Creative Campus & Ideal Students

Ravi was back to his room after completing his evening classes. As usual, he and his room mate Aryan went for a walk while their class mates went onto have a round of table tennis and badminton. Both Ravi and Aryan would walk through the campus and met Shahid on almost daily basis. Shahid was pursuing his Ph.D in Political Science. Shahid’s father and Ravi’s father used to work in the same company. This association was a reason why Ravi had chosen this University to pursue his MBA program. Ravi was a bright student since childhood and used to perform very well in studies as well as his extra curricular activities. He had completed his B.Tech from a very reputed institution and wanted to get into the field of Busines Management. He was fascinated by the idea of earning an MBA degree and stepping into the corporate world. He aspired to be a CEO one day. He could immerse himself into business dailies and magazines for hours together even during his Engineering days. Inspite of being a good student, he could never develop a taste for the Engineering Discipline. Most of his talks would be on brands, advertising, business strategy and so on. He always felt that he did not want to lead his life like his dad who inspite of years of hard work and experience, could not even afford foreign travel and a luxury car for himself and the family.

Ravi wondered how fast an year has gone by. It just seemed a few days back when he was bullied by his seniors on his first day in the hostel. He remembered how his room mate Aryan was unfettered by the behaviour of seniors. Ravi recollected his first day in the hostel when he was made to answer silly questions by his seniors. He was determined not to bend against seniors. While he made this little grill very heavy on himself, Aryan was as cool as a cucumber. He smiled off few questions from the seniors when they had ganged up and barged in their room. The drill ended after few moments and Ravi was trying to let Aryan know that he knew few students in the University who could take their rowdy seniors to the task. Aryan was not interested in Ravi’s macho talk and just settled down calmly.

As the time passed, Ravi realised that his seniors were not all that bad and impossible. He even laughed on himself for being extremely judgemental. He also got inspired by few of his seniors who went on to win few Inter University contests on business quizzes, Business plans and so on. He was especially impressed with his Finance Professor, Dr.Rajan who used to teach in an American accent and had an American degree as well as a McGraw Hill publication to his credit. While he had settled down in the University environment, he was very keen to get into the corporate world.

Ravi’s room mate Aryan came from a very well to do business family. While Aryan was not as good as Ravi in his studies, he exhibited tremendous maturity in his behaviour. He never had to struggle in his life. He had completed his primary studies from a convent school and earned his Undergraduation degree from a leading Commerce college of the city. He and his father had made a mind to enrol him into an American college for an MBA. However, his mother did not wish to send her only child so far away. Aryan respected her mother’s emotions and decided to enrol into the University’s MBA program. Aryan was not very passionate about studies as he knew that he would eventually go on to occupy his father’s Chemicals business which had a developed into a virtual empire within two decades and yielded great fortunes to them.
Being room mates, Ravi and Aryan had become close to each other. They would dine together and even spent leisure time with each other during shoppings, long walks and movies. Shahid being a family friend and senior, Ravi started visiting his dorm which was some half a mile away in the adjacent campus. Shahid was a very upright character and had tremendous self confidence. He was a great critique of the society, the government and the people. He believed in divinity and in the Creator of the Universe. He would follow his faith and was very proud of it. He used to pray five times a day and practiced other rituals of Islam with tremendous regularity. He had built up his ideology around the teachings of Quran. He used to write various articles for magazines. He was very popular among his class mates as well as his teachers. He was in a way ideal student who was very knowledgeable, sincere, polite and endowed with tremendous leadership ability. How could have Ravi saved himself from the charishma of Shahid.

Ravi would love to listen to Shahid and Aryan was also hooked on to the enlighting sessions with Shahid. Every evening all three of them would have a stroll in the park and they used to talk on almost all issues under the sun. However, Shahid would leave them after a while when he listened to Azan, the call for evening prayers. Shahid during his talks had informed of several interesting stories happened in the University. In one such incident, Shalin a student from a small village had to face a lot of hardships before securing admission in the first year of his Biotech program. The incident happened when Shahid just joined his PG course in the University.

Shahid was at Administrative building to collect his money receipt, when he found a boy pleading to the Sr.Clerk. He heard him saying that my life will be destroyed. Please don’t do this to me. Upon inquiring with the boy Shahid found it that he was Shalin who had cleared an entrance exam for the Biotech program and his name also featured in the merit list. However, he could not deposit fees and documents to the University office in the stipulated time, which meant he was not eligible for admission. As Shalin was starting from his place, he lost his mother in a tragic incident. He had to stay back for his mother’s funeral and by the time he was through, he had missed the deadline. He was trying to explain the same thing at the University Office. However, the University officials were constrained by the rules and inspite of having sympathy for Shalin could not do anything for him.

