When Silence is not only Golden - It is everything, Ask Gillette, KLM and Sunshine Hospitals

What was Gillette thinking about? The advertisement of Gillette is in plain words Jingoistic. It is playing to the most basic sentiments of the people. Most of us understand that cricket is just a game. We also realize that cricket is not war and yes we enjoy winning and winning against Pakistan is Sone-Pe-suhaga. But that is where the buck stops or should stop.

Playing and wining against Pakistan is not winning a war with our neighbors. Nor it is a   war against the Muslims of Pakistan or to that matter Muslims of any county including India. That is why the Gillette advertisement is cheesy and so much off the mark.

The advertisement too seems to be made in a hurry. The stubble is green in color. Why green? Does green mean Pakistan? And prey why green (the usage of green is not an accident). Green is the predominant color in the flag of Pakistan. So Gillette wants Indian Cricket team to “Wipe, them clean”. As if taking the dirty stubble off.

And what does Gillette want to achieve. That too only for a cricket match. Is it not thinking about the millions if not crores of Indian consumers that it is antagonizing apart from the millions and crores of Pakistani and other country citizens? Gillette needs to think many times before biting this genre silver bullet. This is one bullet that could back fire, hurt and injure the shooter – Gillette itself. 

What started out as a lark went horribly wrong. The world is tuned to FIFA world cup and Dutch Airlines thought that they would cash in. And cash in they did - After the match between Netherland and Mexico (which Mexico lost) they sent out a twitter feed. The twitter feed had a picture of an Airport departure sign under the heading 'Adios Amigo'. And next to the word departure was an image of a man with a mustache wearing a sombrero (Mexican hat).

The twitter went viral and Mexicans hated it. A Mexican actor promised that he would never fly Dutch airlines. And rubbing salt into the wound he told his 2 million followers to do the same. Seeing the alarming negative reaction the post was pulled off the net half an hour later. 

The issue became prickly and later in the night KLM issued a formal apology. The lesson is very clear. Do not indulge in something that is sensitive and where by celebrating only with one set of people you would hurt the sentiments of the other set and as a company you want to be in the good books of both sets of the people.

What is Sunshine thinking? It is a corporate hospital. It would need the patronage of people from all parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. By supporting the division are they not antagonizing the vast majority of Andhra people living in Hyderabad? They might win the confidence of the Telangana people, but are they not losing the trust of the Andhra clientele. 

As far as I am concerned it is was a absolutely zero sum game.  Sunshine hospital has to realize it is better to be silent rather than to put up advertisements that are controversial. It is better to be safe than to be sorry. 

As if to make amends Sunshine put up another advertisement. The advertisement says 'one moon for Andhra Pradesh' (Chandrababu Naidu the chief Minister) 'one moon for Telangana' (K. Chandrasekhara Rao). Chandrudu in Telugu means moon. The advertisement goes on to say ‘one sun for Hyderabad’ that is Sunshine Hospital. 

A sunshine hospital is being too clever for its own sake. First it supports the division and then it tries to appease the Andhra Pradesh clientele with another advertisement. It is just trying to be safe. This way I think they would have lost the confidence of both the clientele; Andhra Pradesh with the first advertisement and Telangana with the second one. It is caught between a rock and a hard place. Time Sunshine Hospital does focus groups interviews to avoid such controversial advertisement campaigns.

Religion and advertising - Look before you leap

Products needs promotions and marketing a product without promotion is like winking at a girl in darkness. Fully convinced marketers are leaving no stone unturned to garner eye balls. The case of United Colors of Benetton can be taken as example of a company that shocks for shocking sake. Their advertising campaigns are deliberately provocative and tend to generate lot of noise, furore and finally get banned. But they serve the purpose - United Colors of Benetton gets talked about and gets free publicity. 

Recently a shocking trend has been noticed. Religious symbols, religious figures and pictures of gods and goddesses have been used to promote products. Sometimes it could be a innocent mistake. One former Indian captain signed his name on the brand of shoe that he was endorsing. As the name of the captain is also the name of a holy person it created a furore and the caption had to tender a public apology. 

Similarly Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) had objected to an advertisement of Cricket star Harbhajan Singh that featured him with his hair open. Sikh Religion does not permit Sikh men to open their hair even at the time of eating. Later Harbhajan Singh apologized to the SGPC.  

In a recent fashions show in Delhi the visitors were shocked to see a model wear a dress that has the image of the Prime minister of India Dr. Man Mohan Singh.

 







International designer Lisa Burke had to scrap her swimwear line for Australia Fashion Week after protests by Hindu groups at her use of images of the goddesses on bikini bottoms. She apologized and halted production of the bikini line.

A statement issued by the designer's company of Lisa Burke claimed that usage of the goddess's image was "an attempt to celebrate different cultures".

