Boom-Barrier Boomed, Country-Doomed

The other day (28th December) Automatic-Boom-Barrier on toll-booth on Mumbai-Nashik highway near Igatpuri  'automatically' fell on our car. Nearly-missed the curse of 'broken-down' high-technology that could have resulted into fatalities. Luckily it didn't fall on windshield. We escaped crisis with a mere dent on top of the car. Whether we get compensated for the mechanical damage or not is a distant 'if-or-but' subject.

But the point worth highlighting is about the costs-of-poor-quality of work or wastes due to breakdowns.

Moving at snail's pace in the 'Toll-Queue' on that Sunday evening around 20.00 hours we ended up waiting in the queue for more than 10 minutes.

I think there were eight lanes with perhaps ten vehicles in each lane.

Couple of booths and hence the corresponding lanes were non-functional. Sitting in the vehicle, I couldn't ascertain whether they were broken-down or were reserved for 'VIP movement'? In India self-professed definition of VIP is anyone creatively sporting a magnetic 'Beacon-light-fixture' or a 'Stand for a color-flag with a black plastic-cover' and sometimes a vehicle carrying 'Bulky and/or Rowdy' personalities in 'Pure-white politician style attire'.

So while negotiating for the 'working'  lanes, some kept there engines ON. Some 'started' and 'stopped' until could finally manage to get through the toll-booth.

It's another subject whether the toll-tax should continue or not as per contractual agreement. But one thing is sure that a thesis is not needed if the road authorities choose to brainstorm answers to following questions.

What is the cost of fuel wasted?

What is the cost of delays to various stakeholders?

In order to save the above costs,
why can't the flow of vehicles be continuous by expediting 'Smart-Card-Reader' technology?: It shouldn't be difficult at all to do so across the country in less than a few weeks time considering that India is a leader in software-technologies.

Actually this example is just a representative one that can be extended to all delivery processes: Governance, Social or Business.

Unfortunately Indian leaders are leaders in playing dirty politics in decision making as well. They are 'smart' in record-breaking-speed on decisions related to vested-interests. Also they are 'leaders' in procrastinating (rather placing barriers in) issues of public interests so that the 'starving' public can be manipulated during elections. They are not bothered about such Booms banging over country's economy and dooming it.

By the time they realize importance of using their offices to speedily act on this,  can the thoughts in this post trigger each one of us to do something?

Surely yes. One may get some ideas by visiting 'Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation'.

Meanwhile keeping my activities On in this direction and keeping fingers crossed.

Looking forward to your suggestions and tips in the COMMENT-BOX below or a Tweet @Shyam Greets.

Digital technology http://care-is-cure.blogspot.in/2017/01/digital-corporate-yoga.html 

Technology in-place, security dis-placed http://care-is-cure.blogspot.com/2013/03/technology-in-place-security-dis-placed.html

Casuals Turn Serious, Shun Inaction

Leaders seriously enable casual's work
Turning serious, casuals shun inaction-n-quirk
Excellence springs in action of all men-at-work

The above Haiku is inspired by spirited action at  grass-root level on work-floor (Gemba) of a chemical complex in Western Gujarat.

I returned happy from there. Enthusiasm of faculty as well as of the management team was mirrored on shop-floor. It was genuine. 

Thanks to the 16-strong leadership team, the Director and the CEO for their whole-hearted participation at Gemba. They worked on the grass-root level concerns by removing Dirty-Danger-Difficult part in their work.

This is the way 'companies-on-excellence-journey' choose to give message of their 'seriousness' and their 'sense-of-urgency' to change-for-better. They work towards allaying fear of failure.

Unfortunately in many companies most managers, HR in particular, play Administration (HRA) role rather than  action-oriented HRD role. 

HR role is one of Developmental (HRD), necessary to build people for culture-change like the one demonstrated by leaders as above. Building people requires working with them hand-in-hand rather than mere instructions. It is to invest time (more than money) in making serious efforts in order to enhance their knowledge, skills and capability. 

Kaizen-Claps to all of them for doing so! Eagerly waiting to take them to next step en-route the TPM initiative in second week of the New-Year.

HAPPY-YEAR-Ahead to One-&-All!

