Ethics and Marketing

A question in the Ethics and CSR exam today asked for your views on ethics in marketing mix. Many of you did appear to be fairly comfortable with the subject and the questions. There are however some issues you guys need to consider.

 

1.       Ethics and “law” are two different things altogether. You don’t necessarily need to be unlawful to be unethical.

2.       As managers, when discussing ethics, you should take a long term view and ask yourself if the trade practice under consideration will in anyway damage the social and cultural fabric of the land?

3.       A case in point is the “fairness cream” ads. Though within legal limits, do you think they may be in anyway sowing seeds of un healthy self image in adolescents who may not be “fair”?? Now imagine so many product categories promise to make you “slimmer”, “taller”, “teach you English” and what not!! All on the hidden message that if you are not a tall, fair good looking person fluent in English you may be lesser than others!!! Think about it…

4.       Consider this; The way media is building up the 26/11 anniversary, has that event not become a “product”. On 26^th all channels will vie for TRPs and most people will end up watching the “most interesting” presentation of the issue which invariably will be the most extreme. So do you think such marketing of negative event anniversaries promote extreme views in the society? Another case for marketing ethics debate!!!

5.       Our ever popular “saas bahu serials” have been held responsible for degrading family values. Would you agree?

6.       The pricing and the matching positioning of gadgets and lifestyle products are promoting deviant adolescent behaviour. Remember how bad it felt when we could not buy that iPhone?? Do you think some young guys and girls may have indulged in negative behaviour to acquire it, like stealing maybe??? Even otherwise, don’t you think that the admiration and the strong feeling just below your sternum (do you know what is the sternum) which you get when you see a class mate use an iPhone is itself an example of how pricing and positioning makes you graduate products from being desires to needs???

 

These are just few points for your consideration. Do discuss them in your class.

What is your aim in life?

Is it necessary to have an aim in life? Can we not, as colleague of mine says, “just live”? Are we not supposed to be doing something, heading somewhere?

Do I have an aim in life? Let us see…..

I knew since I was a child that I will become an army officer!! When we shifted out of our house in PAU where I had spent all my life, I came across scribbled drawings on the loo wall…… Drawings of PAU campus and markings where gun positions would be in case of a war!! During my school days, My notebooks would be full of imaginary attacks and defenses!! I knew of the words like “attrition” and “maneuver” long before I knew the table of 12!!

But SSB rejected me.

And I also always knew that if do not become a general, I would be a teacher…… And as fate would have it, I am one now!

My decision to B.Sc Agriculture was with an aim to pursue higher studies in environment studies but ended up doing an MBA instead. Why?? No apparent reason….. Probably got influenced by the glitz and glam of the material world! Probably my decision pursue natural sciences was not strong enough!

My parents wanted me to be a doctor….. and an IAS officer…… and rich! They gave me all I would ever need to be that. My Dad used to avail personal loans to but us books worth thousands! He would make us interact with some of the greatest minds, visit historical places, watch great programs on TV.

They did all they could.

I never became a “good student”. I was at best a mediocre student even though I was very good at sciences and social sciences. In the end, neither did I become a doctor nor an IAS officer and the way things are, I will die poor!

In fact all my parents’ effort to make us read and meet great people almost made a socialist out of me and even my decision to become a teacher was influenced rather heavily by it.

But despite all what has happened, I remained happy! My life till now and to a great extent even now has been one roller coaster ride of emotions and experiences.

All that ever mattered to us was friends, fun, games, trips, debates, quizzes, photography, romance, more friends and even more fun!

But then during all this, I still manage to ask myself this question; “What is your aim in life?”

As of today, my aim in life is:

To utilise my assets on platforms of higher education to make drive positive change in the society."

I know it sounds grandiose, but I feel that it can be done and being a teacher gives me a great opportunity to do it. That does not mean that I am forsaking the material world!!! I still enjoy the finer things in life and do fel good if i acquire one, like the Canon EOS500D, I bought recently. I however am clear that whatever I will earn shoud be as a consequence of achieving excellence in my professiona and and that I should and will be always defined by my aim in life rather than some brand or a car or a bank balance or a great house. 

I however am not sure I am on the right path. I feel that even though I am what I wanted to be, a teacher and I am already on a platform of higher education, I still am not doing enough of what I feel would be of any significance to any body.

