her hand . Her son is sitting near by and studying . The young kid could not see it any longer that her mothers fingers are getting injured again and again . Till this point of add you make you have made your mind that either this is another add on child education or must be some companies add showing where and how do they do CSR but then it suddenly takes a turn The kid leaves the book , gets up , twist a useless wire in a shape which can use as a handle cum hook to make a grip on chapati and turn them and gives it to his mother , using it now she does not have to put her hands in the fire everytime to cook food and then comes the punch line "Havells : Wires that don't catch Fire " , Here is an ingeniuos innovation to help her mother and guess what , it is made of havells wire . Lets see what all this add has done successfully
1) Attention grabbing act : The initial plot is very intereting and will definitely pull you in the story to feel the pain and struggling . Adding children has
always been a major reason for the success in adds and so is here .
2) Conveys the correct message : What company wanted to poject was a Fireproof wire and so it has done successfully , in the end of the add mother is using the handle designed by her kid successfully to turn chapaties between fire , and then comes the punch line " Wires that don't catch the fire" , you relate to it immedietly , you know that is what the it is showing on the screen and you believe it.
3)Provding solution : It may be a very small problem in comparioson to pention issue , deadly cough and cold , pain in knee joint or insurance etc . The problem projected here is very simple and so is the solution . At the end of the add cycle has been completed the problem was solved and very effectively , this is another parameters for successfull adds.
4) Plot / Script : A well thougt of script , something which we see in our daily routine . Hundreds of labour who normally migrate from thier villages to cities and work in construction sites live this kind of life where they only carry things necessary for survival , we know it happens and we when we see it on the screen we can surely connect to it and beleive it.
5) Not lost in translation : Many times this time of innovation can cause deviation from main track but here it all has been glued beautifully and leads to one final message
Kudos to maker of this add , I am sure it will serve the purpose
Challenges of an NGO and overcoming them
Working in Isolation : There are many stakeholders when we talk about NGOs , most of them however work in isolation as they don’t have a well established mechanism by which they can coordinate and work with each other.
Facing the resistance : In a meeting with Unicef Mumbai head Mr. Gopinath Menon and local NGOs one of the major issues which we noticed was resistance from some of the local groups ( some of them are NGOs and some of them call themselves NGOs). Many of these groups do not like the idea of other groups getting recognition .
Change in mentality : Working with NGO , I learnt one major thing , Funds are not an issue , govt is spending more then what is required in different development sectors but the main problem is the mentality of people who are supposed to use it. The first action point should be to make the information available to the people and an effort to change the mentality. I was attending a workshop with education department where I came to know various facilities government is giving to the people to come school , they are even provided with school attending allowances but still there are children who are out of schools in rural areas and NGOs are trying hard to change the mentality of these people.
One of the other mindset which we have seen during visits to villages was government should provide subsidies to us , people want to be dependent on government , they would form SHGs if and only if they are being told that bank will provide subsidized loans . It is very difficult to get their participation in areas where no direct benefits are given to them by third party , for example building toilets at their home . This mindset also need to be changed , what NGOs try to do is to make them independent , self sufficient but because of this mentality they again push themselves to a beggars position where they want someone else to do things for them.
Sustaining the process : Upto now there has been so many SHGs formed in Latur district in fact some of the NGOs are forming 200-300 SHGs a month but what happens to these groups afterwards, once formed there is no followup process and because of the lack of attention they stop functioning , some of the organization like UNICEF not only form these SHGs but also do a regular follow up to make sure they are functional and growing. Starting a process is still easy but what is more difficult to keep peoples motivation high to sustain it.
Struggling with Infrastructure : NGOs work at ground level they are the one travelling across length and width of the country , many of these areas are still remote and not reachable by any transport. NGOs also gather huge data for example UNICEF is collecting tons of data for micro planning , It fills 3 main forms for each household and some of these forms have more then 100 fields , these fields collect exhaustive data from house income to pregnancy status. All of this data is been gathered in physical format which is of no use , no trends can be gathered from it , retrieval is a major issue here and these information’s can not be secured for long time but then there are no computers , no electricity and no internet connectivity . In such scenario dreaming of digitizing such data becomes out of context.
Overcoming these challenges
Working with people and not working for people: In a discussion once a volunteer mentioned to me that people do not feel good about their kids being fed at schools and child development centers , some of they have made statement that “ are we beggars who can not afford food? “ . People should be able to associate with these kind of programs with self esteem and dignity. This will happen if and only if we start working with people and not for the people , there should be more and more people involvement , they should be given a chance to participate in making decisions specially in areas which directly affect them.
Even in Baba Ampte’s Anandwan we have seen that complete system is run by people who use it .
