The Next Wave of Psychological Threat

Recent news on the murder of a principal at an engineering college in TamilNadu by his students has stirred up the fear on new direction which the student community is dabbling with. Though the clashes amongst student groups have been happening for over decades on various grounds, no apathy for murdering teachers raises concern on the moral grounds the students have taken, if they have any. Considering the fact on the increase in number of crimes committed by young people makes us look at the behavioral aspects that are set in motion at tender and adolescent age.

Some of the shocking statistics from National Crime Records Bureau shows that the number of murders committed or crimes amounting to murder by juveniles have increased from 1022 in 2002 to 1581 in 2011. An excerpt from NDTV indicates that murders committed by minors have gone up by 87 per cent during 2002 - 2012. There was an incident of a school boy being kidnapped for ransom by his fellow mate at school in TamilNadu and murdered subsequently as the ransom didn’t work out. Another grueling incident is the repeated stab of the 4-year old child by a 16 year lad in Delhi as the child’s mother refused to pay his advances. Also during April 2013, 14 year boy stabbed his neighbor over a 50 rupee tiff and allegedly killed other two people who came for the rescue. In one of the engineering college where my wife had attended to as a lecturer said that a student had stabbed girl with a compass for her refusal to accept love.  All these perplexing incidents are not new and its raising shackles only reflect the intolerant, irresistible, incompetent, impatient and incorrigible attitude of our young generation.

Not only the murders and kidnaps stand up, the suicides committed by students are also on the rise. A study conducted during 2012 by one of the world’s leading medical journal, The Lancet, shows that suicide rates are highest among the 15-29 age group in India. These statistics is a harbinger of a dreadful mental health condition of us and our society. Today, not surprisingly toddlers are one of the major visitors to psychiatric clinics. Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), a pioneer research body in mental health says that one out of five patients seeking psychiatric and counseling help is a toddler. Greater good to the clinic and to the society is the visit of a one-year old, what should we say a kid or a child or a guy who would even be aware of his visit.

Globalization, Urbanization, Nuclearization and Digitization can be claimed to have played a reasonable role in the breakdown of our society which raises question on the adequate attention given to young lads by parents and families. Working parents, nuclear families, income disparities, devious neighborhood and emotional breakdown have increasingly pushed many of the young people to the brim of their psychological and physiological tolerance. Peer pressure, grouping tendency, parental anxiety and other life style changes are just adding to the burning pan. While some of the reports indicate that the hapless guys from lower income group had resorted to drug pedaling, addiction, theft and harsh conduct, the young people from well-to-do family struggle with the digital toys devoid of parental guidance and emotional support. Eric Berne in his “Transactional Analysis” says that emotional deprivation can have an irreversible effect on people. The suicide of a 21-year-old Chartered Accountant student in front of his parents by laying on a railway in Ghaziabad is a testament to the serious parental problems that exerted big psychological push for the youngster to resort to this extreme step.

Should we consider the resultant situation as a fall out of structural failure of our society? Are we giving greater thought to the mental healthiness of our society? Do we all have responsibility for diffusing this threat? As far as I understand the root of this problem starts at the infant and adolescent age that are in need of support and guidance. The palpable solution may have to start first at home as charity begins at home. We also know that this is a very fast paced world with couples themselves finding difficult to take time for each other. Working and single moms are striving harder each day to earn for the sustenance of their family. While we keep accumulating wealth for future generation, we should not let that generation rot in their deprivation of someone who they could always look up for anything. Nevertheless, we may have to understand the emotional needs of our children at every walk of their life and provide guidance psychological support and mental strength to face challenges and problems. If needed, it is always better to seek external help from their teachers, families, friends and professionals.

Educational institutions will have a greater role in combing behavioral attitude of their students. They have to provide guidance to students on academic, future educational plans, financial and other emotional tendencies developed within them. A recent news report mentioned that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded $12.3 million to 35 schools districts in 17 states across the country to establish or expand counseling programs. The purpose of this counseling at schools is to help students with the behavioral problems and improve on their mental health. These programmes seek the help of qualified mental-health professionals for an expert intervention along with the continued input and support from parents and teachers. Schools may take cue from other developed countries on their effort on the mental health policies and structure it for their local needs. Some of the engineering colleges are also making it mandatory to establish in-house counseling and guidance cells for students. This may address to certain extent on psychological state of the student. I am not too sure on the idea of using faculty as counselors who may bring in their idiosyncrasies rather to prefer a health professional to do this job.

Society and government has a significant part in combating this menace. Society need to learn not to outcast people with disorders and see if any medical support can be offered from their contacts and knowledge. Government on its part should provide adequate infrastructure in terms of health professionals and medical facilities as well as devise policies that will enhance the importance of mental health of this young generation. NGO or associations involved in this type of social cause can also be included for their assistance on improving awareness and aiding schools and colleges with necessary tools. Motivation and deprivation are two major potent sources for people to do anything. Let us hope we use the necessary tools and awareness to tune ourselves, our family and our neighborhood for the positive intent of structuring our society to deal with growing offshoots of behavioral violence within our family and our community.

P.S. References have been taken from articles of news dailies such as Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Hindu.

Never wish to miss you again

Waited for many harrowing days

Never forgot your beautiful gaze

Dazzled emotions running sky high

Defiant tears draining my eyes

Unspoken words shared our minds

Expressive face opened our blinds

Reliving with our countless memories

Falling with the joy of rebirth

Glad to see you again

Never wish to lose you again!