Italian designer Roberto Cavalli similarly seven years ago had to hastily withdraw his spa line after the eruption of the Hindu sentiment the world over. His usage of images of Lord Ram, Vishnu and Goddess Saraswati on intimate wear for women was the reason for the outrage.

French shoe brand Minnelli withdrew their shoes with religious images after protests. 

Heidi Klum used Kali as a Halloween outfit, and popular brand Guess sparked protests with tank tops that sported Lord Ganesha images and the words "Handsome elephant!”

Danish cartoonists who drew cartoons that made fun a major religion had to face death threats and the sale of Danish products suffered in many countries as the citizens boycotted Danish products.

Marketers have to remember that they are not operating in vacuum. They are part of the bigger scheme of things and they need to understand that religion is one thing that is very personal and tends to whip up emotions. A small spark is enough to ignite the cauldron. Indian news papers have understood this aspect and thread very cautiously when dealing with the issue of religion.

Irani cafes in Hyderabad have become very smart. One Irani café very boldly says “Do not discuss religion, politics and horse racing”. All three topics lead to time consuming discussions and to heart burn. An eatery wants his clientele to eat and exit. Customers who sit and talk for hours together are a drain on resources!

Mother or Grand Mother- Womb for rent - (the case of Surrogate mother)

Ethics is one thing that keeps changing from time to time. Let us examine an incident from real life. A typically American family. Tom and Jane happily married. They wanted to have a baby. They tried the natural way but to no avail. They then contacted a gynecologist. After a detailed examination they were told about the results. Jane can’t have a baby the normal way. She has a block in her fallopian tube. But the doctor has some good news too. Jane was otherwise normal and was able to ovulate that is she is able to produce an egg. Tom was healthy and could produce healthy sperms for the fertilization.

The doctor suggested invitro fertilization. In lay man language it is popularly called test tube baby method. In this process the egg is extracted from the woman and the man provides the sperm. The fertilization is effected in a laboratory and the fertilized egg is inserted into the womb of the woman and the normal pregnancy is allowed.

But here is the twist. Jane was quite apprehensive about her health condition. She requested her mother, Mary to carry the baby for her. Mary too was apprehensive. But the gynecologist assured her that she (Mary) was fine and that she could be a surrogate mother (womb for rent).

Mary, Jane and Tom entered into a written agreement. Mary was to be provided a healthy sum for carrying the baby for nine months. Mary had a normal pregnancy and delivered a healthy baby boy. Jane was overjoyed with her baby. Her own baby! She could not wait to take the boy in her hands.

But Mary dropped a bomb. She had developed a bond with her baby and did not want to give it to Jane and Tom. Jane and Tom pleaded with her. Mary was firm. She delivered the baby and the baby was hers. After a lot of deliberation Jane and Tom took Mary to the court.

The presiding Judge never had a case like this. The egg and the sperm belonged to Jane and Tom. So the basic building blocks of the baby belonged to Jane and Tom. Mary’s case too was strong. She had the fertilized egg in her womb for nine months. You are the judge, what judgment would you deliver. Give the baby to Jane and Tom or let it remain with her grandmother/mother? You can post your answer till 31^st January 2011. On 1^st February 2011 I will reveal the judgment.

The Case of Ethics

The case of ethical behavior is something that is of paramount importance. Managers and managers to be need to be very careful about their dealings and should definitely get a name for themselves as ethical managers. What is ethics? Three simple definitions: Ethics is the art of correct behavior. But what is correct or not is left to the conscience and the mind of the person doing the task. The second definition too is simple. Ethics is something that bothers you. If you are pausing for a second and thinking whether what you are doing is ethical or not - most probably what you are doing is unethical. The third definition is the best. Whenever you are in doubts whether what you are doing is ethical or not pause for a second and ask yourself "would my mother approve of what I am doing?" If the answer for that question is yes then what you are doing is ethical and if the answer is no then what you are doing is unethical.

CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) is an International centre situated in Hyderabad, India. It is famous for doing DNA finger printing. It is a centre that aids the police departments in cases where spit or saliva is available but finger print is not available. Another area where CCMB does yeomen service to the society is in the field of paternity testing. The father’s claim for paternity of a child can be tested scientifically.

On the eventful day the senior scientist at CCMB had a family who visited him. The father told a very strange story. He told the Doctor that he suspected that is second son is his son but not the first. He requested the doctor to do the test and tell him whether his second son was his own.

The doctor took the blood samples of the father, mother and both the children. The results came out very interestingly. The first son was the son of the father but not the second. What is that the doctors can tell the family?

This is where the ethical problem comes in. Is he supposed to tell the truth? But why should the doctor play the god? But at the same time should the truth be told at all? After all the father asked about the first son and not his second son. But is telling what is only asked, the duty of the doctors? If that is the case what about the Hippocratic truth that all doctors take which tells them that some truths even if they are bitter and not very palatable have to be told.

