Some Thoughts...

I was totally out of my mind when I discovered today that Pantaloon has already implemented all of my business ideas in the food & beverages space. It opened Brew Bar for selling beer, Cafe Bollywood for selling Indian street food, Chamosa for selling chai and samosas, Food Bazaar - the supermarket, and Sports Bar. Each one of these is a great concept in itself and is sure to make good money (if it's not already, because of the recession).

Came across this interesting concept called Reverse Mentoring, wherein those in the senior positions in an organization are mentored by those lower in the hierarchy. The funda is that those higher up usually belong to an older generation and can learn a lot about contemporary stuff, like latest technology, trends, fashion, preferences, thought processes, etc. from the youngsters. It's more important in markets like India where a majority of the consumers are young, while the CEO's and the decision makers are middle-aged. Reverse Mentoring helps you understand the consumer psyche by directly interacting with and learning from the youngsters in your own organization who belong to your target segment (for most products in a young country like India). The concept came from GE's Jack Welch and makes a lot of sense. So for best results, the organizational framework must facilitate and ensure both forward and reverse mentoring, so that the organizational thought process is aligned in the direction that serves all interests best.

I wish we had Reverse Mentoring in our political parties too. But the biggest hindrances to its success are - the inability of the senior person to suppress his/her ego, accept that there is a need to learn and it can be done best from a subordinate, and to develop a will to do it. Considering that and our current political scenario, Reverse Mentoring doesn't seem feasible in the near term. That's sad. I think if our 70-80-90 year old politicians understood today's India better, they'd never have assigned top priority in their manifestos to stuff like building a useless temple or protecting submerged rocks in the sea, stuff which any reasonably informed young Indian does not give a damn about. Nor would he/she vote, coz he/she sees no good options, nor does he/she have belief or hope. It's a vicious globe. Amir Khan's flying back to Mumbai from North America just for a day in the middle of his vacation and Shahrukh's taking one day off from IPL to cast their votes are not gonna help. I don't have solutions to suggest. Nor can I say 'go cast your vote', coz I am not convinced it helps.