Bored? ... It's an opportunity!

Are you bored?
It's an opportunity!

You are on a long drive alone. It's over an hour that you were driving. The road is straight, smooth, with hardly a car or two passing bye swiftly, and without any roadside shops too.

Driving at not less than sixty kilometers per hour it becomes so monotonous that you start getting bored. At times you make mistakes such as not slowing down at turns or rumblers. What do you do now?

You decide to take a break. You look for a choicest Dhaba (roadside eatery) around. Luckily you get one.

You stop! You take a bowl full of water... Splash it on your face. Standing by the side of a tree you take a fresh look at the mountains around... Feel great... Order for a special cup of tea... Look around noticing things and the happenings minutely by the time tea arrives... Enjoy the tea sip by sip...

You remember a few friends that were disconnected for a long time. You remember the time that you had spent in your native village.. the sea.. the silky white sand... Suddenly there's a flash of some ideas on a problem you had dwelled upon over a couple of weeks. You make a call to your colleague, give a couple of instructions. Now you feel good, relaxed and decide to leave.

Now you are driving with fresh insights.

Sometimes the daily routine gets so boring that you get stuck. You begin making mistakes. If you look at such boring moments with the above insight, actually the so called boring moments offer opportunities if you choose to take advantage of.

It's an opportunity to switch on to do something else other than the routine on hand: Something else that had been pending, some reading, some cleaning up leading to laying hands on a long-lost paper, some power stretches to compensate for missed exercise, reconnecting a couple of acquaintances with a couple of calls, or may be even a Napoleon nap.

The switch over with consciousness may turn out to be a creative break... Some new thoughts to be jotted down... Some new creations... who knows!

Boring moments are actually flashes of opportunities to do something else before getting back to the routine with fresh surge of energy!

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan
Take your career in fast lane!
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Do You Ask Right Questions? 
Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?
No Time? Micro-Meditate! 
Talk In Order To Listen! 
Eternally Happy!

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !

When Safety Becomes Sorry 

Drove To Hell ... Almost !  

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!

Part-1

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it! Part-2

How To Make A Difference

Big-Be Or Bug-Be !

Make checklists your friends

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Waste-to-eat-sea-to-drink

How often do you hear VOC

Given an opportunity, which air-conditioner would you buy: split or window?

Would you buy 'split' at the price point of the 'window' unit?

Of course, I would go for 'split' at the price point of the 'window' unit. Less noise at lesser price! 

But I've not done so yet.
Not because the split unit is not available at the price point of the window unit but because I've been on a search for a split air-conditioner of which the diffuser is small enough to fit into the opening for a window air-conditioner. I am yet to be delighted on such an offering.

Like in most houses provision for a window unit is a given. 

Same isn't the case for a split unit which actually needs a smaller hole, much smaller than one for the window unit. Is it a design-flaw or is the exclusion itself by-design?

Whatever may be the case but above paragraphs have some Voice Of Customer (VOC) hidden in there that has potential to differentiate an offering. 

1/ For a builder-developer and an architect by providing a hole for a split unit at construction stage itself. This is to avoid the wastage of breaking the wall open for split unit.

2/ For an air-conditioner manufacturer-designer by making diffuser of a split unit small enough to fit into the opening provided for a window unit. This will create an opportunity for increased sale of the split unit.

From the configurations (see figure) of a typical manufacturer, you may find that none of the diffusers of the 'split' unit fit the 'window' width that is about 660 millimeters (standard). Of course, this is not until someone makes it to fit into the window and makes the customers aware of it thereby pulling 'window' unit customers to buy 'split' unit.

There are many opportunities if marketers and designers choose to innovate by mining into VOC such as above. Differentiated offerings as above could be possible by simple frugal innovations though many real innovations themselves are possible with frugal expenses on R&D if at all.

"How often do you hear VOC?"
Jokingly many reply: "Hardly any! Because she (customer) doesn't speak!"

Although this is fit to be a whatsapp reply, part of it is certainly true.

Customers are difficult to get to speak. Hardly any tell you what they want.
Fewer know what they need although they want to design their own life.
So somehow both the above types get rid of you by filling in the blanks in customer satisfaction survey forms in order to comply to your request. Analysis of such 'tick-marks' on the forms adds a little value if at all. 

If at all any of them do (speak), hardly 4-out-of-100 that are not satisfied with the offering, do so to complain reluctantly.
Rest leave without telling the supplier and join hands with the competitor.

Knowing this well some excellent companies capture VOC proactively.

Komatsu for instance fitted GPS-enabled software (KOMTRAX) in their equipment so that their engineers can capture and 'visualize' customer problems, needs, etc. in real-time as also they can value-add to their operations by updating them on their equipment utilization, etc.

Toyota for instance, fitted micro-phones in their new car models during test marketing so that they could capture 'feelings and expressions' of their customers that could be built into the product before commercially releasing them as competition to their own current models.

So do you have guts to cannibalize your own products before your competitors do?