I guess I need to reevaluate my strategic position, weigh my strategic options and erase the gaps in strategy implementation.

If after a decade of doing MBA, I am still thinking on these lines, as students, don’t you guys think that you guys should be doing the same??? Imagine the time you would have to achieve if you were to know what it is that you really want! I assure you, “package”, “position”, “designations” etc. etc. sound great but all these usually turn out to be worth less unless you were clear about your deepest self.

I would suggest, take some time and try to introspect, talk to yourself, find out who you really are and what you really want before you take the plunge.

A Personal Request to My Students

I had joined a popular “prepare for MBA” kind of site some time ago as I too was a CAT aspirant (once!) for the fellow program. Recently I came across a thread discussing IBS and the rather distasteful issues that we all had to face recently. I know that by  writing this I am treading extremely dangerous ground but as a faculty I feel it is my duty to address the issue.

At the very outset let me make this very clear to you that this legal tangle affects me too. I however am not open to getting into an “I am more the victim than thou” kind of match with anyone. I would also like to inform my students that I have been characterised as a born cynic, an anti establishment rebel, a socialist idealist by friends, family and colleagues. It is almost impossible for me to choose the establishment over the masses, the proletariat over the bourgeoisie! So you should know, I will not endorse IBS only because I am an employee.

I will not about the legalities or the committees or the PILs. I will talk of what is dear to me and what I know that “I know”

Academics at IBS

This is the third college, I am working in and I have had very deep associations with many others. I have had an insider’s detailed eyeball account of what happens at the very best. Despite what has transpired recently and is still on the boil, I assure you that you are studying at what is arguably the best platform for management studies in Chandigarh. As of now, I challenge anyone to show me a college that boasts of the kind of faculty you guys have north of New Delhi.

The kind of emphasis you have on application based education which even the most cynical of you will agree is very important is something which I have not seen in any of the other “AICTE Approved” and “we are ranked 20” kind of institutions. I know the inside out of most of these places and I wish I could share the realities of the systems, the faculty and the teaching these places have. Let us put it this way, I am fairly confident that most faculty in most of these colleges would fail if they were to attempt the question paper for marketing research you guys got for your exam. Right now, my dear students, I am a part of a team which I am proud of. I assure you, this is the best faculty you could hope for, the syllabus is relevant and updated, the systems are powerful and believe me, you guys are doing great.

Placements

What is wrong with them? What we managed this time was in the face of tremendous odds and despite that the figures we have churned out are amazing! I will not get into numbers here as they are irrelevant. Then why are so many seniors cribbing, you may ask? Well, that is because, it sometimes is in the nature of a man to keep cribbing! The placement department can do only as much as to bring in the companies! Did they not do that?? They did. Were they less than what you expected? Yes, they were les than even what we expected but I am sure most of you well informed young men and women know what happened to the globe last year!! I have seen the placement department running to convince students to sit for the PPT at least! And then they have the chutzpah to blame it all on the college!!

Despite all that most of your seniors got good jobs. Yes there were many who could not get placed and that will be the case in your class too! If any of you think that you will get placed if you do not make efforts to make yourself "acceptable to the industry”, get ready for a rude awakening. Then you too will appear in online forums spewing venom for your alma mater!

Leave Everything

Yes leave everything. Let us go back to the very basics. IBS is not a building, the classrooms, placement records, projectors. . . . . . IBS is the people who work in it and the people who come to study there. If someone tells me IBS is no good, I am being told that I am no good. When we talk negative we create an atmosphere of mistrust, doubt, uncertainty and anxiety.

Then I wonder; who are these people who are condemning the college? By the tone of their voices and the arguments they make, they sound as if they would have been at home in some IIM but were forced to join IBS! Then they ignore that the same classrooms churned out success stories where they penned their tragedies! And you can always spot them easily as they have the loudest voices and know most about all things under the sun!! It is not only you, any human being would be very easily affected in such an atmosphere. You came here to get good education. Begin that journey by trying to be good human beings with a positive attitude. Stop listening to and stop spreading negativity.

In The End

Stop cooking conspiracy theories and try to behave like a future manager. If you are not one, try to pretend. Will that change the AICTE / UGC tangle?? No. Not at all, but it will definitely help you feel better about yourself. You see the key is to be passionate at what you do. If you do your MBA passionately enough, the industry will care two hoots for your status with regulators. They need well rounded individuals, not empty headed, scared, confidence less so called MBAs from so called AICTE approved institutions. Don’t feel bad about you institution. IBS is one of the best I have seen. And I have seen the following too:

• Colleges where most of the data given to magazines for rankings and to AICTE as “Intellectual Capital” is pure fiction.
  