To attract maximum participation from different stakeholders : It is very important for these NGOs to be in the center of the all action and act as a glue between different organizations involved in the process , specially government departments and other NGOs who have similar interests. Once these NGOs are able to position themselves well they will not only get participation but also support in terms of monetary benefit. Many of the UNICEF projects which organize different functions now get constant support from government departments in the respective areas , obviously this happens because of the high quality and commitment shown by UNICEF and partner NGOs.
Complementing the system and not replacing it : In the vision of NGOs it should be very clear that they can only complement the system and not replace it . Be it health , education or livelihood , NGOs will be able to provide only partial support and can never do what can be done by government. Understanding this fact these organizations should be focused on their visions rather then taking on complete responsibility.
Communication strategy : NGOs must design their communication strategies which can appeal local people. Bringing in local speakers , politicians and local authorities not only add credibility to the message but also make people understand easily. Other way is to pickup volunteers from villages who are somewhat educated and have passion for their village and community , train these volunteers and let them convey message to villagers. UNICEF does it very beautifully , it has adopted two methods
1) Picking up volunteers and training them , these volunteers go back and organize different conventions and rallies in their villages to communicate the information.
2) UNICEF also organizes training for adolescent girls , these girls are then expected to go back and spread the knowledge to their family and friend which is long but effective process.
Facing the resistance : In a meeting with Unicef Mumbai head Mr. Gopinath Menon and local NGOs one of the major issues which we noticed was resistance from some of the local groups ( some of them are NGOs and some of them call themselves NGOs). Many of these groups do not like the idea of other groups getting recognition .
Change in mentality : Working with NGO , I learnt one major thing , Funds are not an issue , govt is spending more then what is required in different development sectors but the main problem is the mentality of people who are supposed to use it. The first action point should be to make the information available to the people and an effort to change the mentality. I was attending a workshop with education department where I came to know various facilities government is giving to the people to come school , they are even provided with school attending allowances but still there are children who are out of schools in rural areas and NGOs are trying hard to change the mentality of these people.
One of the other mindset which we have seen during visits to villages was government should provide subsidies to us , people want to be dependent on government , they would form SHGs if and only if they are being told that bank will provide subsidized loans . It is very difficult to get their participation in areas where no direct benefits are given to them by third party , for example building toilets at their home . This mindset also need to be changed , what NGOs try to do is to make them independent , self sufficient but because of this mentality they again push themselves to a beggars position where they want someone else to do things for them.
Sustaining the process : Upto now there has been so many SHGs formed in Latur district in fact some of the NGOs are forming 200-300 SHGs a month but what happens to these groups afterwards, once formed there is no followup process and because of the lack of attention they stop functioning , some of the organization like UNICEF not only form these SHGs but also do a regular follow up to make sure they are functional and growing. Starting a process is still easy but what is more difficult to keep peoples motivation high to sustain it.
Struggling with Infrastructure : NGOs work at ground level they are the one travelling across length and width of the country , many of these areas are still remote and not reachable by any transport. NGOs also gather huge data for example UNICEF is collecting tons of data for micro planning , It fills 3 main forms for each household and some of these forms have more then 100 fields , these fields collect exhaustive data from house income to pregnancy status. All of this data is been gathered in physical format which is of no use , no trends can be gathered from it , retrieval is a major issue here and these information’s can not be secured for long time but then there are no computers , no electricity and no internet connectivity . In such scenario dreaming of digitizing such data becomes out of context.
Overcoming these challenges
Working with people and not working for people: In a discussion once a volunteer mentioned to me that people do not feel good about their kids being fed at schools and child development centers , some of they have made statement that “ are we beggars who can not afford food? “ . People should be able to associate with these kind of programs with self esteem and dignity. This will happen if and only if we start working with people and not for the people , there should be more and more people involvement , they should be given a chance to participate in making decisions specially in areas which directly affect them.
Even in Baba Ampte’s Anandwan we have seen that complete system is run by people who use it .
To attract maximum participation from different stakeholders : It is very important for these NGOs to be in the center of the all action and act as a glue between different organizations involved in the process , specially government departments and other NGOs who have similar interests. Once these NGOs are able to position themselves well they will not only get participation but also support in terms of monetary benefit. Many of the UNICEF projects which organize different functions now get constant support from government departments in the respective areas , obviously this happens because of the high quality and commitment shown by UNICEF and partner NGOs.
Complementing the system and not replacing it : In the vision of NGOs it should be very clear that they can only complement the system and not replace it . Be it health , education or livelihood , NGOs will be able to provide only partial support and can never do what can be done by government. Understanding this fact these organizations should be focused on their visions rather then taking on complete responsibility.
