Innovation

2009-09-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

What is happening to Animation industry in India?

Indian Animation Industry to Reach $1 billion by 2010! - Indiastreet.com,Feb 2008 -- A recent study conducted by Andersen Consulting states that the Indian animation industry is expected to reach $15 billion by 2008.- Financial Express July 2004 --India's animation industry seen at $1 bln by 2012 - International Business times, Aug 2009

Five years ago,If you turn any business newspaper, the above were common headlines. But today in 2010, do the industry folks feel that way or the market is seeing any kind of euphoria like it did in 2002...the answer is a clear and big "NO"...So what is happening, why there is a slow down and what is going to happen in the future..I would like to walk everyone in the animation industry to understand what is happening there and I hope this blog answers a few questions, clears some confusions and helps in some fresh thinking..

Let us take the case of Crest Animation, the company that I worked for and one of the few companies that was able to weather every possible storm..

Crest was a company of 18 - 20 employees when I joined in 2002..Crest was making pilots and trying to get an animation project from US..They had a VFX division handling Ads and movie VFX, an editing studio that catered to the TV medium and also, the same teams were working on an animation pilot..They managed to get Jakers! and soon started hiring people..The team size started growing from 20 - 100 in less than 1 year and it paid off decent dividends for Crest. They had some starting trouble in terms of developing a production pipeline for the TV series but after a few months they were delivering 4 episodes a month..The resources were motivated because they were the first to do some exciting work in the Indian market but the processes were very raw..The processes include the touch points between different teams, talent management, linking incentives to performance, skills audit, training, production planning, resource allocation etc...They were doing some ads, editing work, VFX just to manage the cashflow troubles in the initial stages but once the cashflows became stable, the management took a very important decision of Shutting down VFX and Editing divisions and they went to the extent of rechristening the company as "Crest Animation Studios"..

It is one of the best decisions the company made but at the same time, the decision takes the company into a serious commitment of walking in a very focused path which is right but you cannot walk back..It is only one way..From a model where they will make money from ads, editing, VFX and every possible industry, they moved into a new business model which is

Target Customers : Production houses in US catering to TV

Value Proposition : TV quality animation at a low cost

Profit proposition : Quick turn around employing low cost manpower and playing the volume game. More manpower, More Volume and in effect less time, acceptable quality, low cost.

Crest went on to deliver Pet Alien, a project that I led, Bratz and many such TV, DVD works..Their move from a doing everything to animation was very good but now their move from TV series production to movies is not good at all..As organizations mature, its capabilities migrate from Resources, to Processes to Values – With each migration step,organizations become more focused, aligned, efficient and simultaneously less capable of moving in new or different directions.

During their move from a small team doing everything to TV series production, the company used these other income sources to support the cash flow to fund the TV series production team and since most of the employees are from other companies, these external guys brought the much needed capability to fill the gaps. But now, they have a 400 member team and they are trying to migrate to the movies. They need some cash flow which comes through the TV series. so far so good..where lies the problem?

The problem lies in the processes and the values. We all understand what I mean by processes but Values are shaped by what gets prioritized and how decisions are made to support the high level strategy. From VFX/ads to TV series, they setup new processes and there wasn't much change in values required since both of them require them to prioritize delivery over quality. For example, even if a shot has a noticeable flaw that is caught in the editing table, it will still be sent because of the delivery commitments. The decision to send the tape on time wins over the decision to wait, correct the flaw and send it next day. This is what I call values and these are shaped by the high level strategy. But now the switch to movies involves moving a certain team to think differently, prioritize differently and take decisions to support the new strategy. You cannot prioritize the tape delivery over quality. Unfortunately, the company doesn't have mature processes and their values are still aligned to their low cost, high throughput strategy.

If Crest had cracked the code in designing effective processes that will help them to execute these high throughput, low cost projects with very low levels of uncertainty, then they would have prepared themselves for this new strategy. But as always, they are becoming victims of circumstances. What results is confusion for themselves and high uncertainty for clients.

I am surprised by how every new company that enters the animation space claim that they have 3 divisions : animation, gaming, IP. When each of them require different skill sets, different pipelines, different values, different prioritization, I am surprised that companies are still treading the same wrong path. Companies need to think how they can align their resources in support of these 3 different businesses and be honest in their approach. All these companies have to identify how they are going to make money and how they are going to make money on a sustained basis.

