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! 

Functional-Aesthetics

"Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression." Evelyn Waugh English Writer. 

The concept in this blogpost was triggered by a picture that I saw painted on a wall of Rail Museum in Mysore.

It said: Way to Maharani (Queen) Saloon!

At its first sight, I was reminded of a term usually misspelled in India, Saloon for Salon: the term for a barber's shop.

I wondered what had the painting to do with the rail exhibits. In the wildest imagination, I could think of its links, if at all any, with the hairdressing of Queens of the dynasties in palaces of Mysore and around.

I found myself wrong after looking around for a while. I found the real Saloon. A part of the rail carriage was exhibited there. It was devoted to seated relaxation combined with a dining table: The Saloon!

Anyway, let me take an about-turn now. Let me expand on the thought that occurred to me at the sight of this picture at this site.

Why do people go to a salon: a barber's shop?

Some go for their Functional 'Needs'.
Some go for their Aesthetic 'Wants'.
Some go for "Functional-Aesthetics": This is the term & the concept that had instantaneously occurred to me then at the sight of the painting.

I 'googled' for the term "Functional-Aesthetics" and giggled that it didn't exist.

What is Functional-Aesthetics?

Typically a haircut that's acceptable with reference to military norms is functional.

Actually long hair can be unhealthy as well as dangerous, both in military as well as in other contexts. In military setting in particular, additional reasons of their typical haircut could be to preempt accidents due to long hair, its maintenance, distractions or undesired attractions due to them if stylized, as the case may be, in the warfield. The functions that it is expected to serve makes it a functional haircut.

A funny haircut acceptable only to a small group of trendy people as a fad could be termed as purely aesthetic one. It's generally acceptable as a style for its funny aesthetics more than for the function that it's expected to serve if at all.

On the same lines, a haircut typically acceptable to school norms could fall in the category of Functional-Aesthetics.

In short, 'needs' that stand the tests of an acceptable system's logically acceptable judiciously balanced norms or standards or criteria could be termed as Functionally-Aesthetic.

'Wants or desires' that go beyond such logical norms or criteria could be termed as Aesthetic more than Functional, with reference to a given system. 

A style that adds substance to the function (that it is supposed to serve) without any extra cost to the offering nor to the ecology may also stand the test of being Functionally-Aesthetic: A shirt for instance bought for its extra-large pockets or additional pockets unconventionally located on its sleeve, say, in order to eliminate carrying an extra hand-bag. 

Paradoxically, a functionally-aesthtic offering to be on the right path of evolution should truly lead to multi-functionality in its usage with minimalist use of resources while at the same time simplistic-to-use, maintain & facilitate eco-friendly disposal as a part of its total lifecycle. 

Functionally-Aesthetic offering in general should 'sell' more in the longer run than purely Functional or purely Aesthetic one. Because it offers value; because it offers Total Quality to all its stakeholders. On the contrary, rest of the offerings necessarily need marketing 'push' & overselling too. Or in its absence, the purely Aesthetic may fail to exploit its full potential. 

A Lesson!

If you mindfully observe, you may find that the Mother Nature and its every design itself is Functionally-Aesthetic both in its form-and-fit. It's intelligently crafted Aesthetics! That's why everything natural from food-to-fossil is pure, beautiful, lean, value-adding and valuable. Hope human race strives to maintain it that way. Hope it draws a lesson or two to learn from (it) and invests its finite time in adding value to life rather than destroying it by incorporating the unwanted waste under the disguise of so-called Aesthetics.

Only way to do so is by arresting unneeded human activities and unwise choice/s for want/s that create a materialistic world. Spoiled choices in particular take one away from being Functionally-Aesthetic: The choices that are far from being sustainable!

