"Guru"-what's in it for all of us?

All of you must have watched this movie by Mani Ratnam, an acclaimed director, released in late 2007.If you haven't, then you must watch it (on a legal DVD!).Loosely based on the late Polyester Prince (Dhirubhai Ambani), this is one great film Bollywood has churned out in the recent years.Here's more on the climax:

Gurubhai’s final speech in front of the commission is a scathing indictment of the vicious License-permit Raj that was prevalent in India post-independence. Individual entrepreneurship was stifled and thereby the growth of the Indian economy. Widespread red tapism ensured that the rich became richer and the poor remained poor, even decades after independence. The four and a half minute speech sums up the crux of India’s economic woes. It also contained the elements of a vociferous protest against the status quo and made a formidable pitch for a structural change in India’s economic policies.

The following are the key takeaways from the movie:

1.High risk appetite: Gurubhai demonstrates this in the game of coins when he was in Turkey. Calculated risk-taking pays more often than not in the world of business as well as life. One must come out of his/her comfort zone to achieve something big in life. A life without ambition is no life at all.

2.Entrepreneurial spirit: Gurubhai refuses the promotion offered by the multinational company he was working for in Turkey and surprises everybody when he decides to return to India to start something on his own. All this despite an elementary education, an uncooperative father, marginal capital and the anti-capitalist economic policies being followed in India under the veil of socialism. His gut feeling and tremendous self-belief is legendary and worth emulating.


3.Non conformity with archaic social norms: He defies the social norm by marrying Sujata who had earned notoriety throughout her village for a failed attempt to elope with her lover. Though Guru married her primarily for the dowry (to use as seed capital along with his own savings), he compensated for this by marrying against the accepted social norms and taking good care of his wife and brother-in-law.

4.Indomitable courage and self-belief: He takes the battle head-on with The Independent when its editor turns hostile towards him on account of his unethical business practices. He keeps his emotions aside and works overtime to make Shakti Industries the largest private company in India. However, he still respects the editor Manik Dasgupta as a fatherly figure for his support and encouragement when he was a struggler in Mumbai.

5.Dreaming big and working hard: Gurubhai dreamt bigger than any other Indian industrialist and thereby built a huge business empire from scratch. He worked tirelessly to achieve his high ambitions. He was a role model for the average Indian who wanted to make it big on his own. This is something all of us must imbibe in ourselves.

Though Gurubhai’s personality had a few shades of grey, his achievements and his contribution to Indian industry were unparalleled. He achieved in ten years what established industrialists with all the foreign degrees and connections could not in a hundred years. Sometimes, it is essential to break the law if it is not rational and against the public good.

Lessons in sales from Rocket Singh

The movie is an excellent take on the way sales is done in India. It captures beautifully the changing dynamics of the market and therewith the rising expectations of the Indian consumers, more so in the business marketing context. The philosophy that business is not just about how much profit you make or about the revenue growth is largely being accepted across companies globally. It’s all about people now. The way customers and employees are dealt with will determine the long-term success of the firm. The major lessons, primarily from a sales strategy point of view have been outlined below:

1.Service is the key differentiator: Right from installation to maintenance and repair it all boils down to service. More so in the case of commoditized products and services like PCs and telecom respectively. There’s hardly much difference in the products sold by different companies in many categories. Hence the importance of service has increased manifold, even in an incentive-based (bribe) business market like India. Rocket Sales Corp (RSC) provided unprecedented levels of service and hence grew phenomenally.

2.Honesty pays: RSC never made any false promises to any of their customers. They did not bribe their way to get orders. It garnered great sales purely on the basis of good service and a strong commitment towards all their customers..

3.Partners not employees: At RSC, all the people were equal partners. Hence there was this sense of ownership in all the people working there. This strengthened the bond between the partners and the company as well as amongst themselves, which led to a 24*7 service culture in the firm. This was in sharp contrast to the bureaucratic and exploitative culture at AYS.

4.Proactive interpersonal skills: When RSC was launched, it was very difficult to bag orders from new customers with an absolutely zero track record. However, the protagonist who is very proactive utilizes his interpersonal skills really well to influence, persuade and convince the customers to buy PCs from RSC. He goes out of his way to allay any apprehensions in the minds of the customers when he gets ready to mortgage his scooter. Though it might appear ridiculous to many, this incident shows the commitment and desperation of a truly service-oriented startup. He also uses his interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts among the partners at RSC.

5.Risk-takers win: In sales or business for that matter, one must come out from his/her comfort zone and take calculated risks. They may not pay off always but they open new frontiers for the firm to cash in on in future. Every single employee must be empowered and encouraged to take such calculated risks to enhance bottom line and shareholder value.

Thoughts after watching "Corporate"

DISCLAIMER-This is not a movie review.

I watched the movie Corporate for the first time yesterday night.A movie I had longed to watch for quite sometime.

The movie depicted the dark side of corporate life beautifully.But two pertinent questions were raised in the movie to which there are no easy answers.I am saying this after 4 years of business management education (3 years BBA+1 year MBA).I am undergoing a course on "Ethics and Indian Values" in the third term at SDMIMD and I think the movie is an excellent case reflecting the way business is done in India (may be globally too, with minor variations)

Q1. Is the business of business a strong bottom line at any cost?
Q2. Does business need politics more or is it the other way around?

I have been thinking hard over these questions but reality seems to be a far cry from the ideal situation.

A free market economy must provide a fair/level- playing field to all players.But corruption and nepotism in the business-politics nexus deny a fair chance to all players, which stifles competition and defeats the very purpose of a free market economy.India is gradually transitioning from a mixed economy to a free market one thanks to reforms post-1991.But the transition is fraught with myriad issues pertaining to corruption,unethical behavior etc. that have put serious question marks on the India growth story.Business-politics nexus is found globally and history bears testimony to this.The giants generally bribe their way through whenever any obstacle arises in their plans--be it protest against land acquisition, public health or environmental impact.Regulators in general and Indian in particular, haven't been successful to that extent in curbing such unethical things, with far-reaching repercussions.

Lobbyists are hired to fight for corporates in parliaments (and paid millions of $) and its an open secret in developed economies like the US, but we don't have such an open system in India, though things are going on discreetly.

I think a stronger and more efficient regulatory mechanism along with a more aware/pro-active civil society can check this old menace that has the potential to jeopardize India's ambition of transforming itself into a TRULY developed nation.