Jugaads: Innovation we Indians do..

Well we all do Jugaads/Innovations in our daily life.. we find simple solutions to our daily life tasks.

we all fix our broken tail lights by applying some adhesive or cello-tape , a professor may just use the same old pen broken into two by taping it, milk man arrives on his bullet motorcycle with Milk Cans Hanging on the back, we students paying the call center cabs driver a mere 10 bucks rather than taking

an auto for the same route costing 100 Bucks.. we all must have seen rickshaws with a old Bajaj scooter engine attached to it, n number of things we do in our day to day life..

Well some think "Out Of The Box" and use it commercially ,some famous cases are a Transportation Medium Called "Jugaad" , small roadside Dhabbas(Resturants) using a Washing Machine to prepare Lassi( a Drink Made by churning Yogurt and Milk)..

N here's a list of great articles where one can understand the whole world of Jugaads That Indians do...

The motorcycle crop sprayer

http://www.emergingfutureslab.com/perspective_20/2009/05/jugaad-a-collection.html

Jugaad at work: Two engineering students with their invention – charging the cellular phone by using the smoke from the bike, in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/2009/05/14/stories/2009051450080200.htm

A Jugaad vehicle made with water pumpsets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad

A nice blog On Indian Jugaads/Innovation

http://indian-jugaad.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-09-01T00:00:00-07:00&updated-max=2008-10-01T00:00:00-07:00&max-results=5

Indian Export To the rest of the World - JUGAAD

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2009/id2009121_864965.htm

So keep on innovating people...or as we say be Jugaadu

I'm n Indian... n u??

Ya i do at times call a guy bihari .. if he acts stupid..

Kashmiri friend of mine calls me Bhaiya gone mod.. coz i Hail from UP but apparently listen to coldplay n he is fond of Bhaiya ji type songs..

I say I'm a punjabi..

I call my roommate Assami.. though hez a marwari...

My other roommate can't tell a diff between a Sikh n a Punjabi..

Another great friend of mine is called Luknawi nazakat...

classic case...my ol' roommate n bro.. A British passport holder.. Baniya by cast .. Jaini at heart..i still ask him not to revoke his British passport..

I Pity my bro Karan ..coz he'll just be called a Typical Delhite...(lol)

so r we all racists or does it make any of us less worthy to travel anywhere..

work anywhere..

My buddy Bal would miss the likes of Ambani's who r there Headquartered in Bombay..

(common man's roads are paid by many such co.'s situated practically outside Maharashtra)

for their Main assets like outside his BOMBAY..

We all are Indians... including this dude Balasaheb.. though he's an embarrassment no doubt..

Unity in diversity is what we are proud of...

This is what makes India Unique... our diff traits associate us with diff adjectives..

India Rocks( Jai Hind)

P.S. - I'll write a surprising counterview to this

Great article on Quantam Physics

I'm the biggest fool around..

Let me prove it to you..

I read this great article about Quantum Physics... it tells how Photons respond to each other from miles away and that any communication between them, if at all ,has to take place at 10,000 times the speed of light....(i wont write more u gotta read it...its truly fascinating)

So i read this on On a newspaper called Mint..at my college Library.. hence din tear it out to keep for myself..i just thought would get it over the net..

so i forget about it for a month.. n then when i tried to search for it over the net on livemint.com i couldn't just find it.. google din seem to have any clue either...

Believe me ..try the keywords yourself.. nothing worked...

Today finally after 6-7 months of searching maybe once a in 15 days i got the link...

n where.. on the site of Wall Street Journal.. ya.. a partner of MINT newspaper.

Here's the link.. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124147752556985009.html

One of my fav stuff in Science...

n it's very well explained..

if a Dumb Ass like me can understand it.. u sure can..

Tata - Why is the most loved comany soo Bad

Yes .. you read it right.. Below i'll be listing why is Tata such a plain old Bad Company,,

Well this is a blog i had written 2 months back and publishing just today because of the final nail in the coffin has been hammered..

Most would disagree with me..99% would.. but just hear me out..