Communication strategy : NGOs must design their communication strategies which can appeal local people. Bringing in local speakers , politicians and local authorities not only add credibility to the message but also make people understand easily. Other way is to pickup volunteers from villages who are somewhat educated and have passion for their village and community , train these volunteers and let them convey message to villagers. UNICEF does it very beautifully , it has adopted two methods
1) Picking up volunteers and training them , these volunteers go back and organize different conventions and rallies in their villages to communicate the information.
2) UNICEF also organizes training for adolescent girls , these girls are then expected to go back and spread the knowledge to their family and friend which is long but effective process.
Innovation by bottom of pyramid
When I was reading C K Prahlad in bottom of the pyramid , It was all about invention for BOP . There was talk about Cemex going ahead and giving a chance to build home to communities specially to people who can efford it all at once , there was discussion of HLL going small as per need of BOP who could not purchase a large shapoo bottle which costs near 60-70 Rs but they can defintely purchase a small use and throw shampoo shachet which does not cost more then 1 rs. There are many such innovations and book really earge people and organizations to innovate for BOP , for many reasons from sustaining the organizations long term growth to untapping the huge market and yes ofcourse doing some charity as well to improve living of
billions.
However when I was in UNICEF Latur , wondering on the streets of Mandi in Latur , I come across a dofferent thought , I wanted to explore what are the innovations by bottom of pyramid and not bottom of pyramid. When I started obesreving this around me , I was amazed to see that there are so much which is innovated by BOM themselves for their use , they don't boast of it , they don't get it patented and they also normally don't go for commercialisation of these inventions because most of these are to fulfill gap in there daya to day life activities. These people are no Einstines and Edisons , so you might not find there innovations very sophisticated but they are thoughtfull and robust , above all they serve the puropse.
Latur and near by are some of the places in Maharastra which are effected by power cuts and load shedding very regularly . your electrical equipments are bound to be useless here atleast 8 hour and atmost 16-17 hours. There was a interesting arrangement which I come across in the mandi of Latur which is consist of road side stalls of vegetable vendors , food vendors and some other hawkers. As they are road side vendor so they can not use electric equipments any way because they would not have nay connection to use that , so the first option is to use those ageold kerosine lamps , which I used to see a lot in my village , but here people have changed with
billions.
However when I was in UNICEF Latur , wondering on the streets of Mandi in Latur , I come across a dofferent thought , I wanted to explore what are the innovations by bottom of pyramid and not bottom of pyramid. When I started obesreving this around me , I was amazed to see that there are so much which is innovated by BOM themselves for their use , they don't boast of it , they don't get it patented and they also normally don't go for commercialisation of these inventions because most of these are to fulfill gap in there daya to day life activities. These people are no Einstines and Edisons , so you might not find there innovations very sophisticated but they are thoughtfull and robust , above all they serve the puropse.
Latur and near by are some of the places in Maharastra which are effected by power cuts and load shedding very regularly . your electrical equipments are bound to be useless here atleast 8 hour and atmost 16-17 hours. There was a interesting arrangement which I come across in the mandi of Latur which is consist of road side stalls of vegetable vendors , food vendors and some other hawkers. As they are road side vendor so they can not use electric equipments any way because they would not have nay connection to use that , so the first option is to use those ageold kerosine lamps , which I used to see a lot in my village , but here people have changed with
time , Someone has come up with a very simple and effective apperture , It is smal
tubelight operated by battery , they take one small battery ( one used in bikes ) and connect small tubelights to it by a wi
re . So when you need light just hook the wire to batteries and otherwise remove these wirse from it . I observed everyone in that mundi was using it , just estimate the market potential of this simple and crude equipment , when you stand at one end of the mundi , you see complete area is illuminated by it , everyone there has it and some big stall owners have 2 to 3 of it . Now even shop owners are also using this not so complicated light source when there is no electricity.
tubelight operated by battery , they take one small battery ( one used in bikes ) and connect small tubelights to it by a wi
re . So when you need light just hook the wire to batteries and otherwise remove these wirse from it . I observed everyone in that mundi was using it , just estimate the market potential of this simple and crude equipment , when you stand at one end of the mundi , you see complete area is illuminated by it , everyone there has it and some big stall owners have 2 to 3 of it . Now even shop owners are also using this not so complicated light source when there is no electricity.One another innovation I had seen while I was travelling across villages in thos areas , most of the pan shops sell cigarette and bidi in India and maximum customers just purchase one unit of there cigarette , light it and enjoy it there only for this they keep asking for matchboxes from pan shop owners . Some time back pan shop owner used to keep matchboxes ready specifically to serve such customers , then some of them started using a very ancient style of keeping fire alive for long time , they used a rop , one part of it was lighted and another was bound to a small corner of the shop , this rope served purpose for hours and after that they had second piece of the rope ready. Now they have laso gone hi-tec , many of them have got this
electric equipment which when switched on provides sparcing to light your cigarette , one has to keep the button pressed for few second so that there are enough sparcs and you are done. This innovation I have seeing around from quite some time now.