Here's a MaiKu© poem while on the subject:

On way to queen's saloon
Imagination took off in balloon
Finally landed Saloon in Salon

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

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

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

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

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

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Eternally Happy

Eternally Happy: परमानंद

When Safety Becomes Sorry

A mother standing in isle of the bus fell on her child holding her hand. Both got injured with their noses profusely bleeding. First-aid box inside the bus was nearly empty. Luckily bus had just taken exit from express-way so emergency aid was accessible.

Both, mother and child with their luggage, were standing in the isle in anticipation of arrival of their destination close by. It was an intercity Volvo with powerful air brakes.

The driver had applied emergency brakes. Reason was a couple of pedestrians walking on road suddenly taking a U-turn. They didn't notice the bus arriving.

Why didn't the driver blow horn in order to alert the pedestrians?

He did try but the horn didn't work. Condition of the horn in high-technology bus had got deteriorated. It was not restored to it's original condition. It was 'fixed' rather than maintaining or refurbishing it. The wires were pulled from steering wheel and left open loosely hanging. Driver did try to touch positive wire to the negative one hanging from top in order to blow the horn in vain. 

So there were three apparent causes of the accident.

One was J-walkers on road haphazardly moving.
Second one was dysfunctional horn that failed to work.
Third one was wrong habits of passengers anxiously standing in isle of the bus nearing it's destination.

Solution to each one of them is imbibing safe practices, safety discipline and improvement attitude. These are generic terms though. People-in-power must drill down to root-causes of symptomatic causes as above.

Root-cause may be lack of training or lack of adequate standards and practices. It may be lack of motivation to follow or enforce discipline to comply with desired standards if ones are established.

'Imbibing attitude' involves involvement of corresponding people: The decision makers if it's a workplace. The parents and teachers if it's at personal level.

Wrong behavior of people (including 'small-people', the children) is a manifested reflection of wrong behavior of their superior's.

It's primarily the people-in-power who can make the difference by behaving in a desired manner. Attitude of the 'watchers' then 'behaves' itself.

Here's a MaiKu© on the topic.

Tom crushed Harry
Root-causes weren't wary
Safety became Sorry

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

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Please consider leaving a comment or sharing this post via social media.

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

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

Beware Of Political-Presentations

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 
Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 
Discrimination Cremated! But How Long? 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

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

A Ride To Hell

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

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 !!

Technology in-place, security dis-placed

I am afraid ! What do I do !! 

Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth

Nauseous Communication Gaps

Put internet ON, she said.
Rushing to the WI-FI switch he replied: It is already ON.
Put it ON on the tablet I mean, she said
You should have said so specifically, he said while enabling WI-FI on tablet.

After a while accessing the tablet she asked: Why isn't the browser ON?

You told me to put the WI-FI ON on the tablet, he exclaimed.

Oh My God, you can't even do these simple things, she murmured. My reply to the email is already delayed by half an hour!

She appeared to exclaim at his weak IQ on jargons. Actually she wanted the Chrome browser ON. Due to lack of alignment on 'what to call what?' he went around doing rework (work to repair defect).

Often such communication gaps make work difficult in daily life. Not only do defective communications bring down expected performance levels but they also hurt egos being taken for granted. 

In fact, most problems in this world crop up due to communication gaps. Sometimes though gaps might have to be created strategically for common good as a Krishna tactic.

What's the solution?

Good to have a clear, concise and common understanding on terminology people use at a given workplace in particular. Say, 'WI-FI' for WI-FI switch, 'Internet' to enable WI-FI on tablet and Browser by its name 'Chrome', 'Dolphin', etc. as was needed in the above case. There should have been a common understanding on 'what to call what?' without diluting or mingling them.

In case of a workplace, terminology such as above might need complimentary labeling of a given equipment. Creative signboards might be needed for various spaces going beyond the conventional ones such as say a 'toilet', or a 'washroom', etc. They should visibly bring out differences among them with the help of icons or pictures or sketches.

Labeling, Signboards, etc. are a Seiton practice done in Five-S tool of Kaizen in order to remove ambiguities. They bring in uniqueness in communication. Defence services in particular use such uniqueness  very powerfully in order to prevent crisis from emerging in absence of that or in order to execute orders in split-seconds without defects in communication.