Tata is every where.. right from Salt to Steel , From Telecom to Technology , From FMCG products to Automobiles( now Jag n Land Rover included) ..from Supermarket to Hotels..

Tata has 114 companies.. and is a $ 77 Billion Co. (Jan 2010)

I have tasted and tried most of its product if we speak in terms of categories.. so we all have had Tata salt n tea.. My Family has owned a Tata Car( one day Jag will also come..i wish)

I have personally experienced dealing with Tata Steel.. had a connection of Tata Indicom n now Using Tata Sky.. I've eaten n partied at many of the Taj's across India

Now lets see why i'm an unsatisfied Customer..

well to put it in one line .. Service of Tata is that of an Indian PSU...

if u want to experience it.. go to Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi.. It has that old rusty feeling to it..

even worse is Taj Ambassador.. but it happens to have one of my fav cafe "Yellow Bricks"

Ok.. here we go..

My first Brush with Tata was when we bought Tata Indigo.. It was a very competitively priced car.. but came with the worst engineering ever.. after almost 8 months of taking it back n forth from the service staition we sold it to a poor fellow..i Really pity that guy..

Then came Tata Steel.. when during my little stint at at my dad's business i got to oversee the procurement of raw material.. Let me put it straight Tata Steel is of the best quality..

then why do i grumble.. Well It's the market leader in India and it practically dictates Prices.. and the Small Manufacturers using steel as raw material get bullied big time.. Tata Steel has it's own Iron Ore reserves.. which is the basic raw material for manufacturing Steel..

so logically Tata Steel's products must be available cheaply.. but the fact is they are always priced higher than SAIL(a govt, owned co.) and Tata Steel does jack up the prices at it's own whims and fancy...which is really bad not only for the manufacturing industry but also to other industries which use steel products...n finally to us consumers..

Then came my experience with Tata Indicom.. a decent product .. which i primarily used for Internet connection ... but soon replaced it once broadband was available from it's competitors at half the price and double the speed..

Most recently I'm using Tata Sky .. again i must say it is the best product available in the market..i have to an extent tried all others..Airtel, Big tv , Dish..

The fact is that Tata Sky is actually most user friendly and the designing is very Tasteful..

But again..i guess mine n Tata's stars don't align..

The Tata Sky that i have back home(i hav one in Delhi too) is used usually when I'm there on Saturdays..

my parents still like that cable thingy..

anyway.. My mom got it recharged for the whole year ..when seeing that it was usually out of subscription whenver I'm back home.. i watch only two things on Saturdays.. Football n Joey..

Both come on channels which have to paid extra for.. the charges for the channels are around 65 Rs extra every month..

now the problem is .. the minimum denomination of recharge is only Rs 200 which lasts for a month.. that means i end up paying Rs.135 extra.. over n above the Rs. @250 that my mom had paid in taking the yearly subscription..

so my total one month expense is Rs. 450 .. surely not cheap by any standards..

n as i found out there's no way out.. i couldn't even find the no. to call the customer care..as the page which says the contact no. is a blank blue screen.. i got the no. over the net.. n tried to reason with the patient sleepy guy across the phone.. but sorry is all that i got...

The thing is I have come to believe that Tata is the least customer friendly co.

They are very slow in making progress.. Tata does have the best quality products ..

but because the name Tata is synonymous to being "Good" or "Best" or even "Humane" as far as India is concerned we tend to overlook what "Bad" stuff or rather "Stupidity" the company is doing..

We never associate "Innovation" with Tata..

we never associate "Being Young" or "Youthfulness" with the Brand "Tata"

I'm a great admirer of what good Tata as a industrial house has done for India both economically and socially..

That is why I'm concerned.. this is the reason i care to worry about what the future holds for Tata..

No doubt it will be a huge co. for generations to come.. but i suspect that the share of it's Consumer Products would we very less..

Tata Steel will continue... but will Tata Motor's or a Tata Indicomm survive.. that's in question..

n these are the verticals where they have invested heavily for the future..

