How service design approach can reduce waiting time?

Healthcare is the industry where people consume the service out of compulsion. No customer comes there out of their desire or choice. Perhaps customers come here when they are in distress and in delicate health condition. People accompanying the patient are also in the disturbed mind as their loved and dear one is suffering and they are apprehensive about the outcome of the treatment. Continue reading...

Service Design – Why you can’t ignore it?

We all know the premium designers products command in the market. As far as services are concerned most service providers are not designing the service.

Services are about customer services. For new age businesses customer service is the core service. It does not come into play once the goods are sold and when the problem crops up. Be it banking, insurance, healthcare or hotels or any other services, their core business is customer service.  Continue Reading. 

How to use colour palette – DAILY ?

“There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When I was watching the sunset at the Juhu beach, few others were watching the closed hotel Tulip star from the opposite side, few were watching the sea at Versova and a few others were watching the sea at Bandra side. Everyone had a different angle and the view they were getting from their angel were their view and their reality. Continue reading....

Bankruptcy Code – Borrowers Beware

Now becoming an NPA is a more serious problem for the borrowers. Earlier plethora of laws governing recovery was used by the borrower to their advantage to delay the process. Thanks to the new law which is coming up soon and approved by both the houses of Parliament.

The message from the bill is clear. Restructure, repay or wind up. Read more..

My First Podcast Interview

Dangerous DEBT

The NPA is a fraction of the problem for Indian banks. They will employ a team of lawyers and / or sell NPA to ARCs to get rid of such accounts. They will get capital from the Govt.

But for entrepreneurs having an NPA, it is the mega problem for them. Their other good accounts will get affected; no one will lend them, they will be at a risk of selling of property mortgaged to the bank. It’s a very stressful situation. Mostly most small NPAs are not willful but ignorant NPAs. Read more.

Enjoy your weekend with Seth Godin & Tim Ferriss

I spent my day today with Tim Ferriss and Seth Godin.

Yes, it was more than three hours of lessons from these people.

If you want to invest your weekend in a more meaningful way, just click on the links below and hear them out.

Know the difference between a painter and an artist, daily blogging, education in the future and a lot more. He is the author of 18 bestselling books and yes he has not used snooze button since 1977. -Continue Reading...

Jewellers Strike, Jeff Bezos and Achchhe Din

Jewellers in India were on strike for nearly six weeks. They are asking the Govt. Of India to remove 1% Excise Duty levied in the budget this year.

Today in the Parliament Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant recommended the Govt. to consider their requests and remove the duty. He went on to say that Jewellers do not mind 1 or 2% levy but they do not want this by an additional Govt. department. They have a bad experience about this department. ... Continue Reading...

E & Y Fraud Study and The Fifth idiot

“Young players play with a great deal of fairness and sportsmanship. Once they learn how important the game is to adults, they will learn how to cheat.” – Dr. Ron Quinn, Professor of Sports Ethics at Xavier University.

Cheat to win is the mindset we adults have developed and that is spoiling our children too. The recent study on fraud conducted by E & Y indicates about 70% of the Indian executives would indulge in unethical business practices to achieve the targets.

Parents’ expectations are the biggest CRISIS in our society. Be it winning in sports or getting top ranks in schools or studying the course of interest of parents and even marrying the partner of their choice. Fulfilling parents’ dreams make children do unethical things and study the subjects of their least interest. Parental pressure and expectations are the biggest stress for the children. Continue reading...

Who wants to suffer from Existential Distress?

Existential Distress is the term I learnt from the podcast titled ‘The Man Who Studied 1,000 Deaths to Learn How to Live’ by Tim Ferriss with BJ Miller.

The meaning of these two words is:  Existential distress at the end of life has been defined as hopelessness, a burden to others, loss of a sense of dignity, desire for death or loss of the will to live and threats to self-identity.

Existential Loneliness has entered the literature and “is understood as an intolerable emptiness, sadness, and longing, that results from the awareness of one’s fundamental separateness as a human being.” Continue reading

Why everyone needs to know about Anekantavada?

Sushma Swaraj, Indian Minister of External Affairs recently said that Jainism’s principles of Anekantavada, Aparigraha (non-hoarding) and Ahimsa (non-violence) offer a solution to the present day problems the world is facing. She was referring to extremism, climate change, and inequality.

Next week when the world will celebrate Mahavira Jayanti (birth of Mahavira, twenty fourth and the last Tirthankara (Teaching God) of the present time cycle.) today I am writing about one of the most important and fundamental principle of Jainism - Anekantavada.   Continue reading..

The common link between Ki & Ka, The Fifth Idiot and a Ted Talk

Ki & Ka, the movie by R Balki was released this Friday on 1st April. The movie is about swapping of the roles of House Wife and House Husband. The movie conveys the message in quite an interesting way.

But the moot question we all must understand is the mindset of the character Kabir, played by Arjun Kapoor in his usual serious ‘2 States’ like style. Continue reading. 

Free Ebooks – Welcome to download

Welcome to commence the new financial year with the brand new thinking. Let customer experience index and employee happiness index become the part of the Annual Report and see the transformation of business performance.

I am happy to invite readers to download two of my ebooks from Amazon. It can be downloaded on Kindle App or Kindle device. Free download ends on 4th April 2016. Continue reading....

Do you know your account could be the next NPA?

The whole India is debating about Vijay Mallya. But he is sitting somewhere in the world and addressing his high debt worries. On the other extreme, there are farmers committing suicide, due to unbearable debt exposure.

In between there are SME borrowers who are the most vulnerable to the debt crisis. Most do not know the implication of debt – its short-term and long-term usage, cash flow mismatch, interest impact and in the case of default all other implications that comes with NPA status. Continue reading...

Trust your instinct & Conquer your Everest

We all are climbing our Everest. Yes, those of us who are pursuing our passion are not any less than Everest climbers. Our expedition is ongoing and we can’t return back, the only option is one way, move ahead and upward. The result may be away or not even on the horizon, but the journey must continue.
Continue reading..

Eleven questions to the CEOs/ Business Owners:

1. Employees spend their prime time of lives with the employers. They need not wait for weekends for their happiness. Happiness for employees must be there and there at workplaces. This is the responsibility of CEOs. What are you doing about it?
2. Most (85% in Indian Pvt. Sector) employees are suffering from lifestyle diseases due to work related stress and long hours of working but they do not have time for gymnasium or exercise. Courtesy – long hours of work and so-called self-imposed targets. Shouldn’t this change?  Continue reading next 9 questions...

We are DYING in EMIs

Yes,  we all know about paying EMI but what we are ignorant about is,  we all are also drying in EMI.

As per the recent ASSOCHEM survey, due to demanding schedules, high-stress levels and performance-linked perquisites in private sectors, nearly 85% of employees in private sectors are afflicted to lifestyle, chronic diseases and acute ailment, according to a recent survey conducted on the occasion of ‘World Health day’.

We human beings are not compatible to cope up with fast moving technologies and severe competition. Bill Gates writes about Business @ The speed of thought, but we are also dying at the speed of thought while doing at the speed of thought. Continue Reading....

The journey of – The Fifth Idiot

Husband of our neighbour, a young lady CA age 24 , died within one year of their marriage. He was working with a bank and the  job was demanding. Ranjan Das, 42 years young CEO of SAP India died of cardiac arrest. Sarvshreshth Gupta, an analyst with Goldman Sachs died due to long hours of working and high stress at workplace. He once told his father that his job is too much work and too little time. After months of working close to 100-hour weeks, the young banker fell to his death in his apartment parking lot at the tender age of just 22. Continue reading

Mr. Prime Minister, after DIPAM, next is HRD Ministry

The Finance Minister presented Union Budget 2016 today. Every year we hear finance minister and post that army of experts who analyse the budget. Then everything is back to normal, & we hope well new normal. Continue reading...

Duryodhana’s HR blunder & Google’s HR excellence

Google is the best company to work for. Since 2007, the company is at the top of the chart. The company employs around 57000 people. It is said that company receives 20000 resumes per week. Ethisphere does survey of most ethical companies in the world. Google is very much there in 2015 list of 132 honorees named spanning 21 countries and five continents and representing over 50 industries. The company is 2nd in the list of most admired companies in the world after Apple. The company is the most valued company on the earth @ US $547 billion. Keep reading...

At the end of the day.. 99% goes to Charity

Yes, at the end of the day, the bottom line is, the crux of the matter is, in conclusion, these are very important phrases. These signify what the objective was of any action or what the action is expected to achieve or will achieve.

All of us are working day and night in pursuit of something. It is a different matter that most of us do not know this pursuit, but for those who know they say they are doing it for success – monetary, social or personal. To become rich or socially prominent or having a sense of achievement.  We all know Maslow’s hierarchy of needs...... Continue Reading...

