Friday, July 23, 2010

Gross National Happiness (GNH)

Today I read with great relish an article in the Mint Lounge about Bhutan. I had toyed with an idea of a holiday there. In this article about the country by Namita Bhandare (particularly well written), I read that Bhutan has concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which has an interesting set of 4 indices (I quote from the article) - "Sustainable economy, Culture, Environment and Good governance, and the nine domains of well being (including health,health living standard,community vitality and psychological well being, amongst others)".
Interesting.
This got me to ponder of how little we think of the softer issues in our daily work. I am not a great proponent of work life balance, since I don't practise that well, but it will always auger well for a company to focus genuinely on the "happiness factor" in consumers and employees. Lets look at some unseen factors that could lead to GPH (Gross Personal Happiness).
In retail it is always only Price, Availability, and Service. Even though these are so cliched and well trodden, few actually will score well on all counts together.
In 1997 when I got into retailing and there was no Indian template then of successful grocery retailing, (not that there is any infallible one now), I always, as Operations head, looked at moments of truth as a good guidance to the completion of a  holistic shopping experience.The most effective loyalty driver will always be the overall happiness after shopping, when you get home.
To this end in a small way I started the STUC programme (Show That You Care), many old Foodwolders will remember. It was simply this:
I found that in retailing which has self help and with a cashier to negotiate at the end of the trip, the Last impression is the Lasting impression.
 So how do we make the last impression a pleasant one? Getting the staff  to do these three things consistently was such a problem- 1) Eye contact with the consumer. 2) Smile&Greet. 3) say Thank you, please come again! (and the particular way of taking the money and handing over the bill and change)
So I made this a Drill. For 1 year we ran a mock STUC everyday, in all stores, during the morning briefing and change over shift, where every staff member did this as a drill loudly wishing and greeting, and doing the actual smile greet and taking and handing over the money. In a few months it happened automatically. It became part of the training modules. Newer staff who came in, even without much effort learnt from the "gurukul" of the store. Mystery shopper scores were instituted and awards and rewards were given. And I dare say that was at time, and even by today's standards the best additive ingredient to the GPH. Consumers began to enjoy the smile (didn't realise how difficult it is to make a person smile). This is just a small example in a larger initiative.
For the employee, what can make for better GPH? Only salary? Well that seems to be the trend in think nowadays. But I can assure you for young employees, it the always the 4th or 5th. I believe the more important ones are Security (physical and professional), Learning opportunity (enhances market worth), Dignity( treat me concern) and the Salary (my net take home). I could write a lot about this but just a small example is the Toilets in the store. The argument always came up about separate Consumer toilets from that of Employees. I have said they should be the same (location permitting). What is good for consumers is good for employees, and visa versa.
Indian public toilets have over the past decade has improved dramatically, and I believe when we begin to attach more concern to smaller seemingly insignificant elements that make for very huge lift in GPH, we can say that there is concern and directionally society is moving in the right path. May sound silly that I use the Public toilets as a case in point , but that is only incidental the the major idea.
The quicker we as Individuals, as Families, colonies, companies, and a nation, realise the importance of GPH, like Bhutan has, the easier will it to become law abiding responsible citizens. Let Charity begin at home.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Never Ask a Centipede How it Walks!

Senti the centepede was happy with life, feeding on debir and dead organic matter. Till one day the wise owl asked it a question. The following is their conversation.
Owl: Hi Senti how are you today?
Senti: Oh Owli. I am very well indeed, thank you.How are you doing?
Owl: I am not very well. I have been consumed by a puzzle, that I have been trying to figure out. I am not able to make rational sense using the laws of physics or engineering.
Senti: what may that be, wise one that worries you? You know everything about the world. There is nothing you dont know. We use you as our counsel.
Senti quickly move up the branch, all 100 legs working together in perfect alignment to get closer to the owl, who looked on with fascination.
Owl peered at Senti and said "I am puzzled about you"
"Me?" asked Senti
Owl: I am wondering how your 100 legs work, so perfectly, so synchronised? How do you manage it Senti, without ever tripping over yourself?
Senti: I, I ,I,...actually I never thought about it..(peering down at his hairy legs)
Senti was puzzled as well. He never make any effort to walk, all 100 legs moved in an amazing coordinated rythm. They flowed without effort. Senti even started feeling proud of his body part that he had never thought about at great depth.Senti began to think how the 100 legs move.
As if by a trigger Senti found some difficulty in walking now. Some of his legs were stuck, some intertwined. He was amazed again, he could not walk anymore. He could not figure out why. He looked up to see Owl flying away, chuckling.
Retail, folks is something like this. In an earlier article I had called it the Ecosystem. It is. Many a time we are unable to explain our successes in retail and our failures, in fact the latter may be easier than the former. Successful retailers try to replicate factors of success, without asking why. Is this good? Well, who would quarrel with success?
Retailing has millions of moving parts, that have to work in unison. In no other industry is the aspect of human coordination so well exemplified than in retailing.
But an analytical mind is always good, and necessary. But it may be inevitable that we cant explain everything that leads to success or failure.