• Colleges where, there is faculty who were students in the previous semester!
  
• Colleges without net connections, leave alone on line databases!
  
• Colleges where AICTE rules are broken daily but AICTE still approves them!!
  
• Colleges where books for the library are purchased by weight when libraries auction outdated and useless books and in bulk not from booksellers but from back alleys near Jama Masjid!!
  
• Colleges which claim 100% placements on paper but even the 10% they could pace are getting a salary in the range of Rs. 8 – 15 thousand!!
  
• Colleges where semiliterate old time business men run “educational kiryana” stores where they sell AICTE approved MBA degrees. They charge hefty premiums for management quota seats and even offer discounts for bulk purchases!!
  
• Colleges where accountant of the college is asked to teach finance!!
  
• Colleges where the attendance is all fictitious and in reality never goes beyond 10%!!
  
• Colleges where the senior most faculty joined the college as a typist and once used to aspire to be a meter reader with PSEB!!
  
• Colleges where people do PhD in a subject, write a book on it without ever studying that or working in that field!! And believe it or not that book is one of the reference books in one of the IIMs!!
  
• Colleges where the children of the owner, as students  get to be wished to by the faculty, appear for exams sitting in their father’s office with all reference books and even faculty to help and then get away with it!!
  

These are all AICTE approved colleges! Now tell me, is IBS not heads and shoulders above such institutions?

 

IBS will be as good as you and I will make it. Let us make it Big!!

The Minute

The clock struck 11.59 and the party at le Meridene New Delhi went wild. The countdown began as a chorus, 59, 58, 57, 56……. The high and mighty was celebrating New Year’s Eve 1998. Everyone was on a high! High on spirits, high on success, high on page three glitterati glittering more tonight than ever.

It hurt. Shivering hard and rubbing against the tarmac hurt his ankles. Cold steel of the icy winter of Delhi cut through his tattered blanket through his shirt penetrating the pages of the Hindu and Economic Times he had stuffed in his shirt. The cold steel. Suddenly, the skies opened, pulled apart by a glow so warm that he had to smile! “Thank god! Now I can sleep” he said to himself. Maybe it was the winter or maybe the fumes from the vehicles but he had been feeling sick for the past few days now. So sick that he had not been able to collect enough from the bin to eat. “The bin!” he reflected, it was a lucky stroke that he chanced upon the bin. “I hope it remains a secret”, he thought. He did not want the other roadside urchins to know that even a big name like Le Meridiene in the middle of Lutyon’s delhi was flouting all the rules and dumping leftovers in the trash bin. You see, they were not supposed to that, they were supposed to dispose the leftovers as biological waste in a prescribed manner and carry to a large dump just on the outskirts of Delhi. But they bent the rules often! And thank God they did that!

Food. He suddenly remembered how his parents would leave them every morning and return late at night with food. Food. He remembered how it feel when he ate for the first and last time in a day at night. Food. “And food made you feel warm…… or is that just my imagination….” Food…… Filling and war, just like his mother’s hug! That brought a smile to his face, the thought of food and his mother seemed to increase the warmth and the glow! “What is the winter weakening already?” The pain had also disappeared. He was not shivering anymore. The warmth. So comfortable, so enveloping. The warmth, like the embrace of a beloved he never had. Her warm breath tingling his senses, her fragrance lilting, sensuous, so full of life.

Who was she, he had never seen her on this intersection before. Strange! She was actually smiling! And that too at him! Maybe she is one of the guests at the big party inside, maybe she decided to step out to experience the chill. But still, strange! Her touch was so warm, she smelt so good, fresh like the blossoms they threw away every evening after a VIP left. She was smiling, beckoning him! Was he dreaming? He had not even used the roadside paint remover fix others used. Then she held his hand and draped herself around his frail frame. In an instant his entire life flashed in front of his eyes. Such pleasure, such joy, such contentment. Who was this woman he wondered one last time before falling asleep in her warm embrace. Who was she?

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, WELCOME 1999!

The next day, MC Delhi added another unclaimed body to the endless list already had.