Bringing in common understanding such as above with a corresponding procedure in manual for work standards is actually a part of creating highly standardized workplace.

It's a must to reduce communication gaps at work. It's a must at home also in order to improve work although while doing so one might appear as an unreasonable, idiosyncratic fellow.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

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

Kaizen-on-Crisis-Situations

Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !

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

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1)

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 

Discrimination Cremated! But How Long? 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

A Ride To Hell

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

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

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

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

Do You Ask Right Questions? 

How Many Times Do You Wash Hands

Make checklists your friends

Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!

How Much Can We Better Our Recruitment Processes?

In Order To Improve Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, How Much To Add To Training Budgets That Are Already Heavy?

How Much To Better Our Succession-Plans?

These are some of the worries that keep haunting HR professionals. One reason is, increasing inventory of disgruntled employees. Employees disengaged due to job dis-satisfaction in particular in spite of having good systems in place. Other reason is attrition.

How to overcome this?
What is the solution to this dilemma?
How to reduce or prevent attrition?

Sometimes the causes might be aptitudinal. Sometimes it may be due to gaps in matchmaking at recruitment stage itself due to misleading presentations by either of the stakeholders.

It ultimately results into recruiting people and then figuring out how to fit square peg into round hole in order to accommodate them. Failure to do so results into branding them as defocused if they stay disengaged or as not-trust-worthy job-hopper if they quit jobs.

Hereunder might be a simple way to find out whether passions and aspirations of prospective recruits match that of a company's needs. HR professionals and companies might like to drive following steps to ease their worries.

Step-1: Prospects, both the recruiters and recruitees, need to look for matchmaking of mutual passions. Read blogpost that answers How To Take your career in fast lane!

Step-2: Prospective recruitees write their comprehension about thoughts expressed in the blogpost in maximum 50-words!

Step-3: Prospects write briefly about their own passions: Maximum 50-words!

Step-4: HR professional (assessor and selector) from recruiting company studies above 100-words in order to draw parallels. Based on the parallels s/he draws her conclusion on matchcmaking of passions and aspirations between the prospects and the company.

The findings might be given an appropriate weightage alongwith that of various other available criteria for recruitment.

In support of the above process, the recruiting company might like to design a few prompting questions that the recruitee answers.

Better the matchcmaking of passions and aspirations, better will be the mutual choices of recruits and companies, lesser will be the disengagement and better will be the Succession-Plans!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Take your career in fast lane!

Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?

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

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 

Don't Forget: Stir-Coffee-Well !

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily

Listen To The Iceberg, Not The Tip 

Nauseous Communication Gaps

An Experience of Heart-and-Soul

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Be Bug-Be Or Big-Be ?

How To Make A Difference

Beware Of Political-Presentations

An Experience of Heart-and-Soul

Bapu's smile!

Courteously asking for 'tea or coffee'!

Issue of token for work within a minute of entry at security gate!

Prabhakar's speedy response to take car for quick touch-up!

Warm get-up of the cool waiting room!

Job done in a couple of hours although (the paint touch-up was) with a little less of finesse. Generally a dealer would take a work-shift including a bit of waiting due to Sunday rush. Of course it was a planned visit so scheduling the job was easy for them.

Being a Kaizen student, I expressed desire to take a study tour. It was quickly acceded to.

Customer does expect such activities to be performed of course with 'aesthetic-smile' that competition has 'forced' upon suppliers in auto sector in particular.

He 'pays' for the 'standards' alongwith for the Technology, Tools, Materials, etc. anyway that all paraphernalia  management does employ from 'outside' i. e. from the material world. They even don't forget to put a 'smiley' foot-mat that says 'thank you'.

But what one can't forcibly employ is the evidence of heart-and-soul, the 'inside',  while performing above kind of trivial looking but relevant activities as duty (that predominantly need human interventions).