‘Not For Profit’ ways are the NEW Marketing

I was early for the meeting the other day so I opted to spend time at Starbucks Store. With the Kindle app installed in my mobile, I read the ebook for an hour. Neither anyone asked me what I would buy to justify my occupying their chair there, nor there was any compulsion to buy anything. Like me, I was not alone, there were a few more like me completely engrossed in their mobile phones. Continue Reading....

5th Idiot – A very quick survey

A very quick survey: 

1) Are you happy with what you are doing to earn money? 

2) Do you have a dream which you want to pursue but life’s other priorities have taken over your time? 

3) Read More...

Product & Service is dead

If an enterprise wants to fulfil the customers need with ease and delight, enterprises should know what the need is, what will add to ease while fulfilling the need and what will be icing on the cake i.e. delight.

Customers take a journey to fulfil his need. For example, if we look at the journey of a home buyer;

1) First, he will look for the project, either in the newspaper or on the website.

2) Then he will call the company or call center,

Read More...

People to Profit Roadmap

Customer Reviews are a new currency which is solely dependent on customer experience an enterprise is creating. But customer experience depends on what? Well, first and foremost it is the job of CEO and then it is taken over by the people. People working for the organisation  are the brand ambassadors.

Every employee over and above their JD, does the brand building for the enterprise she is working for. The Brand building includes brand destroying. People are the only living being working for the organisation. Rest all are created by the people as it can’t happen automatically. Continue reading...

Common insight from Rajkumar Hirani & Kabir Khan

MAMI, film festival, which was in a financial crunch last year is now finally on a strong footing now with sponsors like Reliance Jio and Star TV. Mumbai, the heart of Indian film industry facing financial crunch was a matter of shame for the city. Mumbai even does not have a Bollywood museum for visitors of the city to know the rich heritage of India Hindi movies.

However, the festival is a very good event and not to be missed event for Movie lovers and everyone associated with the art of movie making. Read more....

The new currency & the new gold reserve in the Sharing Economy

A new survey reveals:

Customer experience will overtake the product and pricing as a key brand differentiator. ( I am not saying so to promote my book on Customer Experience in times of social media “The Bread is moving”. Check the source of the survey here.)

Many enterprises are either not yet aware about the customer experience or they have other priorities than working on to create a customer experience focused organisation.

But a few statistics will awake the decision makers and people responsible for P & L A/C. Read more...

Brand, Real Estate Developers and NASSCOM

What a real estate developer wants?

1. Deals – Land, Redevelopment, Joint Venture, Joint Development
2. Money – Institutional/Bank Debt, Public Equity, Private Debt, Private Equity
3. Customers – Buy, Leases

What is the single most important thing which will bring all the three to a developer? Read More

What Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing & every entrepreneur should do?

“The World Bank and the Centre are working on expanding the coverage to include an analysis on 344 parameters as part of the Business Reform Action Plan for 2016.”

Times of India – 15th Oct 2015

Each state will be measured on ease of doing business on a 344 parameters. 344 is a whopping number. If there are 344 parameters which influence ease of doing business, imagine how difficult it is for the business to do business. Because even 10% parameters not made easy, ease of doing business goes for a toss.

First and foremost, this 344 number is mind boggling. Imagine if our fitness is measured on the basis of 100 parameters, becoming fit becomes a Herculean task.

But the detailing is good so as to not miss out on any parameters. I am sure they must have a grading and a weightage system, to give adequate importance to the major parameters. 

This brings us to look inward, which we seldom look. What is the ease of doing business scorecard of your own company for your customers? This is very important.

Ease = More Business. Ease = Quick Business. Continue Reading...

How to avoid Financial & Social Bankruptcy?

A few years ago, one of our clients approached us to help them in raising finance for their packaging unit. Two entrepreneurs, well one entrepreneur and one technocrat. The entrepreneur was riding on the passion of the technocrat. (Technocrat’s blind passion is many a time reasons for business failure).

They had identified machine from Germany to manufacture packaging items for the food industry. Technocrat was extremely passionate about the capacity and quality of output of the machine. They were confident about sweeping the packaging market with the first of its kind machine imported in India. 

Read rest..

One suicide, one tweet and ease of doing business

Real estate developers in Mumbai are facing the real crisis. Most of the developers are under heavy debt. Project approval delays are well-known. With some 28 plus approvals from various Govt. authorities, one can imagine the time it takes and money involved.

On top of this sluggish market since last few years and heavy overheads. It is survival at stakes situation for many of the small and mid-size developers. When the market can’t absorb the cost and cost is high, the company fails. Here it is a question of an entire industry. We have seen suicide by a well-known developer in Thane yesterday – courtesy; extraordinary delay in Govt. approvals and heavy debt. Read  more...