MaiKu© Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  

ABCD of India Shining

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

Nauseous Communication Gaps

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Will It Work Here? 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

That's how some business partnerships work

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Take Habits For A Ride 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ant Knocks Elephant Down

Ant knocks elephant down

Fishing trawler hits warship, sinks it's crown

Phishing stinks, makes Naval-vigilance frown

Above MaiKu© is inspired by the News "Fishing trawler sinks after colliding with Naval warship".

It highlights the importance of powerful vigilance using 7-Senses. 

It tells you to keep one eye on long-range vision and the other on shorter-range planning and actions else crisis might strike unannounced.

It tells you to keep one eye on strategy, the other on tactics.

It tells you to keep one eye on telescope, the other on microscope.

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Old-Problems, New-Reasons ! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Why do strategies fail
Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits
Will It Work Here?
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-it
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It!
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis
Will It Work Here?
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Does recognition really matter
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
ABCD of India Shining
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?

Encroachers o(w)n open land

Encroachers o(w)n open land

Top statesmen Number-One to offend

Make it difficult for Defence to defend

Inspired by the article...
Maharashtra leads in encroachment of defence land

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Power-fool Become Powerless

Power-fool become powerless

Likely to harm everything while not-in-power

Didn't do anything while-in-power

Above Haiku is inspired by poll results of 2013.

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Listen To The Iceberg Beyond Tip

If you want to solve a problem accurately then first step is to define it accurately.

In order to define it accurately you need to listen to various versions of the problem. 

If we don't listen we'll end up learning only tip of the iceberg. Listening is "hearing what isn't said" as Peter Drucker emphasises about "The most important thing in communication".

We don't learn new things because we don't listen. Before even hearing completely, we silently get busy in strategising to speak out our disagreement with other's ideas.

Even in dictionary there's a difference between the two. Listening is 'to pay attention'. Hearing is to be able to 'perceive' sounds that fall on ear.

Most often we get distracted by the speaker's inability to communicate. In a given situation, rather than grabbing her real feelings and the content s/he tries to present we lose most of the information, inadvertently at times. 

Many a time thoughts presented to us get sensored by the presenter depending upon her hidden agenda. It could be dangerous if one gets influenced by presentation-quality of the presenter under such circumstances, be it a customer, a supplier or an employee. Better the presentation better is the impression likely to be and vice versa. 

But after all an impression need not be a reality. As a result we end up 'perceiving' depending upon our impressions and what we hear.

Listening is 'to pay attention' to the deeper content and feelings scratching beyond the surface. In other words, to put it more accurately, we need to actively-listen.

Active-listening is like the way a mother 'listens' to her child. Even an illiterate mother is able to do so to her new-born one. She has her own way to find out what the child tries to communicate through her crying 'speak'. She 'throws' various options at the child and does a quick 'mix-n-match' of the 'contents' to find out near-perfect need of the child. She creates easy channels of communication and keeps them open through her judgemental PDCA¹ cycles in real time until the problem is captured and solved in totality.

This is an important skill to improve behavior of people and to improve relationships with an aim to resolve conflicts between two people or among groups of people.

Intent of the listener should be unbiased though. 

In case of a fight between two children, for instance, a matured mother would listen to content (complete facts) and sense negative or positive intent if any of both the sides with a positive intent of resolving conflict for common-good.

Extending this analogy of lack of positive intent by the big brother further one would be able to find out roots of why and how 'gossipers', 'informers' and 'frenemies' (enemies who 'act' like friends) get born in various settings and walks of life. 

So if you don't want to get disappointed later it's important to focus more on content and the intent of the speaker (the need to be a good listener) rather than fluency and beauty of communication (the want of a bad listener). Better to focus more on substance rather than style.

That way not only presence of a person is more likely to get recognised and respected but also iceberg of the problem is likely to be acknowledged and captured more accurately. 

Correct definition is like reaching half the solution to the problem. Rest half gets addressed with continued active-listening.

A MaiKu© poem on the subject:

Rains out-of-season

Child cries at 3 A.M. for no reason

Miss the bus on most occasion

MaiKu© Is My-Haiku

Footnote-1 ¹PDCA cycle of improvement as in Kaizen: Plan or Assess. Do or pilot-implementation as per preliminary assessment. Check or Validate the pilot-implementation before full implementation. Act or Improve by next cycle of assessment.