A Teacher Can Inspire

 Before reading further, please visit the link!

http://www.ndtv.com/news/offbeat/kalams_driver_now_a_lecturer.php

The postmodern career landscape and the intentions of academic entrepreneurs has probably created enough doubts regarding the statement. More than anything the doubts are whether we should even bother about such seemingly grandiose statements when you have “real” issues in life to bother about.

It is not about a driver getting a PhD and becoming a lecturer that is important. Being able to do this or constantly trying to something like this, is, in my humble opinion a moral responsibility of anyone earning her meal as a “teacher”.

I am sure most of the “realists” and “mature” teachers might consider this an idealistic rant and I take it as a compliment! 

How do you decide upon a research topic for your summer training?

Summer Training & Research

The answer would really depend on few of the following considerations:

·         Is it a summer training “program”, summer training “project” or simply. . . . . “Summer Training”? If it is a program then there will be components other than the one project you may be allotted by your organization and it depends on the current research orientation of your B school weather a research project will be a component or not. Some B schools have a focus on research either as a matter of policy or by default as they may have a concentration of research oriented faculty.

If it is a summer training project, the project may be a research based, task based or a hybrid. It is a popular misconception that projects awarded by the industry are usually task based and the ones decided by the faculty are research based. While the latter may hold some merit but it has been observed that even the industry does allocate extensive research projects too.

If you are unlucky enough to be a student at one of those “me too business schools” which seem to be mushrooming all over the place, then you may end up as “free labour for the local businesses” in the name of summer training. In this case no one will really bother about what you may learn, the focus will be on how much volume you and the other “trainees” drive in the 6-8 weeks time.

 

Social research tools can be used to generate results that are actually “actionable’ by the industry and allows the student to bridge the gap between “theory” she has studied (hopefully!!) in the sterile environs of the class and its manifestation on the ground in the industry.

 

If You are Supposed to Then How Do You Decide on a Research Project?

 

The Idea!

So doing a research project as a part of your summer training is compulsory!! And the faculty in charge has asked to decide upon few “Topics” or “Titles”. How do we proceed????

Assuming that you are actually doing your training, you will have to ask yourself the following questions:

1.    Is there something the company is trying to do but don’t have too much of an idea of it?

2.    Is there any problem cropping up regularly?

3.    Are the customers of this product seeking something else?

4.    Are the customers satisfied with the services provided by this company?

5.    What are the competitors of this company doing?

6.    Do they need any information about anything in the market?

7.    Can I see the marketing HR or Finanace I have studied in action?

This list can go on and on. . . . . . but I am sure by now you will have an idea of what kind of questions I am trying to tell you to ask yourself. . . . . .

 

In my language, as a summer trainee at an organization, you should map the value chain and look for managerial issues that might need resolution or can de with more clarification. As a student you should be able to see concepts that were till today merely part of the syllabus come alive in front of you. The moment you are able to visualize the whole “process”, ideas for research will start popping up in your head!

 

But is it Feasible?

I use the following criteria as a very rough tool to asses the feasibility of the research idea.

1.    How much time do we have? Can this project be done in time?

2.    How much and what kind of data will we need? Will we be able to get the data easily and in time?

3.    What kind of technical know how is needed to pull this off? Does the students and the faculty concerned have such knowledge or not?

 

It is quite simple: “Don’t Bite off More than You Can Chew”. Studying “strategy” may not be feasible for a very simple reason that the information needed will need access to the top management of organizations who unfortunately are very busy people and we may not be able to meet them. It is difficult to study the “effect or impact of advertisements” as students and faculty may not have exposure to tools needed to measure impact of an ad! A longitudinal study can be done on any subject but not within the 6-8 week limit imposed on summer trainings!

 

OK It’s Feasible! Now how do you Make a “Title” out of it?

Right! Now you have an idea and it can be done in time! Great! The first step in writing a title would be to remember that it should be focused enough to clearly spell out what is the study about and at the same time it should be as short and crisp as possible. . . . . . . . . I know, I know, you already know that. My approach is to write a title to the best of my efforts and then rewrite it again and again till I have hit upon one which “seems perfect”. For example:

I am really curious about why many of my students opted for an MBA. . . . . . . . Then naturally I am curious how they decided where to their MBA from. . . . . . .  Now, if I were to make a research title out of this curiosity, My first step would be:

1.    Look for studies on the same or related topics. I would suggest use of Google Scholar for the purpose.

Once I have studied a few articles from magazines, sites and journals, I will have an idea as to what kind of titles to they have and what are the various issues studied. . . . . My next step would be:

2.    Talk to a couple of students and have a talk with them as to how they decided on an MBA and the college. This can be called a very rough “pilot study”

Now I will have a great deal of idea as to the issues involved, the research that has been done on the subject and the way students seem to decide in India.

