Posts Tagged Cities
Don’t Forget to Incentivize!
The Strait Times carries a piece of news today titled “$100 m boost for service”. It says:
A $100 million push to bring Singapore service to the next level has been launched.
The money will go towards funding training and other programmes for staff and supervisors in the retail, food and beverage, health and transport sectors.
It will also be used to pay for research on service, and to monitor customer satisfaction levels.
Also part of the plan: Promoting, publicising and recognising good service.
While this is a well-intended initiative, I hope there is sufficient focus on “incentivization” of good service. As I noted in my earlier post on the “built-in” service charges in Singapore restaurants, the practice doesn’t adequately encourage great customer service, because the “incentive” is guranteed. So, in my humble opinion, a more balanced approach which focuses both on behavioral changes and up-skilling, alongwith dangling a ‘carrot’ would be more useful.
1 comment February 3, 2009
2008 Round-up: Most Popular Posts
Wow! Was that 2008 that just zipped past me!! Time flies.
It has been an eventful year for me. I got promoted. I left my job at Gallup India. I got married. Yay! I had a wonderful vacation in Thailand. Yay, Yay!! I joined Towers Perrin in Sing a pore. I went about Singapore. And so on.
Meanwhile, a lot of posts on this blog got quite popular. And, I thought it will be a good idea to do a quick round-up of the various things I wrote about in 2008.
- The concept of “Micro-Boredom” and how the mobile phone has become my saviour.
- My wishlist from the grand-daddy of internet – Google.
- The business case for Employee Engagement. This post got a lot of attention and was eventually published on the front page of Deccan Herald’s Career Supplement DH Avenues.
- I got myself an iPhone 3G and wondered if it is “smart-phone” enough. Subsequent fixes from Apple have resolved some of my issues with the almighty phone.
- I borrowed from some research by my company to think about “deal-structuring” for employees or how we could maximize employee RoI from their relationship with organizations.
- 2008 was the year of economic ‘pain’. I mused about how we could manage differently.
- I am bowled over by the wonderful system of ‘incentives’ in Singapore. But, why are restaurant staff here not incentivized enough to provide great service to customers?
- I became a fan of TED. Fascinating stuff. Kevin Kelly impressed with his talk on the next 5000 days of the web.
- Mumbai will not forget 2008 so easily. Neither will I. I blabbered as Mumbai took the bullets.
- I started thinking about simplifying the interfaces of enterprise applications. I think this is a big big opportunity.
- I stumbled upon an idea to convert the employee benefits system into a ‘marketplace for benefits’. I have completely given up on looking at traditional system thinking on solving this critical problem that so many organizations face. An innovative and experimental approach is more likely to lead to a solution. I am looking for organizations who would like to partner with me on such an experiment.
And, if you think, I have bored you enough with this serious stuff, go straight to my alternate blog at Tumblr to enjoy some really cool pictures, videos, quotes and fun stuff. Or meet the shutter-bug in me at Flickr. Or, just head straight to my FriendFeed page to get a snapshot of all my online activity and networks.
Here’s to a peaceful and fulfilling 2009. Cheers!
2 comments December 25, 2008
Gibberish Talk: Mumbai Burns and So Does My Soul
I have not stayed in Mumbai during my life. I have been there quite a few times for work and family commitments. In fact, I have never stayed in any one city for more than 7 years. I have lived parts of my life in Kolkata, Nepal, Ranikhet, Noida, New Delhi, Bangalore and now, Singapore. A rolling stone gathers no moss, one would say, and I have no special affinity for any one city. Sure. But, beyond cities, its the sheer tragedy that humanity faces is what hurts me the most. Whether it is Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kabul, Baghdad or Jaipur that is attacked, ultimately it all leads to tragic losses for so many of us. Mumbai, surely, has a resilient soul. It will bounce back, but sometimes, I just feel that we are just “indifferent”, not resilient. Whatever I have seen in the last few years has affected me a lot. I see a dramatic change in the way my mind has been conditioned, re-conditioned and again re-conditioned over the years. Thankfully, neither I nor any of my loved ones were directly affected in the chaos that has affected so many innocent people in so many places. But, time and again, I feel that my soul has been shot at and torn apart by grenades and bombs. Time and again, I feel an absolute sense of insecurity and disgust.
Today, I live in Singapore, which has a reputation for its safety record. I know that I have nothing to worry about. But, sometimes, it all makes me feel very guilty. Guilty about not being there with my countrymen, guilty about not able to do anything about the problem, guilty about being a mere bystander on the sidelines. But, at the same time, I feel very proud of the people in the thick of it – our security forces personnel who risk everything for us, brave mediamen who bring all the stories to the masses, common men and women who are there to lend a helping hand to people they barely know and a brave new generation of bloggers, photographers, twitterers and other social media activists. Hats off to them!
