Twenty- five Seven

Why is Jeff Bezos blue in the face ?

January 18, 2016

http://twitter.com/NigelBuchanan2/status/684506413637320704/photo/1

I was tidying up the living room when this bizarre looking cover of January’s issue of Fortune Magazine caught my eye.

Why was Jeff Bezos blue in the face? This cover caught my eye simply because it looked so bizarre.

Later on I found myself drawn to the two elephant trumpeting the the Great Indian Sale on Amazon

According to Fortune, Amazon is all set to capture the Great Indian Market

Really????

Alas nothing can be further from the truth.

Things just don’t happen in India the way they happen in the rest of the world .

1. Numbers don’t always translate into sales

The changing Indian Bazaar

The early 2000’s saw a change in the Indian market place. Traditional bazaars gave way to airconditioned malls. I remember at the official opening of Crossroads, the first of its kind in Mumbai, there was a traffic jam that was never seen before or since. People came to “look” at the Mall as though it was a wonder of the world. To reduce the unruly mobs that thronged on the “magic stairs” and walked in and out of the “magic doors”, the Mall actually prescribed a dress code and mandated possession of a Credit Card just to enter its hallowed premises.

Today this very same Mall has changed ownership and wears a forlorn look . Gone are the wide aisles and premium brands – in its place are narrow aisles and in-house brands that are more affordable.

And this is the case, sadly of several malls around the country are closing down due to lack of business.

The great Indian property bubble

A similar story plays out in the Indian property market. For a while old buildings and homes were being torn down in a desperate hurry to make money. Agricultural lands were redeveloped as integrated townships. Unused mills and defunct commercial spaces were re-vitalised and even open park spaces were being eyed as potential money spinners in the “booming” property market

But the reality is that many buildings buildings remain unoccupied and most Indians still don’t own their own homes.

2. The Great Indian Myths

Electric supply

If you live in Mumbai you are lucky to have an uninterrupted supply of electricity. The rest of India has to deal with frequent outages . Some cities like Pune for instance regularly have no electricity on Thursday.

Internet

Despite having so many software engineers and every Tom, Dick and Harry doing “computers “, the internet speed is pathetic. As for WiFi – just forget it. There are times when I’ve had to abandon a simple online booking for a movie ticket just because the computer froze or the operation timed out…..

Everyone speaks/understands English.

Now this is one myth that really has me laughing. Most times when a recorded message asks me to press 1 for service in English, a voice speaking distinctly in HINDI asks me what my problem is.

If this is not laughable, the fact that I am a woman and is still addressed as SIR, definitely is!

Customer Service

“A customer is the most important visitor, on our premises.

He is not dependent on us.

We are dependent on him.

He is not an interruption on work.

He is the purpose of it.

He is not an outsider to our business.

He is part of it.

We are not doing him a favor by serving him…

He is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do it.”

For many years, this quote by the Father of our Nation ( aka Mahatma Gandhi) was placed prominently in all Government emporia. Needless to say, the salesmen were far from polite or helpful. In fact they were almost always miffed that we were disturbing their never ending tea break.

If customer service in reality is bad, then customer service in virtuality is truly non-existent. I have spent several hours playing tag being passed on from one Customer Service Representative to the other when I wanted to register any complaint or make an inquiry. And this is possible after spending hours trying to get a Toll Free number that is NOT BUSY.

Product reliability, deliverability

If you do manage to make an online transaction on any e-commerce site like Flipkart, chances are that the goods you are delivered are not perfect. Last month I ordered a full price hand mixer from Flipkart and it came to me completely damaged and unusable. I don’t have the energy to engage with their Customer Service so I dunked it in the dustbin instead.

Similarly, the delivery times are not always convenient. For instance, there are several roads that are inaccessible to heavy transport during peak traffic hours so despite the timing given, the delivery is often delayed. I once waited three weeks for a delivery of Pampers from First Cry. This despite the fact that the order was pre-paid. I found out that COD is more likely to be delivered on time .

So Mr. Bezos, are you only blue in the face for the cover of Fortune or will you really capture the 3 trillion dollar e-commerce market?
#Drumming up support for #MumbaiMarathon 2016

January 17, 2016

Asia’s richest marathon with a prize money of $3,77,000 will witness a total of 40,285 runners from different corners of the world. Standard Chartered is the title sponsor of the event.

source

Ever since #StanChart sponsored the first Mumbai Marathon, I’ve been an ardent supporter . I have spent almost an entire Sunday morning clapping and whistling and cheering the marathoners. From a small group of amateur runners , it has grown to over 40, 000 runners in 2016. With bigger prize money and more international and professional athletes participating, it has become one of the events Mumbaikars look forward to.

I have often been irritated by the inconvenience of it all: being locked inside the building for the better part of the morning, the fruit peels and empty bottles discarded on the road and not to mention the noise. Yes, believe it or not, last night at the ungodly hour of 3 am I was woken up by the sounds of people yelling instructions, motorcycles whizzing past and the raucous horn of a big bus that was trying to make its way through a traffic jam!!!!

But Mumbaikars have been consistently supportive of the Mumbai Marathon despite all this. This is rather surprising for a people known for their indifference to anything remotely athletic . I mean, what could be more important than lying in on a chilly Sunday morning or sipping hot coffee while browsing through the Sunday papers?

Well the enthusiasm of these people #Drumming support for the marathoners running this year proves that there are other things that matter. Like the Standard Chartered sponsored Mumbai Marathon.

Who know, one day many more may just put on their running shoes and flip from supporting to participating?

I’m sharing this on WriteTribe ProBlogger Challenge.
A smiley face in the #Mumbai night sky

January 15, 2016

It was the end of the week and I was looking forward to the weekend after a bit of a hectic time with the grandchildren.

R and H were home and we were unwinding with some good 12 year old Yamazaki – a single malt Japanese whiskey that I was having for the very first time. We also had a good meal ordered in from Royal China waiting for us when I heard the wail of Baby G. I quickly got up before the wails became uncontrollable and was giving her the last feed for the night when I happened to look up . I saw a young crescent moon surrounded with a cloudy halo which looked like a smiley face in the Mumbai night sky.

I just had to take a photo and as soon as Baby burped, rushed to click my handy iPhone. Sadly when I clicked the snap it was far from the dramatic reality. What looked like a smiley face in the sky turned out to be one big blob!

But not one to give up easily, I took another shot and this time I was more successful. Here’s my smiley face in the Mumbai Night Sky.

But what I really liked was the lights across the bay with the stadium lights ablaze.

But I wonder why my pictures are so grainy? I thought the iPhone 6 camera was the best bet for faultless photos.
I’m linking this post to Skywatch Friday and Write Tribe ProBlogger Challenge.