What is Strategy?

Should there be congestion charge in India too........

India shining was the tagline of a political party which never got to see the shining side and is now trying hard to regroup itself into a force that it was in the late 90's and early 2000's but this makes us ponder on the question is INDIA the country that is shining really or is it a percentage of our population that is shining!!!

2000 has been an era where mobile phones have become an inseparable part of every human being and with that came a phenomenon called offer on phones which most of the times by some sheer luck seem to keep selecting you for all those unlimited life time free credit cards, pre-approved loans of 5 lakhs and 10 lakhs which makes you think is there something called credit history or financials verification for it also happens that you get a preapproved loan when you are in college. Walk into any shop selling anything from a simple Toothbrush to a Mercedes you can be rest assured that there will be some finance company representative who will be most willing to offer you a commercial loan at ZERO percent interest of all things.

This has now created a new class in Indian economy. Middle (Personal Loan/Commercial Loan) class who have access to all the things which our parents would have thought a lot before procuring just because in those days people thought a lot about necessity of everything in life and if sure would buy that out of savings in bank accounts rather than swipe a credit card or issue 8 post dated checks and bingo get a loan. You go anywhere nowadays and you see people owning more than one car per household. The bigger the car the better in terms of showcasing it amongst friends circle. We grew up seeing Ambassador cars and Premier PAL Padmini moving around with the rich class and the uber rich will move around in a Contessa Classic. Commuting to work or market was a joy ride and people entered office in mornings with a fresh, gleaming face and also returned home ready to go out again after having a cup of Tea or Coffee.

Today you get to see people families buying a Nano not because they don't have money and are upgrading from a two wheeler to a four wheeler safer for the family as envisaged and marketed by Tata's. Many are buying a Nano and the reason is its smaller and hence easier to move around withing City limits. For highways and longdrives we already have a SUV and there are also 2 or 3 Sedans in case. Commuting to work everyday has become a big assignment in itself. You leave at seven or eight or nine rest assured you can listen in to atleast two back to back programmes on your favourite fm channel as what else can one do when you are stuck in a traffic where the vehicle in front is moving at 2 kilometers per hour and there is no room to even open your door. Everyone from those in Santros to Vernas, Indicas to Ventures, Etios to Camry or Swaraj Mazda to Volvo's everyone is moving at a snails pace. Only the two wheeler drivers are moving ahead zig zagging between stationaru four wheelers and six wheelers.

If this aint enough then there is our government departments who take special pleasure in digging and digging the same stretch of road especially before and during monsoons and thereby adding to the existing traffic chaos by necessitating many diversions and one way traffic flows. While we are always blaming our Government for all these problems and not providing enough infrastructure have we ever thought how many people actually travel in each of these cars. You are struck in traffic and you can see only one person driving a Civic or a Corolla and looking at others with an aggrieved look as if he has nothing to do with the situation around except being a victim of choking infrastructure.

Why are we Indians so obsessed with the phenomenon of showing how rich we are. When we can commute to work in a office shuttle or car pool we would prefer driving a safari or scorpio all the way blocking the road and burning up already scarce fuel. Bigger the car bigger is our ego and we drive with a feeling that the whole road belongs to me and how can small cars or worst two wheelers ever drive on the same road so I would keep honking my horns to show how educated i am. This panacea can be cured or atleast some revenue earned to spend on infrastructure by bringing in a system wherein during pre determined peak hour certain stretches of road where there is more density of traffic the government imposes congestion charges on such vehicle owners if they want to show around really how rich they are. Having read recent articles where people have commented that they wont think twice before spending 10 million on a music system because they own a SUV worth 70 - 80 million will for sure pay up the additional congestion charge as it doesnt make any difference to them. Yes, the congestion charge will for sure be detrimental to those people who have bought a car on monthly emi's and are driving the car to work more out of pride than necessity or habit.

a Consultants perspective......

In 1990 when Gartner Group coined the term ERP how many of us would have thought this is going to be such an integral and important feature that all Businesses would be gunning for when everyone around was still talking about Cobol, Foxpro, Unix and Java. Y2K was a blessing in disguise as it brought everyone's attention towards their IT Systems.

Today you talk about any Firm irrespective of its Size the latest version of ERP Software available in the market is amongst their most prized possesion or should we say implementation. Everybody talks about how their profits have soared and how their existing processes have become streamlined and more effective all thanks to a successfull ERP implementation. CIO's and CEO's love discussing about the latest version of Oracle or SAP that their Firm has implemented and how it has helped improve the company's performance over a period of time.

Two decades have passed by since ERP has been around and their are so many Firms offering their expertise in ERP Consulting and Implementation services around the Globe. Mind you the Time and Costs involved in an ERP implementation are huge and various surveys over the period have suggested that almost 50% of Clients who wanted an ERP implemented feel that it was a failure or funds wasted with timelines and cost overruns. This brings us to the point where one thinks what is the main cause for such failure of a concept that has so much potential and long standing impact on the whole business and competitive dynamics as a whole.

First thing that one needs to look at is how committed was the Organization when it thought about implementing a ERP software. What has been observed many a times is that decisions are taken to go for an IT investment and some top notch Management Consulting Firm is hired who carry out due diligence, talk to Managers and come up with a plan wherein a certain ERP Software is suggested. Request for Proposals are called for and over various rounds of bidding contract is awarded to a single firm or group of firms for implementing the software.

Here starts the most crucial phase of a ERP implementation which unfortunately many a firm know but realise many a times during Go Live or after they have Gone Live. Change is the most Constant thing in life which unfortunately we all know but are the first ones to resist the same. The Key Users at Business have been working for many a years and are so habituated to using the existing IT Systems in place that they are not that forthcoming when it comes to being open to the idea of a better software and what additional features it has over the existing software. Users are so habituated to existing it systems that even requirements that they come up with are mostly minor improvements of existing systems than what new features and functionalities todays ERP systems come with which at many a times is the responsibility of the implementing consultant's responsibility to make the users aware of the broader perspective. The issue here is that the Users mostly comment and provide feedback/requirements based on the job function that they are involved in.

One needs to understand that when we say ERP it is a system which is fully integrated meeting all the functionalities and requirements of the organizational processes.

Regards
Twistedbrain.