The scars are deep. Profound. Sometimes I wonder, on my next trip back home, will I need to stay holed up in the safe environs of my house? Will I be able to go out, without fear, for a nature walk in Bangalore or to my favourite eating places in Kolkata or just to see my dad in his clinic in Nepal? I want to and I will. Perhaps, it is easy to bomb humans than it is to mutilate the human spirit. They simply cannot. No matter how many of us they shoot down, they can’t take away our small joys. Our future. Our hopes. Our dreams. For a better, brighter and safer tomorrow.
8 comments November 28, 2008
Service Charge Built Into Your Restaurant Bill in Singapore – No More, Please!!
I have been in Singapore for close to three months now. It’s a nice place to live, work, eat and travel and that is enough to make me stay here. But, the thing that fascinates me the most about the place is the “design of incentives and disincentives.” Once you start noticing the minute details about how they have built the nation and systems, you feel amazed at the power of incentives. There is an incentive here for all the “right” behaviours and disincentives for all the “wrong” ones. Let me pick up some common examples. Singapore, for most parts of the 20th century, was a dirty country. To discourage littering, the government enacted heavy fines and followed it up with superb enforcement. Fines for littering can be as high as $5000 and repeat offenders might be sent for “behaviour – correction” activities like cleaning of public parks! I know it sounds like an overbearing idea, but it has worked for the country. And then, there is the much-admired Electronic Road Pricing system and taxes on automobiles, which disincentivizes people to own cars and drive downtown during peak hours. The pricing of parking lots, roads and cars themselves, coupled with a super efficient public transport system, incentivizes people to take public transport instead of driving around, adding to the congestion and polluting the environment. There could even be an incentive for taking early morning trains to town and easing off the peak hours. Every action or inaction has a price to it. Since it needs talented people for the economy, there are incentives to take up Permanent Residence in the country and enjoy several benefits. There are strong disincentives for smoking as it is a major cause of health problems and puts a burden on government spends. Heavy taxes make cigarettes quite expensive and there is no way you can legally get cigarettes from other countries without paying the hefty duties.
While I frantically look for such incentives, I have been disappointed with one particular system – the system of service charge or tipping at restaurants. Most eating places have the service charge of 10% included in the bill. Tipping is discouraged in most eateries and even prohibited at the airport and other places. Now, I eat out a lot and try many restaurants and whenever I fork out the dollars, I expect reasonable service. But, I find that missing in so many of these places. Having a fixed, pre-determined service charge could act as a disincentive for providing great customer service and lead to complacency or indifference in the minds of the men and women who work in these restaurants. They are effectively guaranteed the tip, irrespective of how they treat the customers! I simply fail to understand this in a place like Singapore, which goes all out to encourage the right behaviours.
Here is the link to a nice read (slightly dated) on this topic http://www.singaporeangle.com/2006/11/service-charges-replace-with-tipping.html
Update: Check out another similar post by me.
2 comments November 11, 2008
Defining Kolkata
Puchka. Churmur. Jhal Muri. Egg Roll. Chicken Roll. Egg-Chicken Roll. Double Egg-Double Chicken Roll. Machher Jhol. Maangsho. Mini Bus. Auto – rickshaws with 7 people. Ambassador Taxis. Metro. Pariborto station… Hand-pulled Rickshaw. Tram. Dada. Go. Aaste Ladies, Pore Baachha. Bo Di. Kali Ma. Durga Ma. Park Street. Burra Bazaar. Howrah. Bridge. 2nd Howrah Bridge. Sector 5. Chowranghi. New Market. Sri Leather. AC Market. Adda. Pada. Mastaan. Chicken Chaamp. Mutton Chaamp. Chow. Egg Chow. Chicken Chow. Egg-chicken chow. Tangra. Mohun Bagan. Pada Football. Daab. CPI(M). Jyoti Babu. Buddho Babu. Mamta Di. Cholbey Na. Maidan. Victoria Memorial. Indian Museum. Nicco Park. Sona Ghachi. By-pass. Cha. Ki Ashobyo! Rabindra Sangeet. Nandan. Kala Mandir. Sandesh. Rossogulla. Someplace Else. Tantra. Greg-bashing. Sourav praising. 12 hour Bandh. 24 hour bandh. Singhara. Coochie-coo in Nalban. Oori Baba. Tai to. Moori Ghanta. Chingri Maach. Abar Khabo. Baapi. Mamuni. Morning Walk followed by Tea/Singhara/Kachouri at Gurudwara. Sugar in Chicken Curry. Butter Chicken with White Gravy. Chatterjee Mansion. Exide. Filter Wills. Flake. Bodo Gold flake. Choto Gold Flake. Henpecked husbands. Dominating Wives. No Co-Education. Tolly Club. CCFC. Mithun Da. Koto Baaje Dada? Suarer Baccha. Mere Falbo. Dhoor Baanda! Calcuttaahh!
