When I compare the society where I was raised (India) to where I am living currently (UK), one thing I have experienced here is that we are over obsessed with litigation. While in India, one is not too keen on resorting to litigation and would do everything in his control to avoid opting for it, primarily because of inefficiencies of the judicial system there, I think the west, as a society is over obsessed with litigation.
Let me give you some examples, which are my own experiences.
Someone once parked his van in front of my house and did not move it for 2 days. Finally, out of frustration I just put a note on the car that if in future it was found on my parking, I will have to deflate the tires (on the lines of few warnings which I have seen like vehicle will be towed away etc etc). Next thing, which happened, is that I get a call from police saying that I have threatened this guy of violence and he is thinking of suing me for damages! And having come from a ‘not-so-litigation-loving’ country, I had to call that guy and express apologies.
Recently my friend told an interesting case at workplace where he could not keep up the promise made to customer so he was writing an apologetic mail when his manager came to know about it. And whereever he has mentioned ‘I apologise’ he replaced it with ‘ I regret’. The reason quoted by manager was that it could lead to – what else, litigation!
Another friend told me a rather sad incident wherein few friends were in a boat enjoying sunny day when suddenly their boat was hit by a huge wave and one of the person got some injuries. The boat owner took best care of his injured friend and after 3 years he got the shock of his life – his injured friend had sued him for damages!
This leads to the question – while in developing countries people abuse the judicial system for its inefficiency, are people abusing the judicial system in the west for its efficiency?
Is everything, including the business and personal relationships being too much driven by the fear of litigations? Can we have honest relationships in such situations where a friend sues you because he was riding your boat when he met an accident? Are businesses being hypocritical about ‘customer being the king’ when they can’t even ‘apologise’ to their customers because they might got sued by ‘litigation happy’ customers? And is this all happening because judicial system is very efficient here or is it just one more ways of making individual gains at the cost of collective failure as a society where no relationship is beyond short term profitability?
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
Be an ecosexual, metrosexual is passé
Hang on guys, I am not coming up with some weird way of challenging the nature here. I got equally caught up with the term and so I thought I should share this with you all.
As per wired magzine, it means a person who's into hybrid cars, low-energy lightbulbs, and recycling. Please see the full definition here.
Now tell me would you not like to become one ?
However, recently I saw a TV program (I think it was on BBC). It questioned the hype which has been created by so many 'interested parties' over the implications of global warning on this planet. So this whole debate, though I do find merit in the concerns expressed, has confused me along with most of you. Is this issue over hyped because of our hunger for 'breaking news' and because future of so many people and organization is dependent on working towards 'rescuing this planet from dangers of global warming' as this program claimed ? And it had some pretty solid arguments to support its theory.
But the bottom line is that there are more arguments supporting the dangers then against it and so it is safer to become a ecosexual.
As per wired magzine, it means a person who's into hybrid cars, low-energy lightbulbs, and recycling. Please see the full definition here.
Now tell me would you not like to become one ?
However, recently I saw a TV program (I think it was on BBC). It questioned the hype which has been created by so many 'interested parties' over the implications of global warning on this planet. So this whole debate, though I do find merit in the concerns expressed, has confused me along with most of you. Is this issue over hyped because of our hunger for 'breaking news' and because future of so many people and organization is dependent on working towards 'rescuing this planet from dangers of global warming' as this program claimed ? And it had some pretty solid arguments to support its theory.
But the bottom line is that there are more arguments supporting the dangers then against it and so it is safer to become a ecosexual.
Think beyond Customer Satisfaction
Just thinking why the high customer satisfaction score reported by many companies is not converting into business growth for most of them. This leads me to think (apart from validity of some of these scores) if customer satisfaction alone is enough to survive and grow your business? Probably not and specially after reading this interesting book – Experience Economy, which gives valuable insight into how and why every business has to evolve from being into selling commodities/goods/services to providing experiences.
This means businesses are under constant and compelling needs to rediscover. Look yourself – every industry is now shifting more and more towards being a service industry – be it aviation or automobile or Internet based businesses. In fact the industry where in I work – the software industry where companies were so far concentrating more on product creation sees its future in services!! How else would you describe the growth levels achieved by companies like salesforce.com or rightnow or other software as a service companies and the predictions? Look at how many software companies are now offering on demand type of services.
In these times, as the books proclaims, the only way to distinguish your product or service is through providing customers – THE EXPERIENCE.
In fact the sub title of the book makes it even clearer – Work is a theatre and every business is a stage! What a remarkable way of looking at the modern way of conducting any business wherein we all can become artists on that stage and work towards creating a lasting positive experience in customer’s mind.