BBD (Big Bazaar Direct) at your doorsteps: Sales Force-Neighborhood; Order-Digital; Supply-Traditional; Success - Uncertain

Kishore Biyani, a pioneer in the organized retail industry has once again, is venturing with a new idea of BBD – Big Bazaar Direct to propel the growth strategy for the Future Group. Man himself is well known for risk taking ability, right from starting with new store formats in late 1990s, venturing into new territory such as consumer finance or selling off his priced assets. The novel idea is being helmed as pet project of this risk-taker.

It is estimated that almost 90 percent of the Indian retail sector is unorganized while large format stores occupy nearly 4 percent of the organized segment. With the flourishing middle class and rising spending power, the retail provides lot of room for further growth for the organized players. Other estimates by big consulting firms put the growth rate of organized sector to be above 20 percent annually for the next several years and the percentage occupied by organized sector increasing from the current 10 percent levels to about 20 percent by 2020. Tier-II and III cities are also expected to witness the presence of these large retailers.

With the industry expected to grow at a higher double digits for foreseeable future, Big Bazaar has been continuously crafting its growth strategy to capture the market. The Big Bazaar Fair Price shops being hailed to promote private labels with a smaller store format has been established to compete with local shops. This strategic shift from larger format to smaller neighborhood store is also felt from global big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart Express which is the smaller store format is also expected to double its count of new stores with more than 200 stores, located largely at densely populated urban areas. The Future Group estimate that these fair price shops will contribute significantly to the top line in the coming years.

Now with this new venture BBD, Biyani is planning to tap the customers from remote places or to target households that are far away from the location of its big format stores. It is planning to utilize the local entrepreneurial talent as glorified sales force for this venture through franchise route. It invites anyone in the locality who has good contacts with its neighborhood such as paper man, kirana stores, chemists, beautician (Interesting) or for that matter anyone with shop in the vicinity. The applications are being assessed by a team to extend its franchises. These entrepreneurs may have to shell out 3 lakh as advance which this amount will be used for training, branding and technology upgradation.

After hearing on this venture, two things struck my mind immediately in terms of business proposal and the operational aspects. First, on the proposal itself, is it a novel idea? Is it any different from project Shakthi by HUL which used the NGO and local women to sell their products? Is it different from ‘Cash and Carry’ business type wherein the wholesalers and retailers buy products in bulk and sell it at their locality? Why doesn’t BB stock the local stores with their private labels and other products just like any other consumer goods companies? There have been some ventures in the rural where the entrepreneur will collect the necessities of their people and buy the required things from urban once in a week which may work out cheaper as they buy it in bulk. These questions arise on the business idea itself. On the other hand, how are they planning to manage the new found large scale sales force? Though agreed BB has several thousand on its payroll but this sales force is different. They need incentives to continue their role as glorified sales people of BB. They may also want to calculate the return on their 3 lakh investment as they earn certain low single digit commission on the sales of BB products. The entrepreneurs need to have long term strategic association with BB as their brand ambassadors as well as their sales persons. They need to believe in this idea and it may take couple of years or more for them to earn a reasonable return  for their efforts as it is with any business. They need to compete with the local retail stores for their market presence which means these people need to have greater skills in communication, promotion and engagement. The adequate knowledge of these people akin to sales persons in store on different product categories, customer segmentation and targeting may need to be imparted which BB plans through their yearlong training sessions. Should we think of sales team of banks as lessons to engage the local talent with attractive offers for their sales and reward them with ‘Sales man of the year’ or free trip to Europe or just like erstwhile offers for the LIC agents. Also, how do we restrict these new sales force to confine within the business for BB and not engage in other solicitations?

The margin compression may be felt by BB on this venture as they have to pay commissions for the sales, which retail already is a low margin business. They may have to work out on their operational aspects such as sourcing, distribution and logistics section to lead this business successfully. With their large store format in several cities and fair price shops in various towns, they already have established distribution facilities in place. The question of extending the existing set up for this venture which it may consider large store as Hub center for purchases within that city while creating other fulfillment centers to meet the demands of different regions. The company is planning to test this venture first in Nagpur and check out on their fulfillment of their orders which may throw lessons to be learnt before expanding. The question is on the robust infrastructure required as the orders are made online and the back end technology and intelligence to route the request to appropriate centers which is both cost and delivery effective? Amazon or Wal-Mart have invested large scale on their online fulfillment process and linking the systems with logistics and distribution for improving on their customer service. The products ordered may not be found in one location and we need intelligent routing to gather the products and look at which distribution facility to source and ship the products which can be quite heavy considering the fact if people are purchasing groceries. BB already has an online shopping store and why is it not promoting the site instead laying hands on new found sales channel? One, internet penetration is still low despite rapidly growing usage of smartphones and online purchases and two, the customer segment may totally be different, which is not technology savvy.

Winning the confidence of the customers is paramount. BB is using the local people to bring in that trust element as the money is paid upfront and the products will be delivered within 5 days. This is an ecommerce venture of a different kind with more assistance provided by trusted next door sales man to its customers. Can it provide competitive advantage with larger presence through their neighborhood concept and becoming a household name? Is it a meaningful innovation in terms of using the outsider as extended sales force? Some of the ventures by other consumer goods companies have been successful on this line. Despite the uncertainty, a big gung-ho for this leap by the risk-taker who has never doubted on his idea and always been a vanguard for novelties. The latest growth strategy of getting larger in terms of market presence by becoming smaller in terms of sales and store format needs to be seen in the coming years and it may have to reinvent on the process for a successful growth path.