The industry has plenty of talent but it is limping because the management is thinking tactically and not strategically. They need to balance between urgent/unimportant decisions and not so urgent/important decisions. The urgent/unimportant things will help them to generate the cash flow whereas the not so urgent/ important things will help them to sustain in this business. R&D, production pipelines, processes, organizational design are the things that companies need to think of in order to identify new money making models and developing the strategic flexibility as the dynamics of the industry changes. They have to strengthen themselves at this level through superior processes, effective pipelines, continuous R&D and it is better to move up after setting a solid foundation. Otherwise, they will be lost in the day to day issues and loose the big picture..Achieving strategic flexibility between low cost strategy and high quality strategy takes lot of commitment and time.

I am planning to do a very detailed industry analysis and would appreciate if you can post your valuable comments that will help me come up with a much more refined analysis.

Where does innovation end?

2009-06-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Innovation is the process of identifying the unmet needs of the customers and providing them solutions in the form of products, services, processes and business models.

One of the most important innovations that made big news globally in the recent times is the $2000 car, Tata Nano . Tata Nano enables middle class families ,who previously used the unsafe motor bikes and were non-consumers of cars, to purchase a car at the same price and get increased safety/comfort. This was achieved through trade offs in performance but efficient distribution systems and increased mileage. This car will soon alter the landscape of India with every middle class family has the potential to own a car and this will lead to a population of around 100 million cars in the near future. It is not wrong to imagine a milk vendor coming in a Nano or Autos replaced by Yellow/Black Nanos and chicken farmers carrying poultry in their Nano.

Nano , without doubt, will grow the car market in India and it is going to be an astounding business victory but what about the damage it causes to global warming. These increased number of cars are going to emit more CO2 into the air and thousands of trees are going to be felled very soon to create new roads, new petrol stations, new garages and new mechanic shops. Already, there is a global crisis of oil and the natural resources are fast depleting. With this sudden economic growth in the emerging markets, there is a fast growing middle class which wants to experience and consume things that were previously considered luxury for them. This rapid development will have huge impact on the natural resources and we are going to eliminate our jungles with concrete jungles.

Should businesses take responsibility for these environmental hazzards?. Do their responsibility and vision end with giving convenient products for their customers? Should they rather go one step further and see whether their innovation is successful not only from a business standpoint but also from a social standpoint; whether the comfort 100 million families got was greater than the discomfort the whole world is getting out of it;

I would like to use one example used by Amartya Sen in his book "The Argumentative Indian". Robert Oppenheimer was the leader of the american team that developed the ultimate weapon of mass destruction during the second world war. He could find justification in his technical innovation "The Atom Bomb" to develop a bomb that made it convenient for America to create mass destruction at one go. This innovation reduced the complexities associated with the earlier weapons. Scrutinizing - indeed criticizing - his own actions, Oppenheimer said later on: "When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success".

The biggest question is whether innovation ends at the customer satisfaction level or does it go one step higher and see how it impacts the biological eco-system as a whole?

Strengths and Weaknesses!

2008-02-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

One of the most important interview questions that we, MBA students, are asked in almost all the interviews are "Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses".

I was trying to answer this question but am finding it very tough to answer. Before I identify my strength and weakness, I need to know what is strength/weakness and in what context do they ask me? If a question comes to me "What is your name?" I cannot say "Vijay Anand Raju".Before I answer this question, I'll see who is asking this question and in what context is he asking this question.Suppose if my father asks this question, I will say "vg", which is how my family calls me.But if he is asking this question infront of a relative who I dont know, then I may say "Vijay".The answer here is not for my father but for the relative. It also indirectly tells the new person that this is how I want to be called.If the same question is asked infront of my school teacher, I would have said "Vijay Anand Raju". In this case, there is an element of obedience which stays above my personal preference. So, as context changes, the outcome changes.

I think the same holds true for strength/weakness questions also.Let's discuss in detail.

What is a strength? There are many meanings given in dictionaries but two of the closest are "Quality or state of being strong" and " the degree of intensity".So what is a weakness? "Lack of strength or character flaw".