Just because Tata has bought VSNL(a gov't co.) doesn't mean it can't revamp the customer service.. I'm using a Tata Broadband right now to write this blog.. yes it's expensive than what i could get..but I'm using it because there is no other option in my locality..

The Internet speed is amazing.. but service damn poor.. I had to spend three days to enable 3 computers use the connection simultaneoulsy...

I have to go out 4 miles n spend atleast 1.5 hrs(to n fro) to make the journey to pay the bill..

as they apparently don't collect cash from home n my room-mate on whose name the connection is cannot pay via cheque nor do we have a credit card..n Tata won't accept Debit Card..

Ya that's the reality of Indian consumers.. who still buy online tickets thorough travel agent's because we don't have credit cards..

So companies have to move on the same highway that we consumers do n make it better for us rather than building road-blocks..

Tell me will u rather buy a Tata connection for your mobile phone.. well to majority this option doesn't even cross their mind... how many use it's co-promoted Virgin.. n how many will use Docomo ..time will tell..

I have a thing for Hotels... I have stayed in a Taj .. in Delhi and Bombay...

I always dread to enter a Taj in Delhi.. the Bombay one is tooo good..an Icon in itself ...

Please Tata Wake up.. an Icon is what Brand Tata is today..for me ..for n no. of Indian consumers... but when i go to shop... I say "TATA" (pun intended) to you..

n I'm afraid many would start to do the same...

Make Competition Irrelevant

Try n forget about your competition and following their every move..

Success lies not in being better than your competition but making it irrelevant..

Now here's a company whose sales grew by 90% and it's Profit by 77%

I'm talking about Nintendo .. and its ausome success Wii

Nintendo didn't just beat off it's comepetitor Sony.. it just crushed it

Nintendo makes $ 40 profit for every console sold,,

and PlayStation a loss of $ 200

and Nintendo didn't spend billions of $$ in R&D unlike Sony, it just did things differently and created a product which gave birth to a whole new category in itself..

So what should we learn from this.. and what should our new products be..

We should take note of the following

INSTEAD OF

a.Competing in Traditional Markets

b. Exploiting existing demand

c. Choosing Between differentiation

or Low Cost

d. Trying to Beat our Competition

WE SHOULD

a. Create new Markets

b. Capture and create New Demand

c. Differentiation and Low Cost

d. Make competition Irrelevant

Many Companies have done this before and continue to do this.

e-bay came out with an online market place which anybody could connect to easily.It's growth lies squarely in the hand of it's customers.

Amazon has done this through Kindle which has changed the way people stack up books( ok ok read books) Apple Inc did it with It's i-pod n then the i-phone..

Google keeps on doing it .. with Adsense and Adwords the most successful examples..

Facebook has done it to social media.. 350 million users ..."Facebook Connect" being used by 60 million users to connect to various websites..

n Twitter has done it perfectly with its 140.. i really admire Twitter.. it's not a typical social networking site.. its beyond that..its a DIY tool for anything from garnering Knowledge to twepeeping on paris hilton.. and it will co-exist with Facebook..

So will LinkedIn..

What these companies have in common is that they are actually Different from their competitors..

n they have answered the right questions..

• What factors should be eliminated which the Industry takes for granted?
• What factors should be reduced well below industry standards?
• What factors should be raised well above industry standards?
• Which factors should be created that industry has never offered before?

@xploreROYalself once tweeted .. what differentiates smart from brilliant is : smart knows what to do and brilliant knows what not to

So these Brilliant companies Know the answer to those of the above question relevant to them and have worked on that..

Hence for all of us Innovation is the key.. be different not because it's a Fad..

But because you can deliver something worthwhile..

Then you just sleep easy..for who cares for competition... its irrelevant...

Inflation is the gift we get for our Gov.t's Inaction

Now what to do you make out of this:

India exports Iron-Ore to China at prices cheaper than whats available to Indian co.'s thus our Steel co.'s find an excuse to Price Steel at 40% more than what is available in Chinese markets.