Latur is center point and zilah parishad for many surounding villages , which are located in close proximity . This gives oportunities to many cab owners for doing business , these cab owners own Tata sumo , qualis and such vehicles to do round between villages with passengers , Now even these people have moved up in value chain , In many of such cabs I have seen that the seating arrangments was modified so as to accomodate maximum people , not only this all of them have equiped thier cabs with LCD panels and now they proudly write in thier cabs " Video Coach" , no wonder that they get good business and also charge a little premimum from villagers to play some movie or some hindi song while these people travel from one
place to other.
electric equipment which when switched on provides sparcing to light your cigarette , one has to keep the button pressed for few second so that there are enough sparcs and you are done. This innovation I have seeing around from quite some time now.
Latur is center point and zilah parishad for many surounding villages , which are located in close proximity . This gives oportunities to many cab owners for doing business , these cab owners own Tata sumo , qualis and such vehicles to do round between villages with passengers , Now even these people have moved up in value chain , In many of such cabs I have seen that the seating arrangments was modified so as to accomodate maximum people , not only this all of them have equiped thier cabs with LCD panels and now they proudly write in thier cabs " Video Coach" , no wonder that they get good business and also charge a little premimum from villagers to play some movie or some hindi song while these people travel from one
place to other.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
The return of Hanuman : It's Different.
I was a bit apprehensive before entreing into the the Audi for watching this one , never watched a cartoon movie on talkies but this one turned out to
be really different and so refreshing. Hanuman is changing with modern world and what a combination of golden mythological saga and a semi modern
story where Hanuman uses boure supremacy style LCD pannels to watch whats happening over there on earth , Chitragupta has personal laptop for
record keeping and Narad drives his own two seater charted plane which is called Garuna. Lets see where does this movie score.
Plot : As I mentioned in the beginning , amazing and very innovative concept of mixing golden old with vibrant new. " My friend Ganesha" was also on
similar track . Kiddies are going to love it .
Humour : This part is the best one a humour which can tickle any bone irrespective of the age of the viewer , It has been kept so versatile that people
like me who are in mid 20s enjoyed it thoroughly.
Animation technology : After seeing some of the world class animation movies and so much toon channels this is the place where even younger ones
can complain but I guess the animation quality is very good from Indian standards. The plot and story is such that this part does not hold you back from
enjoying the movie to the fullest.
Music : Again very hunky and chirpi music , It has humouros tone , inspirational scores and even melodius songs.
Message : It is also different because it comes with a message , message about saving our enviornment and nature. What a better way there will be to
teach children about such sensitive issues . Kudos to writer and director for thinking in this direction.
Even after giving Hanuman a new look , it also retains the ageold Magnificant image of Omnipotent lord:
Jai Hanuman Gyaan gun Saagar , Jai Kapees Tihu lok Ujaagar.
be really different and so refreshing. Hanuman is changing with modern world and what a combination of golden mythological saga and a semi modern
story where Hanuman uses boure supremacy style LCD pannels to watch whats happening over there on earth , Chitragupta has personal laptop for
record keeping and Narad drives his own two seater charted plane which is called Garuna. Lets see where does this movie score.
Plot : As I mentioned in the beginning , amazing and very innovative concept of mixing golden old with vibrant new. " My friend Ganesha" was also on
similar track . Kiddies are going to love it .
Humour : This part is the best one a humour which can tickle any bone irrespective of the age of the viewer , It has been kept so versatile that people
like me who are in mid 20s enjoyed it thoroughly.
Animation technology : After seeing some of the world class animation movies and so much toon channels this is the place where even younger ones
can complain but I guess the animation quality is very good from Indian standards. The plot and story is such that this part does not hold you back from
enjoying the movie to the fullest.
Music : Again very hunky and chirpi music , It has humouros tone , inspirational scores and even melodius songs.
Message : It is also different because it comes with a message , message about saving our enviornment and nature. What a better way there will be to
teach children about such sensitive issues . Kudos to writer and director for thinking in this direction.
Even after giving Hanuman a new look , it also retains the ageold Magnificant image of Omnipotent lord:
Jai Hanuman Gyaan gun Saagar , Jai Kapees Tihu lok Ujaagar.
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