And probably I could get some clue in the book as to why customer satisfaction is not converting into business success. The book suggests, while customer satisfaction is important as always, one has to look beyond it and also concentrate into Customer Sacrifice ( i.e. difference between what customer expects to get and what he settles for), Customer Surprise (break customer’s monotony of doing business with you by throwing some kind of surprise element) and Customer Suspense ( What customer doesn’t yet know, let him keep guessing what’s coming up next while doing business with you)
And most of all, the book reminds us that we are not selling goods or services, we are selling memories! So next time when you talk to customer, think yourself an artist who is working on a business stage in a work theatre !!.
And go read Experience Economy.
This means businesses are under constant and compelling needs to rediscover. Look yourself – every industry is now shifting more and more towards being a service industry – be it aviation or automobile or Internet based businesses. In fact the industry where in I work – the software industry where companies were so far concentrating more on product creation sees its future in services!! How else would you describe the growth levels achieved by companies like salesforce.com or rightnow or other software as a service companies and the predictions? Look at how many software companies are now offering on demand type of services.
In these times, as the books proclaims, the only way to distinguish your product or service is through providing customers – THE EXPERIENCE.
In fact the sub title of the book makes it even clearer – Work is a theatre and every business is a stage! What a remarkable way of looking at the modern way of conducting any business wherein we all can become artists on that stage and work towards creating a lasting positive experience in customer’s mind.
And probably I could get some clue in the book as to why customer satisfaction is not converting into business success. The book suggests, while customer satisfaction is important as always, one has to look beyond it and also concentrate into Customer Sacrifice ( i.e. difference between what customer expects to get and what he settles for), Customer Surprise (break customer’s monotony of doing business with you by throwing some kind of surprise element) and Customer Suspense ( What customer doesn’t yet know, let him keep guessing what’s coming up next while doing business with you)
And most of all, the book reminds us that we are not selling goods or services, we are selling memories! So next time when you talk to customer, think yourself an artist who is working on a business stage in a work theatre !!.
And go read Experience Economy.
Friday, 18 May 2007
May the power of internet help bring Madeleine home
I wish I did not have to start my blog with a sombre thought, but since the time she has gone missing from a portuguese resort 13 days ago, Madeleine's face comes into my thoughts again and again. That’s why I thought I should start my blog with some hope. Hope that is caused by the power of Internet. Its amazing how the people from different walks of life have grouped together in last few days and its only internet which has provided them the platform to do so.
Please visit the official site for madeleine's search efforts and contribute in whatever way you can. Apart from financial and moral support which we can give to her family at this stage, I think its equally important that we spread the word about her missing to as many places and as many people. Already the response received is pretty amazing as can be seen by these numbers:
Over 65 million hits
22,000 support messages
About 73,000 pounds (with lots of money yet to be cleared through)
Thousands of posters downloaded from the site for spreading the missing girl's news
Looking at this, it seems in coming years Internet could become one of the most potent tools to contain crime of all kinds and making it hard for criminals to remain scot free for long. As internet further spreads in the world, It will make everyone more and more 'visible', the only thing we would need to be cautious is that this can be exploited equally well by criminals and terrorist organizations. And if we could counter that somehow, I think internet will make world a safer place. e.g. in some countries, they have started displaying details of various kinds of offenders on internet.
So lets start with this case. Lets spread the word. lets contribute in every manner. Lets explore how we could use this powerful medium to contain crime of all kinds. In the UK, It might be a one off case, but in developing and under developed countries this issue has attained astronomical proportions. And I am sure, internet could play a major role there as well.
Lastly, a word of praise for Madeleine's parents - Its heartening and inspiring to see them uttering positive words at this testing time. I liked her father's statement - "We believe she is safe and well looked after, until proved to the contrary." Well done Mr and Mrs. McCann. We all prey along with you for your daughter's safe return.
Please visit the official site for madeleine's search efforts and contribute in whatever way you can. Apart from financial and moral support which we can give to her family at this stage, I think its equally important that we spread the word about her missing to as many places and as many people. Already the response received is pretty amazing as can be seen by these numbers:
Over 65 million hits
22,000 support messages
About 73,000 pounds (with lots of money yet to be cleared through)
Thousands of posters downloaded from the site for spreading the missing girl's news
Looking at this, it seems in coming years Internet could become one of the most potent tools to contain crime of all kinds and making it hard for criminals to remain scot free for long. As internet further spreads in the world, It will make everyone more and more 'visible', the only thing we would need to be cautious is that this can be exploited equally well by criminals and terrorist organizations. And if we could counter that somehow, I think internet will make world a safer place. e.g. in some countries, they have started displaying details of various kinds of offenders on internet.
So lets start with this case. Lets spread the word. lets contribute in every manner. Lets explore how we could use this powerful medium to contain crime of all kinds. In the UK, It might be a one off case, but in developing and under developed countries this issue has attained astronomical proportions. And I am sure, internet could play a major role there as well.
Lastly, a word of praise for Madeleine's parents - Its heartening and inspiring to see them uttering positive words at this testing time. I liked her father's statement - "We believe she is safe and well looked after, until proved to the contrary." Well done Mr and Mrs. McCann. We all prey along with you for your daughter's safe return.
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