 

Now you write the title:

·         A study of why students do MBA and how they choose the college to do it from.

OK. . . . . . something seems off, doesn’t it???? Let’s write it down once again, but this time we will try to add more technical terms and less “layman” language!!

·         A Study of Consumer Decision Making While Selecting MBA and the School to do it from.

Oooohh!! Too heavy but the end is still “layman” and for some reason it is not clicking. Calling the student a consumer does not seem like a very good idea and decision making is too broad and vague a variable to be studied . . . . . . lets try once again!

·         The Choice of MBA and the School to do it From: A study of student decision making.

You know hat, the problem seems to be that we are trying to “study’ too many variables in one go. What if we study only “How students decide upon a college” after they have already chosen MBA.

·         School Choice Behaviour of Prospective MBA Students: A Study of Factors Considered and the Moderating Influences.

Wow!! I think this is it!! We have our title!! The title very clearly indicates that the research is about how prospective students decide upon where they do their MBA from, the factors they considered and the factors that “moderate” the end decision of the student!!

 

Why Did The Fiscal Deficit Rise?

A scan of reactions to the budget on the net reveals a picture of what can be best described as a “cautiously optimistic yet defensive” budget. With the global markets experiencing such turmoil, maybe the  Finance minister would have been forced to defend his turf first and ensure that we maintain a GDP growth rate of at least 7% and inch closer to the targeted 9%. The increased government spending and increased stress due to sops like loan waivers the fiscal deficit figure has inflated to 6.8%.

There are enough articles on the net that would tell you that this figure of 6.8% is probably the highest in the world and is almost dangerous and we will cut ratings etc.

Then one might question that why did the government need to increase spending and how is government spending related to GDP and GDP growth rate?

A very brief session with the Boss yesterday gave me an idea that as I was unclear so might many of you be. So here is the explanation.

 

GDP can be explained in the following three ways. All three essentially amount to the same meaning in the end!!

1.       GDP is equal to the total expenditures for all final goods and services produced within the country in a stipulated period of time, usually one calendar or financial year.

2.       GDP is equal to the sum of the value added at every stage of production by all the industries within a country, plus taxes less subsidies on products, in a year.

3.       GDP is equal to the sum of the income generated by production in the country in the period—that is, compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, and gross operating surplus (or profits).

If you consider any of the three or all of them, you will appreciate the GDP figure for a country would indicate the economic health and vibrancy of the economy of that country. That would also mean that the GDP growth rate is an equally wonderful indicator of a countries “progress” on the economy front. The GDP growth rate would thus indicate the rate at which “wealth generation” is increasing in a country.

Let us consider the formula for GDP

GDP = C + I + G + (X – M)

Where                    C = Consumption (that would indirectly mean demand, will it not?)

                                I = Gross investment

                                G = Government spending

                                X = Exports

                                M = Imports

In this equation it is amply clear that the variables I, G, X and M are dependent on the overall demand in the market. In an increasingly free economy and in a world where economies are interlinked, depression of demand in one part of the world will definitely lead to a slowdown elsewhere. Have we not seen this happen recently?

So in the equation the only variable we can control is “G” or government spending. As the GDP growth rate of India is decreasing on account of the global meltdown, your government was left with no choice but to increase the “G” hoping that the GDP growth rate fall would be slowed, then arrested and ultimately return to a growth scenario.

But increased “G” means increased fiscal deficit as revenue are not increasing proportionally. So we can conclude that even though the jump from a figure of less than 3% to a figure of 6.8% is worrisome but was inevitable as the government has to spend more to weather the current storm.

 

Food for Thought: In case you get time, do visit the following link and you will see that we are 17^th on a list of GDP growth rate of countries. Leave China, look at the other 15 with GDP growth rate better than India and try to find why countries like them have a GDP growth rate even up to 15% where we are struggling to meet 7%!!