Bust-wants, Boom-needs

Inspired by Voters-Verdict

Bust-wants, Boom-needs
BROOM corruption, appeasement and greeds 
BRING governance, performance, jobs.. Not subsidy-feeds

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save!

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics

Should one care for value? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

What You See Isn't What's Made

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore 

How To Make A Difference 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Installed Capacity Stalled

Installed Capacity Of Electricity Stalled!
That's the way governance in India shines!!

कडाडली विजेवर वीज, 
पॉलिसीची, परफॉर्मन्सची,
सरकारी-सबसीडीची की वीज-चोरीची?

© MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Doesn't Matter Who Wins As Long As Customer Wins

There are n-number of comparisons in the market between Apple and Samsung fighting neck-to-neck for market-leadership position. Recently I came across one that addressed who-will-win between them. It had good comparison parameters in terms of innovation management, management leadership, brand, design, ecosystem compatibility, user experience, customer needs, profitability, growth, etc. 

For a customer whoever wins is OK as long as the customer herself wins. Knowing this winning companies win customers by making them win. In order to be in the league, suppliers have to speak to more of their own customers as well as that of the competition. They have to do this more often because hardly four percent (4%) of dissatisfied customers speak. Even loyalists don't speak at times. Hence to make all of them speak they have to articulate transactions with them more assertively without hurting them.

Here is an example of how much more the suppliers need to do by finding their own ways and means to capture such voice-of-customer (VOC). 

The solution wasn't there both in Apple as well as in Samsung device at least until the time I went to e-press to publish this post. Assuming that my search for the one on Google was inadequate, what I am surprised is why should it take so long to copy-paste such a simple feature that existed in Motorola sometime in 1997. I still have that model in my museum. 

Someone may say customer may have so many funny VOCs and behaviors. It's difficult to capture all of them especially the maverick wants in final offerings.

That's exactly the point I wished to express through this blogpost, the often repeated cliche: It's difficult but not impossible. And it can't be so difficult for it to take decades as in case of above example. 

There are many such funny VOCs floating around that can be accommodated without much costs. Easy ones everyone can do. The one who does so with difficult ones also and does so speedily without adding costs to the customer is the one who wins.

Looking forward to my above need in future models of one of these companies. In case you come across such one in future please do inform me through the comment box hereunder. 

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass

I am a miser!
Fool for others but unconventionally miser or a maverick for myself!!

Who is an unconventional-miser?: The one who follows principles of MISER: Minimize-Improvise-Simplify-Eliminate or Reduce waste. 

In fact my family members have borrowed MISER philosophy from me like a cuckoo brought up in a crow's nest would do. 

In order to REDUCE WASTE, the other day my wife got broken-strap-set of her slipper replaced instead of throwing it away. Actually only left-side-strap from the pair was broken. So she wanted to bring the right-side one back for future use as a backup and thereby REDUCE WASTE further on.

But the over-smart cobbler didn't give her any chance to implement her good intention. May be he wished to protect national pride from her 'miser' attitude. Before even she could complete her request, he chopped off both-side straps in split-second saying it would have otherwise damaged slot in the slipper had he tried to pull it off.

If he could insert new strap in the slot he could have easily removed the old one from it. Naturally because it was a rubber slipper with rubber-strap made of flexible material. Upto my engineering studies I couldn't afford any other footwear than a low-end slipper. So having done similar excercise not less than 100-times, I could have done what the cobbler was supposed to do perhaps more skillfully. 

What is the learning?

This is a case of breaking window-glass and then suggesting to replace it without bothering costs of it to the country's economy. Some businesses do use such a strategy of local-optimization. They take things and people for granted including the country. 

This is no different than staff of an inefficient municipality not bothering about quality of roads that forces wasteful activities such as that of rubbing (puncturing) tyres of vehicles and breaking backs of travellers. In fact, the cobbler behaved indifferently to a complaint made to him later on having realized that he had put two different sizes of straps (number '7' and '8' as can be seen in picture): A quality defect. 

This is what happens in a high-mistrust society where moron suppliers thrive upon number games instead of global-optimization for the larger good.

This is what happens where people-in-power (leaders themselves) discard things as 'old' although they are in good form and fit (aesthetically and functionlly). There 'pride'and 'ego' doesn't allow them to use things 'used' by their predecessors. 