P.S. – This list of words/phrases is really not definitive and conclusive because it is simply impossible to describe a city as wonderful as Calcutta in a few words. Please feel free to add to this list in the comments section.
2 comments August 6, 2007
Colombo Calling
My trip to Sri Lanka was long overdue. I was supposed to be there last year, but had a long wait before I could finally make it. From the moment I landed in Colombo, I could see the situation the country is in today. Colombo looked heavily fortified with the police force and the army spread all across the city with vigilant eyes. People were being frisked and asked to show identification papers all over the city.
It was a bright & warm day and I enjoyed the long drive from the airport to my hotel. I realized that Colombo is a clean city, which is quite uncrowded. The infrastructure looked in tune with the times. It was really surprising for me since I didn’t expect this from Sri Lanka. Going a little back, I realized that the Colombo airport too was great and I don’t think even a single airport in India can compare with it!
I set about my work to do a few accompanied interviews for an opinion poll. Colombo was under a fiery thunderstorm and downpour during my stay. My team braved the thunderstorms and managed to speak to a few respondents. While these people were being interviewed, I could sense some sort of hopelessness that is creeping into the minds of the people here. I remember from my previous studies that over 80% of the people felt that the Sri Lankan government was committed to peace. People still believe that the government is committed to peace, but they are not very sure what the government can do about it. With the weakening of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and breakdown of talks, people might be feeling that a third-party intervention is the key. Interestingly, Sri Lankans are in favour of the international community, in particular, India, intervening and trying to sort out the dispute.
Another interesting issue was that of migration. Many respondents I spoke to (including my car driver, an auto-rickshaw driver, hotel staff and folks in ACNielsen) expressed a keen interest in migrating to other countries for better opportunities and a better quality of life. They were really concerned about their family’s safety as well. However, the key barriers that they saw in doing this was availability of funds to take such a step and migration risks.
While dwindling tourism revenues had left many people concerned, people were upbeat about the economy clocking close to 7.5% growth. However, the cost of the war has left the economy grappling with inflation levels close to 18%.
My return journey is nothing much to talk about with flight cancellations and re-routings and long waits at the airports. But, on the whole, it was a great experience.
Add comment May 11, 2007
Oh Kolkata!
Recently, I had a chance to visit Kolkata over a weekend. Having spent about 9 years in the city, I do love the city a lot. The roads and streets reminded me about the time I had spent traversing them as a student. The people looked distinctively familiar and the feeling was very warm. There was something that didn’t feel very familiar to the spirit of the city. I saw something that I was longing to see in the city for a long time, but was elusive – Change. Kolkata is evolving fast and it’s catching up really fast with its counterparts in other parts of the country. Here’s a short list of what struck me -
- Gone are the days when eating out was a weekend business. Gone are the days when there were only two cuisines – Punjabi and Chinese. It appears that the people are eating out more often these days. And, there are restaurants of all kinds, Mexican, Italian, Continental, Moroccan, Greek et al.The weekends obviously see packed restaurants and people throng to the discotheques and lounges to shake a leg to the latest bollywood numbers. But, interestingly, I saw most Park Street restaurants packed even on a Monday! I had to wait for about 30 minutes to get into my favourite sizzler joint in the area!
- It’s not only the neo-Bengalis who are going for eat-outs. We have a whole new breed of neo-Marwadis who are flocking to these places. This is encouraging popular restaurants from other cities to set up shop in Kolkata. Read This.
- It looks like money is pouring in the city with consumerism on the rise. For instance, Tommy Hilfiger and Swarovski have higher sales in Kolkata than that in Bangalore.
- IT is happening. There are well-paying jobs and swank offices. The Salt Lake electronic city is abuzz with techies from various parts of the country. I also heard that a large chunk of the IT workforce worked on a “bandh” day, which is simply incredible for a city like Kolkata.
- The upcoming township of Rajarhat looks extremely promising. I could see construction work by developers like DLF and Unitech, among others. Given the cost of living in the city and the relatively lower real estate prices (compared to a monster called Bangalore), IT companies are setting up huge off-shore development centers in the area. To complement that, there are tones of housing projects to take care of the needs of the workforce.
Having stayed in the city for so long and seen almost no positive changes at all, I had almost given up on Kolkata. But, I have been proven wrong. The journey of change is slow, but it is surely underway. The world of opportunities is just opening up and it doesn’t look like a bus that you want to miss.
1 comment November 15, 2006
Bangalore – R.I.P.
After Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, it is Bangalore’s turn now. Sometime next month, the anglicized name ‘Bangalore’ will be replaced by its Kannada cousin “Bengaluru”. Sometimes I wonder what we achieve by changing the names of our cities. What do we really gain out of it? Does it really make a difference apart from satisfying the politicians’ hunger for populism and the urges of people who raise a hue & cry for everything that matters to nobody? Instead of a forward-looking constructive approach, which focuses on building our cities, we confine ourselves to mindless debates of nuisance value. Moreover, a change in names is a drain on public money. Changes would need to made in official stationary, office supplies, banners, websites and in so many other things. Instead, this money could have been used for more productive purposes.
Shakespeare famously remarked, “What’s in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other word would smell as sweet.”
Bangalore, call it what you like, will remain the same. Life in the city will not change unless you do something about it more than changing its mere name. The same traffic woes. The same beautifully created potholes. The same narrow roads. Flyovers that take ages to complete. Digging up of foot-paths. Rash traffic. Auto-wallahs demanding obnoxious fares in the night. No party post 11:30pm. Uncontrolled office-space absorption. Sky-rocketing rents.
Life will go on as it is…
1 comment October 3, 2006
Monster on the Roads of Kolkata!
Kolkata definitely has bad traffic, like most Indian cities. I visit the city every few months and realize that it keeps getting worse.
I wondered how this can be taken care and came upon an idea – kill the monster taxis! Most other Indian cities extensively use auto-rickshaws as a part of their transport systems. Moreover, autos substitute taxis.
How can autos make life better? A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation (figures may vary a little depending on vehicle models) –
Taxi (The great Indian Ambassador)
Length = 4325mm
Width = 1622mm
Area = 7 sq. meters
Auto (Bajaj)
Length = 2625mm
Width = 1300m
Area = 3.41 sq. meters
West Bengals’s road density stands roughly at 105km of roads per 100 sq. km. and Kolkata’a area of 1036sq. km., Kolkata has about 1100 sq. km of roads. If we start using auto-rickshaws instead of the over 30000 taxis plying on the roads of the city, we can easily free up about 107700 sq. meters of road space! That doesn’t look like a huge number, but it surely can provide some relief. Moreover, consumers too benefit from the move in terms of fares. Today, taxi fares are upwards of Rs.10 per km in the city. Compare this with an average Rs.7 that auto-rickshaws in major Indian cities charge for a kilometer of travel. I am sure there are other benefits too – autos definitely cause less pollution, noise and are more efficient than the monster Ambassadors. Is anyone listening?
Add comment July 29, 2006
Two Faces of Mumbai
Mumbai, very recently, was awarded the title of the “Rudest City” and according to a magazine survey was at the bottom of the ‘city civility’ pyramid. The article pointed out instances of bad mannerism like holding the door open for someone right behind you; helping a passer-by pick up a dropped newspaper or pile of documents; thanking shoppers after their retail experience.
This week, terror struck with it’s fangs in the city’s heart – commuter trains. There was blood and mayhem at the railway tracks. Train coaches were ripped apart by the explosives and the bodies lying on the tracks. Amidst all the chaos, an interesting thing happened. The rudeness dissipated and the city came together to help each other and fight back. Television channels were teeming with images of people helping those in need. Car-owners stopped and dropped people to hospitals/homes. The people staying close to the sites of the explosions rushed with basic medical aid and necessities like water. It was heartening to see a city stand together in the middle of a crisis so large in magnitude.
However, I feel a little perplexed. Why did the city respond like this? Where & why did the rudeness not prevail? Perhaps, people feel like behaving in a civilized fashion only when there is a crisis or a need. On a recent trip to Singapore, I had noticed that there were a lot of Indian tourists in the country. And, they were all acting in a very civilized fashion. No littering on the streets. Saying ‘Hi’ or ‘Good Morning’ to other guests in the hotel. Standing in a queue. Thanking anybody who helped them. Thanking the personnel at the store’s bill desk. It seemed that they were not Indians at all.
My simple question is that why can’t we be like this everyday. What stops us? Mumbai is just an example. Other places in India are no better at this. Is it because we have a “who cares” or an “even others do it” kind of an attitude? Or is it simply general apathy for the nation? Whatever be the cause, it is imperative that we, Indians, set such examples in our daily lives instead of on a “need-basis”.
Add comment July 14, 2006
What a sorry state of things!
This is a photo of Hosur Road which is just outside my apartment. It leads to the electronic city which houses some of the best names in the Indian IT sector. Imagine what have people faced while commuting to their worplaces!
I keep thinking that why are we always so reactive and not proactive towards emergencies and unforeseen circumstances.
Add comment October 26, 2005