Hike in steel prices lead to a spiral effect and lead to higher prices of inputs to various industries across sector an hence Inflation. Now current inflation rates are around 7% (Dec '09) but we all know the real inflation of essential commodities is somewhere around 15% at the most conservative estimates.

So what has changed in the past few months or days.. Well steel price's have increased.. Tata Steel increased their prices by 2 Rs/kg and Sail by 1.5 Rs but for the actual user it's easily in the range of 4- 5 Rs increase before the various taxes.

To prove my point they same thing happened precisely around the same time last year. In Jan'09 steel price increased by about 10% the real effect in the retail market was more than 45% and if we scratch our brains the inflation rate shot of to over 10%.

But the difference between the Hike in prices by steel co.'s is totally different. There has not been a real increase in Raw Material prices ( at least not to a large extent) and this time the Increase in prices will lead to a long term consequence. More reliance on imports form China.

As if it was not happening .. just that our own industries will find it hard to fight out the downtrend two years in a row..

All this does not bode well for the labor market as well as this is gonna fuel further unemployment..

The prices of essential commodities has been going up for past 3 months..But the Govt thinks by printing the cheap wholesale prices in newspaper will mean that you an me will get to buy them cheap.. i mean there is nothing concrete that they are doing.. i heard Abhishek Sanghvi saying that NDA this wrong that wrong n some BJP guy pointing UPA's subservient polices with USA during a debate about rising food prices.. you can well imagine how serious they are in the Parliament..

So we are back in the vicious circle where practically 70% of India's population can't afford the sweetener in their tea let alone the tea itself..

Where the development is held back for the industries who now fight to survive let alone provide new jobs..

n all this because of our Government In-Action...

I'm not favoring protectionist policy but may i say some cunning policies will do us good....

for starter's can u let the damn Trucks into UP so that Sugar can become sweet again...

If you are really serious about the farmers ..give them a better price .. not the traders..

n Mr. Pawar stop shouting on the roof how many sugar you going to import.. for it just jacks up the international prices...

n a simple thing as a talk with Steel co.'s set them to tone down.. Tata has its own Iron ore reserves but still cries if the prices go up..

Till then I'll have coffee no sugar please..I'm cutting down..not my diet..my expenses..

Search= Google =Ads =Google = Mobile.

K great... now Google does finally go mobile...

Those looking for a review.. here's one of the best ones

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/05/google-nexus-one-the-techcrunch-review/

n ya its not available in India.. i'll check out gafar market don worry..

then some say itz not compatible with our network..

again i say "gafar market"(my fingers are crossed)

I'm more interested in what it means to google..

now itz not just a big advertising agency (where do u think they earn those billion $ from)

itz moved into being a mobile company as well..

Well google is my favourite company...

so ya I'm exited.. n wish them all the very best...

n once u have read the review above u'll know that Nexus One is truly amazing..

so whats bugging me except that the fans here in India will be disappointed..

the fact that Google will step on the toes of itz very associates if u may like to call them..

i.e. company's who launched android platform from Motorola , Samsung , LG etc

these people had invested heavily to carry the android ... n now google n these players have come on head on collision.. this is one space which i would look out for..

the other.. is newtons fav fruit.. Apple Inc.

Google has the ammunition to stand own its own against Apple..

but these are two of the most loved companies that we have around..

n this face-off will sure be interesting..

coming back to India.. web store ain't gonna work... but I'm sure they'll learn from Apple's mistakes in India.. n as it is the unlocked version is available..

but again thanks to "gafar market" guyz the locked version is cheap..

(for all those who don't know.. Gafar market is THE grey market in India n this is where all phones get unlocked)

As of today google's stock was down abt 3% .. nothing to worry it has doubled the past year..

so with Nexus with the ONE it's probably gonna rise more..

what's in store for the future... well .. it'll have some amazing applications as codes been given out to developers.. more than 3 billion applications of i-phone had been downloaded by users..

will Nexus One beat that ..

n how well it'll be received after the initial hype..

i'll keep this space warm with that..

now signing off with the Irony of the day..

i read the review above .. n guess what.. right at the bottom of it was an Ad of

i-phone running on google ads..