So if weakness is lack of strength, then both strength and weakness are defined by the same scale. So naturally, the question goes one step further towards personal attributes ,which may be creativity, passion, enthusiasm, communication skills etc, for which it is a degree. Lets choose one attribute, for example, "enthusiasm". On a scale of 1-10, if it is 8 -10, then it is overenthusiasm.If it is between 4-7, it is enthusiasm.If it is below, then it is "lack of enthusiasm or apathy".

If someone says "My strength is enthusiasm", it is really difficult to understand the person's viewpoint. Lets say he likes chinese food, reading and problem solving. He dislikes uncleanliness, backstabbers etc. He is neutral on issues like war, poverty.If he sees a good book , he will show "over enthusiasm" to buy and read the book. If he sees someone who has "backstabbed" him before, he will show "lack of enthusiasm" to talk to him. If he is watching some news on poverty or war, he may show enthusiasm to the news but will not do anything beyond that.

So his strength takes many forms and it takes the form of a weakness also.Strength is not something that is fixed and cant be changed.It gets "iterated " depending on the circumstances and the other external factors that are beyond his control.It is dynamic and varies over circumstances and time.

Imagine a "winamp" equalizer.We can use this as a metaphor to explain strength and weakness.There are various columns which dynamically move up and down resulting in music to our ears.Let us imagine that if the column is tall, then it is strength and if it is small, it is a weakness.

If all these columns are static and at full strength, then it is noise.If all these columns are polarized towards the bottom at the same level, then also it is noise.You will hear music only when these columns dynamically move up and down.Similarly, if we want music in our lives we need to adjust the scales according to the circumstances.It is the same for individuals, organizations and countries.

It is very clear that the same strength will be a weakness in some circumstances and a weakness will be a strength under certain circumstances. For example, "Influential talking" will be a strength in a sales job and will be a weakness if you are in a class full of hearing impaired students.

Also,the equalizeer has various presets and we can save custom presets. We can do such presets based on some of the dominant circumstances that we face in our lives. But it needs thorough reflection and identifying the true calling.Once we identify the calling, then we can broadly identify some of the potential interest areas based on that calling.We can build our own personality archetypes based on this broad contexts and ofcourse, there will be "n" number of circumstances for which these presets can be used as a benchmark to build the needed archetype for that particular circumstance.

It is very important to build a portfolio or an archetype of competencies that can be effectively used to manage the uncertainties of the future. If we get stuck in a few competencies, then we cannot have "music" when the circumstances change.

SNS - More than friendship!

2008-01-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

We had a great guest lecture at campus today through our Mobile Consumer Lab of Prof.Sugai. Mr.Jonathan Brown,a senior analyst from Forrester Research gave an inspiring lecture on Mobile Social Computing among Japanese users.My mind was immediately thinking on how we can use this for practical applications in India.

SNS stands for Social Networking Service. Facebook, Orkut, flickR, Myspace are some of the most popular SNS services currently available.Some new services are available where using your mobile you can let people know where you are and what you are doing.Twitter.com is a great example.If you leave a message in twitter, it will send that message to all your friends' mobile phones.If I go to Bombay tomorrow and I want to invite my friends out for dinner, I dont have to call each one of them or I dont have to plan the previous day.I just have to send a message from the place where I am and if someone happens to be in that area then he/she can join.Isnt it cool ?

As Prof.Prahalad says, All the innovations are happening for the developed countries where already everything is in place.If we think slightly out of the box, we can create wonderful services in India.

Take for example, the Auto Drivers/Taxi Drivers in Bombay.They can have a mobile social networking with their local communities.For example, the auto drivers can have a community.Anyone who uses their services can become a member of the community.If I send a message to the community members saying,"I am in chedda nagar bus stop.I need a taxi/auto to go to Worli.Any one out there to take me?" Now immediately,all the auto/taxi drivers in the community will receive the message on their phones.If some auto driver happens to be in that area, then he can make business immediately.For every business he makes, a small service fee can be charged through the mobile operator.

There is a good opportunity for advertising as well.SNS has a space for filling your profile and based on the user profile, ads can be customized and sent to both the parties.When the user types and sends the message, the auto driver who receives the message will get an ad along with the message.It will be the same for the customer when he/she receives the acknowledgement from the autodriver.

Isn't it simple?

But the real problem lies in the implementation and adoption of mobile internet.Some of the problems are

1. Auto drivers use mobile phones but not mobile internet.They have to be taught how to use internet and SNS.But it is controllable and possible with some efforts.Once people see the power of networking, they will learn.

2. Most of the young Indians use internet for all the wrong reasons.They may torture auto drivers saying they are waiting in this place but will not be there.They will make the auto drivers cry.Also, criminals can register in the name of auto drivers and use these communities for criminal activities.

3. Mobile phone data services will pick up if the data speed is really high.3G will solve this problem but they need to subsidise this service for auto drivers.GPS and advanced features will make the phone expensive.They cannot afford to buy expensive phones or can pay extra for these kind of services.

Innovation lies in providing effective solutions to address these challenges. Technology can do so much to these regions than in the developed countries where it is just an extra convenience.Mobile technology can be used for such services that solve the real day to day problems that people face in their lives than using it for services like fortune telling and astrology.

Gandhi - The Disruptive Innovator!

2007-12-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

Prof.Clayton Christensen's "Disruptive Innovation" is one of the frameworks that I have enjoyed applying to almost everything.I have to thank Wakayama-sensei for taking us through this wonderful world of Innovation and also for choosing "The Innovator's Solution" as the text book.

So what is disruptive innovation? According to Innovator's Solution, the disruptive Innovation is all about commercializing a simpler, convenient product that sells for less money(low end disruption) and appeals to a new or unattractive customer set(New market disruption). This is the phenomenon that so frequently beats successful companies. In the process,either the technology linkages or the market linkages are affected by a disruption.Disruption can be done in the "Not so good enough" market and can be achieved through new channels of distribution, sales force etc.

Successful companies ignore disruption initially only to repent later as the low end disruption swamps the entire market. If you enter a market with a sustaining innovation,the incumbents will destroy you.

Let us apply this to the Indian freedom movement.The British empire is the successful incumbent. Indian National movement is the new entrant in the fight against the British empire. They have to choose a product or service that will allow them to differentiate in this fight. The product could be war, violence, guerilla attack,suicide bombing etc. If Indians entered into the freedom struggle with the above mentioned products(sustaining innovation), it would have been a bloodier battle and it would have been easy for the incumbent, who has sophisticated weapons to beat the entrant who has nothing but swords and sticks.

In this case, bloodshed is the cost.Traditionally,in a battle, the more blood you shed, the more you loose.Profits are the territories won.In this case, the overserved customers are the people who just want to retaliate only when there is a threat and otherwise are against violence.They are dissatisfied with the guilt they have to carry on for their life for the violence they unleashed on others.

Traditonally the war market is segmented on the basis of attributes such as age, crime experience, brutality, number of murders etc.The market will be segmented into the following

Stone Pelters - Young kids who dont have the courage to fight face to face and also who have the stamina to run for long distances when chased away.
Lathi Wielders - These people who have a history of petty crimes which include hitting people for money,extortion etc
Throat Slitters - These are people who are extremely brutal and can reduce the enemy count significantly
Suicide Bombers - They just blow up the opposition and leave no evidence.They are the most complex in the market.

The war market is traditionally won based on this segmentation.But Gandhi wanted to segment the market according to the "job based " approach of Prof.Christensen.In a job based approach, the chosen product should help the customer to do a job in a simpler and convenient way.

What is the primary job that needs to be done for the customers?

1. People wanted to contribute to Independence but are scared of taking weapons or loss of life

2. Their traditional value system/ religious affiliation won't allow them to kill people

3. Taking the law in your own hands is not right and will leave you with ever lasting guilt

4. They cant take the shame of going to jail

5. They dont want to undergo military training and spend time/effort on this

6. They want to contribute without doing all that what is being generally done.

Gandhi chose Non-Violence as the product to beat the incumbent. Non-Violence satisfied all the above and even delighted them because they were reverred for their moral courage and discipline, going to jail became an honour because they are doing it for a bigger cause and it left them with no guilt instead causing the incumbent to feel the guilt.Also, it gave self respect to people who otherwise would not have used their power in any other way.It is a highly differentiated product and for the people who believed in violence, it had strong barriers to entry.

I think non-violence is a "New Market" disruptive innovation because it attracted more people( non-consumers of violence or Moderates), who otherwise would have avoided violence, to this movement.Finally,it even converted the traditional consumers of violence or Extremists also into non-violence.

New Market Disruptions are affordable and simpler to use that they enable a whole new population of people to begin owning and using the product. In this case, the Moderates who are actually non-consumers in the freedom struggle, find this product convenient, affordable and easy to use.

Non-Violence cannot be sold through the traditional distribution methods. Big Retailers like Panipat, Kurukshetra, Kalinga (famous battlefields in India) may not find this product attractive as their corporate values dont match and the margins are very poor(the entrant cannot kill enemies) in the short run.Gandhi created new channels like Satyagraha, Quit India Movement to sell this product.

The incumbent initially did'nt take this competition seriously.They thought that this is nothing before the might of the empire.But the disruption happened in such a way that the empire couldn't face the dilemma whether to prepare themselves against the sustaining innovations (war) or the disruptive innovation(Non-violence). Those group of customers who would not have participated in the freedom struggle otherwise, chose to use this product because of the convenience. Also, the product did'nt require them to go to the big retailers (battlefields) and instead new innovative, cost effective channels were created.

Thank you Prof.Christensen for this wonderful framework and Thank you Gandhiji for non-violence.

Bibliography:

The Innovator's Solution by Christensen /Raynor
MyExperiments with Truth by MK Gandhi
Gandhi - The Movie by Richard Attenborough
Prof.Wakayama's Class Notes at IUJ

Can we Disrupt Indian Values?

2007-12-06T14:01:00.001-08:00

I was having a conversation with my friends Kaushank and Karthik, an exchange student from IIM Ahmedabad, on whether I want to live in India or abroad.If abroad, how I am going to bring up my daughter.Since I have always been cribbing about Indian values, he was wondering what kind of values do I want her to grow up with.I was trying to fit this to the frameworks that I learnt during this term.Let us discuss some ideas on this subject before I tell you what value will be good for her.

Why suddenly this topic of "Values"? This is the only word I have been hearing the whole of Fall 2007 term, be it in the E-Marketing class of Prof.Sugai, who is obsessed with this word or in the IBD class of Prof.Wakayama where he taught us Value Space, Value Networks, Value Innovation, RPV framework etc or during the group meetings with my friend Pontus, an ex-BCG Consultant from Helsinki Business School, whose first question is always "What is the value proposition here?". I started to see the value behind their love for "value". Value is the foundation on top of which individuals, families, cultures, societies, companies and virtually everything is built.

What are "Indian Values?

A text book definition is "Indians have laid high stress on values like peaceful co-existence, spirituality, deference to elders, recourse to nature, artistic ex-pression, seeking prosperity, strong family ties, respecting even the tools of your trade, joyousness and hospitality. " WOW! Such powerful values! Then Indians must be great! If these are the values that all/most of the Indians are practising or if Indians are the only people who are practicing such values, then I salute "Indian Values". Are these values only "Indian"?

The textbook definition of Indian Values is the "deliberate strategy", if put in HBS Professor Clayton Christenson's framework, and people didn't notice, evaluate and appraise the circumstances that led us to the "Indian Values" that I find it funny. Also, since these values were passed through religion and since religion is becoming weaker as globalization spreads its wings, there were new values that emerged.Right now, India is caught up in a confusion as to whether to adopt the new value or retain their tradition. But the old values are completely impractical.

Why am I calling these values funny?

If we ask any Indian guy about the "Indian Values", the most common answer is "No Alcohol, No Smoking, Vegetarianism, Respect to Women, Respect to Elders, No Boyfriend/Girlfriend before marriage, No sex before marriage" or if he is honest, then the most likely answer is "I don't know".If someone is smoking or/and drinking, then he is seen as evil.Also, most of the values revolve around food, sex and alcohol.Looking at the size of our population, I can understand where it came from.

Let's Analyze two values. How to correlate "Respect to Elders" with "No Alcohol"? How do we read the correlation through a lens called respect.Let's say, Mr.Lalu,37, who is a firm believer of Indian values, is going to meet Mr.Ramji, a 60 year old businessman who enjoys drinking alcohol.In India, what kind of respect is Lalu going to give Mr.Ramji? Is he going to respect the elderly person or disrespect the alcoholic.CONFUSION!!

Okay! If we have to respect elders, then does it mean we have to disrespect youngsters in India? Unfortunately, this is how it is being interpreted. Girls cannot have boyfriends or guys cannot have girlfriends before marriage.This value results in "Gayfriends" instead of girlfriends...or it ends up in extramarital affairs after marriage. It is simply interpreted as before marriage you cannot do whatever you want but you can do anything after marriage.

Let's discuss the value "Respect to Women"..

What is Marriage in India? It is a "License" issued jointly to the bride and bridegroom,by their parents, to "finally" "finally" "finally" have sex. Marriage in India is the only "business" in the world where "bottomline" and "topline" dont have any correlation.Surprised?Let me explain..The "topline" in an Indian marriage is "Ending your 30 year old asceticism on sex " and the "bottomline" is obviously profits(Dowry), which is the money given to the bridegroom by the bride.Actually, the bridegroom seems to have understood one of the textbook definitions of value(read again) which is "seeking prosperity".

Most of the guys in India "settle" after marriage.What does it mean to settle? He may be struggling in life with various problems, most importantly money, and finally he will decide to get married.Marriage is the easy way to raise "capital".Anybody who has a girl in their family has to lead a life of sacrifice and they have to give all their hard earned money to the "robber" in the name of Son-in-law.May be the Girl's father would have done the same thing to the Girl's mother.Things are changing today and definitely there were exceptions like my father but 99% (to be rational - remaining 1% equals 1 million X Percentage of males in that age group which is still a good number )of them would have done this business in their lives.Girls have been traded for generations by all those people who follow the noble Indian value called "Respect to Women".

Sex is glorified.It is the most sacred thing in the world.Indians believe that the westerners dont have control over sex and westerners have every reason to think that we dont have control over sex , looking at our population.You cannot derive control by controlling sex.You can derive control by understanding the circumstances in which that control has to be exerted.I think the western people seems to have understood this a lot better than us.

The people from certain castes/ regions feel proud of the fact that they dont eat meat.They advice at will, about vegetarianism.If you ask them "why dont you eat meat?" The most common answer is "How can you kill an animal and eat?"The same people who show so much kindness to animals are responsible for the greatest social evil called "human untouchables".They will be taking "cod liver oil" medicines, use leather products(shoes, belts, jackets), playing music intruments and do all sorts of things which defy their own logic, They fail to understand the fact that before human beings started to cultivate, they were hunting animals and eating.These people "try" to portray themselves as if they have evolved from some other entities other than human beings.Time plays a big part in shaping the values and in India, people could have eaten so much meat when some wise people at that time realized the threat it offers to the eco-balance and created these values.An interesting analogy for a similar value in the current world are the treaties like "Kyoto Protocol", where the developed countries pressurise the developing countries to control their pollution levels, fully knowing the ill effects associated with their very own development. Coming back,The vegetarianism would have been passed through religion, which makes it easy for anyone to understand. Vegetarianism is good,but not correct.The correctness depends on the circumstances. what if the circumstances change? What if the animal population exceeds human population? What about the people living in iceland and alaska? If they dont eat meat, what will they survive on? Practicality plays a big role.

Let's come to materialism. India is considered a spiritual country because even if people dont have money, they seem to live happily.They accepted the reality and have tuned their lives in such a way that they are not affected by poverty.LAME EXCUSE FOR FAILURE!! Instead, if these people have tried to understand what is going wrong in their lives and how they can acclimatize to the changing circumstances, then this country would have improved leaps and bounds.Again, westerners have succeeded in that.We are just trying to define success in terms which dont make sense and continue our suffering into one more generation.

Another clear example can be seen everyday in a Hindu Brahmin family. Before they dine, they put some water in their hands and move their hands in circular motion around the food.If you ask them why they do this, the answer will be "we are thanking god for giving us this meal".My question is why dont you thank god without the water in hand? What is the value that is being added by the water in this example? Nothing. But the same ritual had a different meaning for our ancestors and then, water was adding a value.How? In those days, they sit and eat in the floor.They use banana leaf as the plate and the houses are surrounded by tropical conditions.This ritual was done to create a "water" fence to prevent ants/insects from invading their "leaf" plates.Our ancestors were "innovative" and we are so dumb that we are just following the same ritual when we are sitting in airconditioned concrete houses and using dining table.

But luckily, this wired world has not only connected the individuals, countries etc, but also the values each of these different regions have.There is a big value dilution that is happening in India because of globalization and the previous generation is saying it is "Value Pollution".But I am happy that these values are getting diluted.There may be a multitude of values that will flood an individal and if he wants to succeed, he has to choose what is good for him.Once he makes choices on his own, then things will transform.

Deliberate strategies work only if circumstances dont change.But life is all about change and so whoever wished for the textbook definition of "Indian Values" need to consider all those circumstances for applying these values and whether a predicatable outcome comes out. I classify values into values of developed countries and developing countries.Developed countries have something in common, which is "success".They have developed certain values and when these values become embedded in their society, they get measurable, predicatable outcomes.Among the developed countries, there are two categories

Case 1: The examples of America and Singapore can be cited, where the immigrant population created new value systems that will allow them to live in peaceful co-existence,recourse to nature, spirituality..STOP.Am I repeating the textbook definition of "Indian Values" ? Yes..this textbook value will come to reality in an increasingly global world where borders are broken and people really respect each other. But it is in countries like USA, Singapore and the developed world, the divorce rates are higher, suicide rates are higher..whereas in India all these things are low..so what is my take on this..Definitely, the sacrifice by the women in India gives rise to a strong family bond but I would argue that it is not healthy because the women are not empowered.When women are empowered in a society, the male chauvunism will die and then if these strong family bonds exist, then it is a good sign.Take the values that made these countries successful and try to improve/eliminate the values that may not work well in our society.

Case 2 : The success of Japan, South Korea, Finland and Norway is what amazes me.These people went through major problems.Japan suffered in the 40's, Korea was completely given up in the 50's, Finland was poor..What made these countries to stand tall today.They didnt have many immigrants from whom they can imbibe new values.They did something which can be better explained by Einstein's famous quote "Doing the same things and expecting different results is foolishness".They adopted new values which led them to their current state of development.We hinged on to our age old values, which were good for the times in which they were created, and currently we have reached the sorry state we are living in.

Values change over time. They have to, else society would degenerate and stagnate. But before defying traditional values and norms, it is wise to question the need for change and to specify what part of society needs to change. Is our value system outdated, or do we need to change some common practices that are no longer relevant, or even evil, in their current form?

In a globalized world, do we still want to get stuck to the values that are perceived by your group or do you want to get your values refined so that you can enjoy being in this highly connected world.
It is not just a problem with India....It is a problem with every country.Embrace Values that will help to contribute to leading a peaceful life in this hyperconnected world.

Religion, the previous powerful value transfer/ethics controlling mechanism is loosing its importance in the face of globalization and now it is more of a generator of superstitious values.No law could successfully achieve anything in India.Now India is at a critical phase where religion and law are no more the mechanisms which can be relied upon.The other ways to impart control are through motivation and inspiration.Ofcourse there are some inspirational leaders in the business world like Ratan Tata and Narayanamoorthy but there is no one who could inspire Indians from every walks of life since the time of Gandhi....the closest it got was with Abdul Kalam but it is very miniscule when compared with Gandhi's gigatic achievement.That is why Indians have so many double standards as far as morals are concerned.

Just because I am criticizing Indian values, it doesnt mean that all the other value systems are correct.Indian Values are the only value systems I knew for a long long time.Every value system will have their own faults.There is nothing to feel superior about or feel inferior about.It is the way the values have shaped up because of the social mechanism prevailing in the region in which these values are born.But what is needed is a benchmarking exercise of all these values, thanks to globalization, so that the wrong ones can be identified and eliminated.

I am not trying to alienate mself away from these values.I was very much a product of these values but I am trying to learn at every opportunity.My learning is towards "unlearning" all that which my society told that it was right and "learning" all that that will add value in an increasingly connected and globalized world. This is the value system that I would want my daughter to adopt.