Anyway, that's about what others can do. As a lesson learnt, I have decided to choose (rather bank upon) my childhood skills next time. In generic terms: To do mistake-proofing instead of trusting non-trustworthy morons to get near-perfect service.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Do You Ask Right Questions?

Questioning is an art!
Questions decide answers!
Right questions may get right answers!
Wrong questions may get wrong answers!

Questions decide desired outcomes and at times cause them too!
Questions make or break relationships! 
Right questions build relationships! Wrong ones break them!!

Other day we decided to take an earlier show of newly released film "Krrishh-3". Our maid was late to work. Wishing to reorganise her work my wife called her up to ensure that she arrives early enough before we depart for the show.

Which one of the following questions would have been right to choose from? Reason it out why?

1/ What time are you reaching? Or,
2/ Are you coming to work?

You will be benefited if you stretch your intellect before answering.

Think it out before reading next paragraph.

Taking her master for granted the second question gives maid an undesired option to say NO.
The only option first question gives her perhaps is to confirm the rescheduled time she would be reaching to work. Here there is no option for her to manipulate an undesired option to say NO.

Final outcome of course depends on prevailing demand-and-supply conditions. But by choosing the right question to ask you stand in a better position to influence the outcome in your favor.

1/ First question is of open-ended type. It could have had more than one answers of her choice such as 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. etc.
2/ Second question is of close-ended type because it has primarily limited replies: YES or NO.
3a/ First question is also a combination of leading-type and open-endeded type. Because it has a 'lead' built into it that presumes the maid is already on-way to work.
3b/ If first question's contents are modified to say "You are reaching by 2 p.m. right? it becomes a leading close-endeded type because it limits replies to YES or NO. But still it's an undesired option because she may choose NO.

In case of the situation under consideration, the open-ended question might trigger desirable answers if the contents are modified to say: I am leaving at 2 p.m. What time are you reaching?

What is the learning

It's important to know which type of question to use when?
How to frame contents of questions?
How many questions to use in what permutations and combinations thereof?

As done in Behavior Modulation Technique (BMT) or TA, answers to above questions depend upon what outcome you wish or want to articulate, not to manipulate though. At times you may have to use a checklist of questions to choose from for a given situation. Number of questions should be less (not more than a couple of them) although complicated situations may warrant more of them.

Difficult problem situations may need a judicious mix of choosing other type of questions as well alongwith the open-ended and close-ended ones. I will deal with them in other blogposts. They could be:

4/ Probing-type,
5/ Reflective-type, 
6/ Hypothetical type and even
7/ Stupid-questions (at times)

First two types, open-ended and close-ended ones, are usually useful in most situations: Be it Personal, Social or Business situations including in negotiations and also while handling customer grievances.

Primary purpose of open-ended questions is to extract information.
Primary purpose of close-ended questions is to limit alternatives.

So, think before you ask! Think of contents before you talk!!

If you don't ask right questions you do deserve a wrong or an undesired outcome!!!

Footnote
TA: Transactional Analysis

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

How do you behave when you come across security-guard of your housing society? Do you address him "Hey Watchman"?

In what manner do you speak to your driver or that of a taxi or for that matter a persuasive roadside salesman or a typical 'have-not', even a beggar?

Or, how do you behave with your subordinates for instance?

In very first encounter with them in the morning, do you nod as in expressing salutation to them? Or do you ignore their salutation if they give one?

If you've done the former, you have not-taken-them-for-granted. You have behaved as-desired like often done with external customers. Behaving other way round is like being indifferent. It's like disrespecting their self-esteem.

Indifferent behavior hurts ego and thereby breaks relationships. On the contrary a genuine smile recognizes their presence. It flashes back to you as good behavioral reflection of theirs too. It's like an adult-to-adult behavior that maintains self-esteem of both the parties as in BMT or TA language of behavior modulation.

How do you behave if others don't keep promises and instead misbehave with you repeatedly?

In spite of being in power, do you stay considerate enough say to bring facts of their misbehavior and indiscipline to their attention in a respectful manner? Do you play your role in providing justified resources if any to enable their promised performance level? 

If yes, then you have not taken them as well as yourself for granted. In inevitable cases you might have even reprimanded them for their undesirable repetitions though.

Former is like 'selling' instead of 'yelling' at them for their undesired behavior while the latter being 'telling'.