Shahid decided to help Shalin. It was just his second day in the University but he displayed courage and took Shalin to his hostel. He then presented this case to his seniors,his HOD and the staff of his department. He also interacted with few seniors about the unfortunate incident but most people could not suggest him the way out. But Shahid had other ideas. He could convince few of his seniors with whom he was meeting for the first time to join him to the Vice Chancellor’s office. The VC gave them a patient hearing but said that he cannot bend rules and would not be able to help Shalin.

At the dinner table, he was greeted by the seniors who expressed their concerns. Some even advised him to forget the matter lest he may face trouble for going against the University management. However, Sunil one of his seniors asked him to speak with the Warden Mr.Mohan who was a lecturer in the Journalism department. Mr.Mohan had a reputation of being a nice guy. Shahid requested Sunil to join him and they immediately went to Warden’s room who was about to leave his cabin. After listening attentively to the case, he said there was very little scope as the University Management was always shy of inviting any controversy. Shahid in a last effort asked very naively that whether it was possible to raise this issue in the media. Mr.Mohan gave contacts of a few of his Media friends. Shahid approached two of these media professionals and they agreed to carry the story. Shalin’s story got a small but back page mention in one of the leading news dailies. The local Member of Parliament read this story and immediately decided to help Shalin as he belonged to his own village. His intervention proved to be very effective as the VC granted him the seat from his discretionary quota. This incident actually vindicated the saying that if there is a will then there is a way.

There were many such inspiring stories of Shahid. Before Shahid had joined his PG Course, the University was notorious for ragging. Shahid was not needed to face this as he had won himself many friends within a short duration. It so happened once that two of his class mates Nitin and Hussain who were sharing the same room had invited trouble from seniors. Nitin was a man with short temperament and he tried to manhandle one of his seniors who was trying to show off his authority to him. A bunch of ten to twelve students barged in their room to teach them a lesson. It was certain that both Nitin and Hussain would be facing a nightmare that day. However, Shahid who was occupying the next room sensed the trouble and assembled few of his friends. Shahid in a loud tone tried to calm down everyone and managed the situation with great ease. He even convinced Nitin to apologise to his senior. Shahid did not stop there. From next day onwards, he and five of his friends started a signature campaign, “Down Down Ragging, Down Down Violence”. The idea was received very well not only in his hostel but also in his department. They could collect 300 signatures in first two days. The campaign got extended to a few other departments and soon the idea caught the fancy of the entire University. The Faculty of Education went on to organise a symposium on the subject. Shahid was also invited to express his views in the Symposium. He thus started gaining popularity in the University.

Shahid felt that it was imperative to continue the good work in the University and it was not possible without an organised effort. He convinced his friends to create a “Forum for Students Democracy”. It was basically a small group established to facilitate good causes by motivating fellow students to understand their role towards the Society. This forum was built on strong principles. Ravi and Aryan had by now enrolled themselves into the Forum and attended various programs organised by the Forum.

One of the big achievements of the Forum was alleviation of the problem of Ragging in the University. The Forum had institutionalised an annual event of forming a group of eight to ten seniors. Each group of seniors was assigned a group of two to four juniors. Each group of seniors would then spend one day with juniors and extend them the hospitality. After a duration of one month, juniors would vote on who was the most hospitable group. The winners among the seniors were then recognised in the University journal. This had ensured that almost all the seniors were very keen to win the hearts of their juniors. Ravi also remembered how nicely he was treated by a few of his seniors. He then laughed on himself about his plans for messing up with his seniors.

This Forum which was a brainchild of Shahid and had grown much bigger than individuals. Shahid was very happy that it had exactly turned out the way he expected. He wanted the dormant talents of the students to surface through this Forum. The Forum true to its name remained democratic and promoted new leadership. Through this Forum, the University had witnessed many changes. Few of the courses which had been stopped by the University Management re-started with the activism of the students. University Elections were banned since long but they were resumed with the efforts of the Forum. Many such issues like improving students amenities, hostel facilities, Plastic Ban in the Campuses, Upgradation of Research facilities, Industry Contacts and Society Contact Programs were being taken up by the Forum.

Ravi by now had understood that all the glamour which he was trying to find in the pink papers and the jazzy designations was mere an eyewash. The real success did not lie in glass buildings or big cars but in being someone who would utilise his skills to be good to people. He had completely changed the way of looking at Business Management. He started questioning the idea of Businesses. This actually was a game changer for him. He went on to get plum offerings from huge MNCs. However, he chose a relatively smaller company which worked on bringing the grass root Innovations of small people to big industries. Ravi eventually received what he always yearned for. His job made him to travel the world but he was doing this not for fat paycheques but for uplifting lives of the underprivileged ones. Aryan did occupy his father’s business. He changed the way his father did business. He introduced a policy of profit sharing with employees and result was to be seen. His business empire had reached new heights without being exploitative in nature.

The story of Shahid and his Forum is essentially a story of Creative Campus and Ideal Students. Let us dream for such an education system which churns leaders for the Society and not the Corporate Slaves.

The Science of Marketing & Its Social Impact

Marketing has developed as a Science in the 20th Century and has flourished in the last few decades. The impact is such that there is virtually no business organisation around which does not have a marketing department. For smaller organisations too there are dedicated personnel for Marketing and even independent entrepreneurs are having a lot of marketing inclination.

Marketing can be understood as a process of understanding your selling environment. Philip Kotler, the legend in Marketing has coined a phrase called 4Ps viz. Product, Price, Place & Promotion. Looking at these 4Ps, one can get a very fair idea of the Marketing Mix of any selling organisation. Product refers to goods or services which are on offer. Price refers to the selling price of the product or service on offer. Place refers to the point of sale i.e. the place at which the selling transaction happens between the buyer and the seller. Promotion refers to the efforts undertaken by the selling organisation in order to educate the customer about its offerings.

Let us apply this Marketing concept to our magazine Yuva Saathi. Take first P i.e. Product. The product on offer in a monthly magazine in Gujarati. It is a collection of informative as well as thought provoking articles targeted to students and youth community. Price: The product is being sold at an annual price of Rs.180 for 12 issues. Place: One can buy this magazine through its authorized agents or through online subscription. Promotion: The magazine is promoted through the network of SIO and word of mouth.

Although all these 4PS are not exhaustive in understanding the marketing mix but give a very fair idea about the marketing approach. Many management scientists have tried to improve the Kotler Model and have floated their own theories.

Marketing as such is not a disruptive Science which has completely changed the fundamentals of doing business. However, none can deny the fact that it has changed the way people look at their business and has also had a great impact in defining the priorities of their business.

The underlying object of the Marketing still remains selling and selling more. The objective of the marketing is consistent with the objectives of Finance Management as well as Management Science which is Wealth Maximisation. First lesson imparted to any management science student across all the business schools in the globe is that you exist for maximization of the shareholder’s wealth.

This Marketing Approach has had a lot of impact on the collective as well as individual behavior in the Society.

Consumerism: Marketing can be directly held responsible for an excessive consumerist orientation of the society. The Marketers in order to sell more of their products apply a lot of energy in finding more buyers of their products and also try to sell more to their existing consumers. Just to cite an example, a shampoo marketer would try to find more and more buyers by way of making his products available at maximum number of outlets. Moreover, he will communicate that in order to have better hair one must use shampoo daily. This would help him to sell more to his existing set of buyers. This phenomenon leads to a creation of a new class called consumerist class. There are hundreds of examples around us who are having a dozen cars, tens of houses, hundreds of pair of clothes, shoes, sun-glasses and what not. Then there is this is aspiration class which wants to consume as much as this consumerist class is consuming.

One can list thousands of ills of this consumerist orientation of the society. Nature has endowed us with limited resources but this consumerism ensures that everyone wants to have more and more, thus creating conflict of interests among human beings. This conflict of interest is not only damaging human relationships but is also proving to be a disaster to environment. Thousands of species have got extinct from the earth due to this desire of consuming more and more.

This love for consumption ensures that everyone out there is fighting to control finite resources. If one analyses the reasons of wars within the human civilization over the recorded history of centuries, one can infer that the underlying reason for these wars for desire to consume more. Experts have also suggested that recent gulf wars and the US war against Iraq and Afghanisan were desperate attempts to control their rich natural resources.

Pestering: Marketers in order to achieve their goals have found a very shrewd way of using pester power to their advantage. Targeting Children and using their influence over their parents and guardians has been the new mantra of marketers. To communicate with children, they have created a highway of cartoon channels and characters. Through these cartoon icons they try and sell their products. A large number of parents are forced to bow down to this pester power in varying degrees. This pestering not only exerts undue pressure on parents but also create an inferiority complex among them for not being able to fulfill their wards’ demands. The children on the other hand tend to develop negativity about their parents. There have been a few reported cases of even suicides by the children. To quote one such example, a teenage girl committed suicide when her mother did not allow her to put on western outfits.

The constant exposure to these cartoon channels also creates a dream fancy world to children. Reality then becomes so bitter to them that they are seldom prepared to face the harsh realities of life.

Compromise on Social Values: Most Marketers believe that everything is fair in love, war and business. For them all the techniques which help them to sell more are successful techniques. They have used Advertising to plant their version on the consumers’ mindset. To capture the mind space of their consumers, Marketers don’t even shy away from using obscene advertisements. Continuous bombardment of nudity through TV and other media have ensured that nudity and all are no longer taboo word for a large number of people. They start feeling that everything is fine. This casual approach is having a very detrimental effect on the society.

Human Exploitation: Marketers in their pursuit to sell more and more go to any extent. In order to differentiate their products and services, they try to walk an extra mile over others. Retailers for example now keep their shops open for almost 365 days a year and for more than 12 hours a day. This really takes a toll on the employees. Although there are some statutory regulations like week-offs, the marketers try and ensure maximum utilization of manpower by compensating with meager amounts. Same stands true for those who are involved in producing goods and transporting goods. There is a huge class of these people who are busy in producing and distributing goods while others make merry during holidays and festivals. This mad pursuit to sell more reduces human beings to mere economic machines deprived of human values and ambitions. Precisely, this approach of the marketers (read capitalists) created a new class of people which was hell bent on killing their masters. The idea of Marxism arose from this exploitation and has inflicted huge damage to human lives.

Creation of Cartels: Marketers also found out that it is easier to sell when there are less sellers. This idea led to a concept called Cartel which means that competition is systematically killed and only a small set of sellers then control the market. The biggest criticism of the globalization was the idea of killing competition. The existence of cartels is now evident in a large number of sectors. If one analyses the number of organisations present in sectors like Mining, Information Technology, Chemicals, Iron & Steel, Pharmaceuticals, Paints, Industrial Raw Materials etc there are very few sellers. They all come together to virtually dictate the market place.

If one analyses how Bill Gates and his Microsoft did grew to a multibillion dollar enterprise, then this idea of killing the competition was the underlying driver. Microsoft never allowed flourishing of small organisations which came up with powerful ideas and values. He used to buy these small organisations through hostile acquisitions and bundled the entire computing system within his domain.

The similar phenomenon has also been witnessed in the Advertisement Business. The ad agency business is so integrated across the globe that majority of the ad agencies belong to one of the four big groups. These groups just like Bill Gates kept on acquiring small agencies. If we look at our own Reliance Industries, it systemically killed all the yarn producers and dominated the textile space. If one speaks of US there are only five to six leading retailers which control 80% of the market space. Same case is true in Fast Food Joints like McDonalds, Starbucks Coffee chain etc.

These cartels are created over a number of years and a point comes when they start dictating the consumption pattern of their consumers. The consumer interest takes a back-seat when cartels rise their ugly face. All the hue and cry against FDI in our country is owing to the prospects of creation of these cartels and killing of local competition thereof.

False Promises & Propaganda: The Marketing Approach has had a very detrimental effect on the gentleman virtue of delivering the promises. The Marketer in desperation of selling their goods or services don’t even shy off claiming false promises to their consumers. This phenomenon is not just restricted to local vendors who is trying to sell his inexpensive goods in a local market set up, but also holds true for large conglomerates. There have been numerous instances of banks, financial institutions, tour operators, white goods sellers etc making unrealistic promises and then betraying their consumers.

The Marketers also don’t shy away from planning long term actions in order to achieve their objective of selling more. One example can be sited of an Intel funded education program. The microprocessor major Intel whose chips go in almost all the computing devices, has started a literacy program in schools through its funded NGOs. Their underlying objective is to promote computer literacy across the globe which would in the long run serve their selling interests. There are host of such propaganda going across the world. One more such example was creating a hype around bird flu across the globe. While the apprehensions may not be completely misplaced, but all those who were crying hard were those who wanted to ensure sale of their medicines. Same thing is true for sale of many types of pesticides, vaccines etc.

All this propaganda has an economic as well as social cost. Not only does these things make living a costly affair but also adds lot of doubts to individuals.

Before conclusion, I must clarify that all marketing is not bad marketing. Marketers don’t just exist for exploitation but to serve the needs of fellow human beings. It definitely may be having some marginal success stories like empowering consumers, but one cannot deny the adverse social impacts it is having.

All the budding marketers and management students before stepping into the business world must always ask a question to themselves. What value am I adding to the society? If he finds positive answers then he must definitely walk that path but when he finds that his actions has more prospects of social damage then he must stop, ponder and may be change his course of action.