The Goose That Laid Golden Eggs...

Then
Never kill the goose that lays golden eggs.

Now
Kill the goose.
Extract the last litter of golden eggs left in her stomach.
Divide her flesh into a thousand tiny portions.
Sell every portion, at a premium, claiming to turn consumers' normal geese into golden ones (the wow! factor).
Auction all but one egg from the last litter at a super premium.
Retire to some exotic place with a ton of bucks and the last golden egg.

DCS

What do McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Shoppers Stop & Crossword have in common? A difficult question to answer unless you visit them all. I did, and the answer is Dwindling Customer Service.

A coke-float served in MacDonald's comes loaded with a hair strand, and when it's pointed out to the store manager, the manager says sorry. Period. I ask him to give me a feedback form, and he takes full 10 minutes to find one and hand it over. The form says "Did we make you smile today?". Nevermind. I send a mail to the email address given on the form which results in absolutely nothing.

Over to Pizza Hut. Placed my order and asked for water. Nothing happens. The salad and lemonade is served and I ask for water again. The salad is stale and when pointed out to the store manager, he safely assumes that it is my first trip to Pizza Hut and says that the salad is like this, all the time. To prove his point, he asks the waiter to bring another portion of the same salad and asks us to compare both. When the fresh portion arrives which is actually fresh and how it should be, the manager is nowhere in sight.

The water hasn't arrived yet, by the way. It comes while I am about to finish my pizza and is normal, opposed to cold as was requested. Serving normal water (in some cases, even hot) is a normal practice in Cafe Coffee Day, since they primarily want to sell beverages. But here, ordering a lemonade even before asking for water and not being served the same for half an hour is beyond layman understanding.

Similar experiences at Shoppers Stop and Crossword indicate that DCS is not about a couple of stores but a much wider phenomenon than one would normally expect. Has it got something to do with the recessionary times? Is it linked to some kind of a realization that Indian consumers are not used to a high level of customer service anyways?

Or this is just a part of the normal evolutionary cycle wherein new businesses will spring up to exploit such white-spaces and develop those into competitive advantages! And over the years create those white-spaces again. I wonder...

Air India

Kingfisher Red has stopped serving the Mumbai-Raipur route, which meant I had to fly Air India this time around. Not that I flew AI for the first time, but I was eager to fly it for a long time.

Whenever AI gets a mention in any discussion, one thing which never fails to pop up is how ‘ugly’ their air hostesses are. How those ‘fat’ ladies do not take care of the travelers and sometimes are even ‘rude’ to them. I, beg to differ.

First of all, the hostesses are not ugly. I agree that they are not sexy (and enticing!) as their Kingfisher and Jet counterparts, but beauty is beyond exhibiting skin in red or blue minis. Draped sarees, large red bindis smeared on foreheads and nicely braided hair – they all epitomize the Indian culture, and I believe that’s beautiful.

Secondly, many a times, the hostesses don’t behave in a way which most of the travelers think they ‘ought to be’. But have we ever tried to analyze what’s going on. Consider the situation from the hostess’ perspective. A traveler enters the aircraft and gives you a weird look (Oh my god, where have I come, those KF girls were so pretty) – his face says it all. Then onboard, he ‘orders’ you for the things he need, the way he is accustomed to doing it in other carriers. The difference here is that you are not like 20-22 year olds starting their careers; you are 42, serving for at least 15 years and expect some sensible behavior from the travelers.

I am no less ordinary. I am not against short clothes and I also like flying in KF, being served onboard by attractive women. However, I feel great about the fact that there is at least one airline which proudly upholds our culture. And it’s a thing which needs to be acknowledged by all.

Settling Down

Warning: This entry comes on the heels of a self-imposed rule, one that says I write a blog every week. And so, the text that follows might read like utter crap to some. I don't care.

I have been struggling to discover myself for quite sometime now. I had a start-up in college. I joined a company upon my graduation. I started out again. I freelanced as a designer. And now, I am working with a company. All in a span of 17 months! All to discover what I love to do and would do the rest of my life. I gape at the road and wonder where am I in my journey and how much time will I take to 'settle down'. But hey, is there something called 'settle down'?

The system which we have been brought up with advocates that we 'settle down' as soon as we can. There are rules and there are codes of conduct - a degree just after school, a job just after graduation, marriage just after job and so on. A person who denies to confirm to the above is dubbed a 'rebel' among the otherwise pool of the 'virtuos'.

I had a stimulating discussion with a person last saturday as to why Indians tend to become fat by eating even in moderation while our counterparts in other countries don't. And he pointed out that living in India which, historically, has been famine affected has caused our bodies to use a little portion of our diets and assimilate everything else as fats. I don't know if its true but it does sound logical to me. And today, when I sit back and think about our notion of 'settling down', I can very well relate to the same theory again. We have been conditioned to be opportunistic, to grab any chance that comes along and leave nothing to fate. Our counterparts in the west, on the other hand, have been brought up in abundance and have been allowed to exercise choices and pursue life on their terms. But does it mean that they do not have a concept of 'settling down'? I am sure they have one, for they also own homes, raise children and like to see smiling faces after work. The difference, it seems then, lies in the way they approach the steady state - no set patterns and freedom to explore.

Things have started making sense to me now. Instead of wondering how much time will I take to settle down, I need to think how would I get there. Instead of blaming it on the system, I need to explore how can I alter the patterns set in the system. And be confident that someday, my dots will also connect.

Watch this video of Steve Jobs' address at Stanford and be inspired ;-)