If you are not in power what do you do to reprimand their repeated misbehavior?

Such people may not be worthy of attention. Nor are they worthy of your fellowship except that to get job done with Krishna-tactics. Until the first opportunity comes your way to exit relationship it might be a good idea to make a little compromise while keeping them at arm's length. Having got one if it's not availed of then you do deserve to be taken-for-granted.

Aren't the same rules applicable back home?

Yes very much but with an extra care else you may not get food.

Recognition, review, resources, reward and reprimand (5-R) rules are applicable at home as well as at work. Wisdom will help you evolve which ones with what mix and how much dose to administer, when and where.

Those who don't apply a judicious mix of 5-R rules with wisdom (with weightage primarily in the corresponding order) do deservedly get taken-for-granted repeatedly be it at home or outside at work. In Indian scriptures this is advised as Sama-Daama-Dandaa-Bheda technique to get the needed done!

Footnotes :
BMT: Behavior Modulation Technique
TA: Transactional Analysis

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 
Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 
Discrimination Cremated! But How Long? 
A Ride To Hell
Make checklists your friends 
Drove To Hell ... Almost !
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!
Will It Work Here? 
Some Moron ! Some Great !!!
That's How Morons Work ... WASTES
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?
That's how some business partnerships work
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
Beware Of Political-Presentations
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands

Will It Work Here?

Other day there was a friendly debate on whether mobile-money service will work in Indian demographics. Although I knew it was offered in India, some apprehensions such as ease of transactions, security, cost of service, etc. kept me away from it. 

One of the debating friends working with a phone-company demonstrated a transaction including registration process within a minute. That's the time I could experience relative ease of accessing it. I could unearth a few difficulties in the process though. But I was surprised why phone companies were yet to speedily target the middle and high income group segment of the market inter-alia which is more likely to adopt it speedily than the mass-market.

If it was "successful across Africa" (as quoted by one of them) with it's inherent diversities and difficulties, then a modified business model should work in India too, I said. It might call for adopting it and differentiating it for the segments within target markets. The marketing-mix strategies may vary depending upon the segments: Demographic, Geographic, Behavioural, Psychographic, etc. Selling would take place as a sequel anyway. 

In fact such a service is a boon to any developing country provided the service is localized, made easier and faster and at the same time needing lesser efforts-n-resources; in short if it was made leaner.

Demonstration to me for instance was done on an Android device. How could it be made user-friendly and agile for various devices with differing features and technologies?

Steps performed were displayed in English language. It called for memorizing a password too. How could it be made easier for the entire spectrum of demographics covering various levels of literacy (using fingerprint lock for instance instead of password), levels of income, population, etc? How could it be made easily accessible to geographical markets?

Based on voice of the target market such as above, 'push'-type personal-marketing like that done to tackle apprehensions of a typical prospective customer like me should have been in place. It is necessary at least until a product & process of using it and educating the customer is made simpler and leaner. Ultimate goal should be to create a 'pull' for the offer for enhanced sale.

Differentiating the offer by bundling it could be an added advantage such as that done innovatively by organisers of a music programme that actually prompted me to write this blogpost. One highlight boasted of in it's advt was: "Mr Tom, Dick and Harry coming together for the FIRST-TIME". The concert was at an inaccessible venue located far from city. So the second differentiation it highlighted was, "Bus service available after the concert".

Dynamics of the 'mobile-money' and the 'music concert' as offerings do differ. But the point worth learning therefrom as denominator for any offering in general is the meticulous removal of hurdles  specific to differentiate it, to reach it to and to grab a particular target market with a sense-of-urgency. One may be able source a lot many innovations to do so if internal stakeholders in particular are engaged in the focused thought process. It should be done ethically though *unlike the concert organisers. Only then it's more likely to work sustainably!

Footnote: *Usually very few customers read between the lines and fewer still catch the 'catch' if any. Knowing such a consumer behaviour unethical organisers capitalise on getting some audience that doesn't bother to read. For instance in case of the concert some do tend to attend for the novelty effect of "FIRST-TIME" without realising that it was of 'unknown' artistes Toms and Harrys. Some also miss checking whether the bus service was free or came with an *asterisk. The organisers in this case seemed sure of getting some such audience.

Here are a couple of mobile-money services in India: Airtel's Airtel-Money and Vodafone's M-Pesa.