If one passionately enjoys it as a play it gives pleasure to self and hence for others. Inevitably it adds value to self that no one can snatch away from. The 'player' looks beautiful then.

For that 'beauty' to happen the leaders at workplace must enjoy the work themselves. They must enjoy their own work of - leadership by demonstration, - pouring heart-and-soul in playing their own role, - recognizing those colleagues and subordinates who do so,  - employing 'telling' tactics if 'selling' fails to those who don't do so so that they don't spoil others who do.

Hope such Heart-and-Soulful experience doesn't fall back to Heat (the customer First) and then Cool her!

With that consistency then not only will the 'player' look beautiful but also s/he will make the workplace look beautiful!!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Experienced A Delightful Payment !

Take your career in fast lane!

Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

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

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

A Ride To Hell

Will It Work Here?

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

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

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

How Many Times Do You Wash Hands

Our regular cook was to stay absent for a few days. We asked for an alternative arrangement. Usually they won't make it. You have to ask for it. 

The person who substituted her straight went to kitchen (shop)floor to fetch flour. She dug into the container without washing her hands. After a while she began beating the dough.

When I asked her 'why didn't she wash her hands' her response was that she had washed hands at home.

Funny!

One does encounter such behavior at automated high-technology workplaces as well. Other day I saw a bearer with a nice hair-cap worn to prevent hair falling in food. Although he had a glove worn over his right hand he was serving roti (Indian bread made on a touch-free automatic machine) by the bare left-hand. Funny isn't it!

Back home I had to tell the maid that her hands might have encountered so many undesired touch-points on way to my home, her workplace.

Typical Touch-Points

Fetch purse or bag while going to work
Wear shoes (one touch-point less for the good if socks aren't worn)
Hold handle of the door in order to open it
Hold handle of the bus to board it
Exchange cash for ticket
Hold the handle of the lift (at workplace)
Pick up dust bin left outside the owner's home overnight in order to bring it inside

Unbuckle her shoes

One may consider so many such kind of touch-points like combing hair, picking teeth, shaking hands with friends-and-foes on the way, and many more creative ones that people usually engage into.

After all such diversely possible touch-points, she had taken a deep dive into the flour merrily beating it's dough inside-out: All this without washing hands!

One might suffer a blackout at slightest of imagination of even a single touch-point:

On blowing their running noses, do you know how many people  touch all those handles (of buses, of doors, of toilet doors, etc.) how many times in a day?

Do you know that the currency that you exchange might have landed in your hands after having passed hands of so many beggars?

A single search on internet can confirm that one of the most dirty touch-points housing most dangerous bacteria are the various knobs and handles that one handles at public places.

After so many such dangerous touch-points, how about eating food without washing hands because they were "already washed while leaving the workplace or leaving home for work"?

One may allow such funny practices if on a massive immunization programme or is on a mission to be a guinea-pig for all kind of germs on the planet. Some more germs might not make much of a difference having swallowed some inadvertently already.

But reality is different. Not only does one take a complete wash on entering home but also takes a well-rubbed hand-wash just before eating. 

Then why tolerate double-standards like that of the maid, behaving exactly the reverse on leaving home for work?

Surely it's the result of lack of attitude that's reflected in unclean behavior. One reason might be lack of education. Prior to that it may be lack of adequate standards and procedures (SOP¹) on cleanliness: unique-standards or single-standards if you may like to call. Most important reason is the lack of commitment by decision makers to train and motivate and if required take tough and unpleasant decisions about the concerned. 

Else corresponding consequences are well-deserved if one doesn't work towards it. 

Some do appear unreasonable mavericks at times on self as well as on others to change such bad habits! 

It's not out of place here to remember those few who refrain from shaking hands. Instead they greet by putting both hands together: The well-thought-out Indian practice of Namaskar! 

Footnotes: 

1. SOP: Standard Operating Procedures such as GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) or Five-S practices in industry. 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?  
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Technology in-place, security dis-placed