Can't you make your customer speak, capture it, and build it into your offering faster than your competitor just as the Komatsus and Toyotas did?

Why not? 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
How To Make A Difference
Nauseous Communication Gaps
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily
Does recognition really matter
Customer or Custo-Mer ?
Experienced A Delightful Payment !
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul
Do you keep curing your brand ?
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers
Do You Force Customers To Quit
Should one care for value ?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
Do You Ask Right Questions ?
Talk In Order To Listen! 

Although steering is in your hands

"Pothole kills woman; daughter booked for driving bike rashly"!

The news has been making news on media and the more powerful social media in last couple of days.

The hue and cry forced authorities to take cognisance of the Voice-of-Customer and get back to business of governance.

One of the responses was apprehensive of the (road) "contractors having political clout" which is why the contractors go scot free. "They all do! how else can they charge huge money and yet the roads develop potholes within weeks? govt/babus dont care how long the roads stand quality test as long as tenders are passed and money changes hands!" the response said.

No doubt that the steering is in our hands which should be able to save us ourselves off from the extrinsic hurdles like the one making news above.

But there is certainly some truth in the response that referred to the "contractors having political clout". Many of them do have! The system helps them to do it by design! 

It's an open secret that the steps on the corresponding ladder are as follows:

1/ Corrupt and powerful political leaders promote their 'trusted' lieutenants (party workers) as contractors in partnership. This is especially rampant in municipalites and is perhaps the lowest organized entry point for would-be political leaders.

2/ The nexus earns high margins by delivering shoddy work (if at all they do) hand-in-gloves with corrupt Babus.

3/ Both finance themselves handsomely to the next election. You may see gold chains weighing in kilos around necks on various hoardings as an evidence.

4/ Both become more powerful and the cycle continues back to step-1 until the next generation or their kith and kins take over elections. You may see all of them together on hoardings including their "new born ones" now a days.

(Caveat.. There are good politicians, party workers as well as good Babus but very few in millions.)

What do you do now?

The steering to vote them out is still in our hands but it needs to be steered with more force than 'theirs'. Hope we're able to do so soon!

Until then good job done social media for good cause!

Crying? It's time to kick-it-off!

'What's on TV?', wife asked.
'Dust', the husband said and then the fight started.... I began my speech with this PJ.

It was a presentation in front of about hundred strong audience attended by president of the company along-with management team of it's business units (BU).

Presentation began with chief of one of the business units appreciating each and every employee from a pilot for their wholehearted involvement. In about four months time the process and machine's performance effectiveness improved from 65 percent to 90 percent. After him, his team began sharing experiences.

"Seventh month in a row, machine hasn't broken down yet", said the mechanical maintenance supervisor.

"And the machine will 'tell' us well in advance before breaking down", said the operator. "Post implementing the TPM¹, it 'speaks' to us as a child does to the mother".

"It's rare to see this kind of culture and sense of pride in their work": The finance head of the company couldn't resist temptation to voice his observations after watching their enthusiasm and before-after pictures of achievements.

Can money buy such a kind of engagement and satisfaction?

Message of the proceedings was loud and clear to the audience: Although Google might be a knowledge bank with sea of literature on technicalities of TPM there to be read and researched, generating such a kind of positive attitude and sustaining the corresponding improvement culture is a different ballgame altogether: The one of soft dimensions of TPM: The Kaizen culture that needs to be experienced to be believed.

This was a story of a TPM pilot and a couple of it's support functions covering about fifty grass-root level employees from a continuous process plant. The change had begun with their top management team going to shopfloor to find opportunities for improvements (OFI) and implement changes, the Kaizens. Doing this on behalf of the employees was to take the 3D (Dirty-Danger-Difficult) realities on the floor head-on and demonstrate leadership commitment.

Unlike the man in the PJ 'showing' dust on TV, that's the way to get others to proactively "see" dust on their machine and prevent it from entering it's bearing as also from breaking it down. That's the kind of behavior expected from managers expecting a deep rooted change in their employees.

And when people in power do so, their subordinates change the very definition of problem: There is nothing called 'problem'. It's just the absence of an idea to find solution just like there's nothing called 'darkness', it's just the absence of light. 

And when they focus on solutions rather than 'crying' of problems they 'see' more and more OFI possibilities (Kaizen-Teian). That's the beginning of a change in culture.

If you want to experience such an improvement culture then it's high time to be ruthless with self and ask:

How many times do I practise it myself rather than 'telling' others to behave?

How many times do I 'catch' others to give positive strokes (recognition) for having tried to make a difference?

How many times do I procrastinate like that character in cartoon saying: I definitely want to praise your hard work but I just can't find the right words!

It's time to enable self and then others!
It's time to kick-it-off!!
It's time to do-it-now!!!

Footnote-1: TPM means Total Productive Maintenance or Total Productive Management as some like to call it.

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

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It!

Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Take your career in fast lane! 
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
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? 
Make checklists your friends  
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers