Saturday, February 28, 2004

Marketing Research applied

Hi,

Today afternoon I was in the bathroom and I suddenly got an idea. When I was in Hyderabad, I found that I can suddenly find a place to pee anywhere in the city. They call them Sulabh complexes. I found that I can actually apply marketing research fundas to make Sulabh complex a better place to pee. We can do a customer segmentation to find out who finds it convenient and who finds it demeaning to be asked to use them. And another management problem "How many rooms for ladies and how many for gents" can also be tackled by this customer segmentation. Actually I have prepared a questionnaire...

Answer in Yes or No ( dichotomous questions ;-) )
1. I find it demeaning myself to use Sulabh complex.
2. I find it very uncomfortable to look at a guy peeing next to me and grinning at me.
3. I don't mind leaving without flushing.
4. Momma says, "Don't leave the taps open"
5. I want a closed room to do this unmentionable thing.
6. I wait outside ladies room searching for the love of my life.
7. I like listening to music wherever I am.

OK, do take time to fill up my questionnaire..I have some work now. See you tomorrow, same place.

Friday, February 27, 2004

Hi,

As promised here is the first of my musings:

Newton's Third Law of Motion:
The other day one of my friends told me a joke which goes as follows. A lady is travelling in a city bus in Delhi. The driver applies brakes suddenly and the guy behind her falls on her. The lady looks at him scornfully and the guy says, "Don't mind Ma'am! It is just Newton's First Law of Motion". The lady slaps him and says, "Don't mind! It is just Newton's Third Law of Motion".

Now here I was totally shocked at the way Newton's Third Law of Motion has been interpreted. The guy was absolutely right when he said the reason for his falling on her was Newton's First Law of Motion. But the lady seems to be a commerce graduate who knows a lil bit of this and a lil bit of that and starts confusing herself by mixing all those lil bits. I have a friend called Siddharth who has incidentally become a CA contrary to all our expectations. Many a time he applies similar logic when anything to do with mathematics troubles him.

Newton's Third Law of Motion says every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And here action refers to a force applied by a body on some other body and dear Ma'am even reaction refers to the same. And both action and reaction occur simultaneously. One of my friends, when he listened to the above joke, extended the logic and came up with amazing discoveries about universe and existence. He said, the universe was formed by a big bang, now that was action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction which will ultimately pull all the matter together. Right now, as we have learned in our physics, the entropy of the universe is increasing, so the current age of the universe is less than half of its total life time. Now, this guy surely does have imagination. It is no fault of him because he made 2 assumptions, one big bang theory is correct and two, the lady's interpretation of Newton's Third Law of Motion is correct. So, dear ma'am be careful when you make such statements. There are crazy guys over here who will extend it to the end of the universe and conclude that they are dead.

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Hi,

I have just created my blog. You can expect lots of fun and creativity from this showman. People call me a lunatic and I very much agree with them. If you want to get confused with yourself and the entire world around you, you can listen to my crap. I have decided on a theme to start with and will mostly start from tomorrow. The theme is - applying management principles, theories, frameworks, physics laws, etc., to general life and get confused with the most obvious reality that lies in front of you.