The doctor discussed the perplex issue with a priest, an atheist, a mullah and a Christian father. Everyone had some solution but that those were not satisfactory. Finally that night as he was tossing in his bed his wife advised him to do what his conscience tells him to do.

On the day of the result the entire family assembled in front of the doctor. The doctor looked straight at the father and said “your first son is your son" and he waited with baited breath. He was expecting the second question which was "and what about my second son?" But the question never came and the entire family walked out of the doctor's office happily. The doctor's wife asked him that night "are you happy with what you did?" For which the doctor replied “I am not but I saved the family on this particular day. I was waiting for the second question. If that dreaded question was asked I would have had to answer but the question never came"

That in a nut shell is the case of ethics for you. It is where there is no correct answer or solution. What is correct depends on the situation and the criticality.

Cheating – The ultimate way of fooling one-self (Part 4)

Finally looking at the positive side, there is a ray of hope emerging from the narrow and dark tunnel. The examples are

Hindustan Lever Limited: This premier company believes so much in ethics and in moral values that any person fudging even a petty travel bill or borrowing from the distributor is frowned upon. It is simply not done at all. The offender is simply sacked from service. He/she would never in his lifetime would serve HLL again.

Cheating when attending interviews: Many blue chip companies allow the students who have been selected for the final interview the freedom to travel by 2nd A/C to the corporate head quarters. Many students book the 2nd A/C tickets, take a photo copy and cancel the A/C ticket. Subsequently they would purchase a 2nd class sleeper ticket and travel. They would submit the 2nd A/C photo copy at the time of reimbursement. Their reward - a paltry sum of may be 1000 to 1500/- rupees.

Unknown to them a clerk of the concerned company would have visited the railway station and would have checked whether the candidate has travelled by 2nd class sleeper or 2nd A/C. The company would happily pay a cheating candidate his 2nd A/C claim. They would be relieved that they have got away with only 1000 or 1500/- rupees loss. The company would not touch such a person with a barge pole – especially a candidate who cheated at the very first instance. It is as if they are saying good riddance to bad rubbish.

Universities of USA: keeping the rampant increase in trying to cheat, the American universities have started allowing critical formulae to be carried into the examination hall. The emphasis is not on cramming one’s brain with formulae or rote memory but on application based learning. But if found cheating or copying the student have to forfeit the entire course.

Gamesmanship need not always mean sledging: The case of Steve Waugh in the 1996 cricket world cup is very illuminating. Hershelle Gibbs at the forward short leg drops Steve Waugh’s catch. Steve immediately reminds him “Son you have just dropped the world Cup “. Equally interesting is the case of Sadagopan Ramesh Vs Allan Mullalay of England. Ramesh is continuously playing and failing to connect the ball. Allan Mullalay goes up to Ramesh and politely enquires if he is looking for a career in fishing! Nice men also win.

The advertisement of Royal Challenge also touches the heart. Two friends are playing basketball. One of the friends has his son watching him play. His friend graciously allows the father to win the game. The look on the beaten man says it all. You need not win at all times. Some times you could lose and win too. What a beautiful sentiment.

Wrapping up let us end with a famous saying,

YOU CAN FOOL MANY PEOPLE MANY TIMES

YOU CAN FOOL SOME PEOPLE SOME TIMES

BUT YOU CAN’T FOOL ALL PEOPLE ALL THE TIME.

Lets us not forget the last line includes self that is ourselves. Let’s us not try to cheat ourselves. That would really be a crying shame.

Cheating – The ultimate way of fooling one-self (Part 3)

Cheating in Popular Media:

Bajaj Scooter: Father and son are interacting about the scooter purchase. Father had given Rs 25,000/- to the son who buys a Bajaj scooter and pockets Rs 4,000/-. He doesn’t admit the same until the father deliberately points out the difference. The type of influence this ad can have on the impressionable youth are too frightening even to fathom,

Cadbury Perk: The scene is of a hunger strike and many people are shown fasting. Loa and behold a perky teenager picks up her Cadbury’s perk and slyly eats it only to be followed by the rest of the pack. Mahatma Gandhi must be turning in his grave in anguish seeing the trivialization of his noble method of civil disobedience.

Deodorizer Ads: All the deodorizer ads inevitably show in the graphics that their products clean the person of the germs. But if seen between the scenes one can see very clearly that even “Life Buoy gold” also leaves the person with some germs as if to say that they would return and we have to use the same soap again and again.

Cheating in Sports: Cheating in sports has infact led to invention of new words like gamesmanship, Sledging etc. All would boil down to the same thing cheating. The Australians who sledge in cricket say it is normal and part of the game. But the abuse of Rahul Dravid by an infuriated Allan Donald leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

The example of Romesh Kaluwitharana lingers in the memory. Kallu as he is called gets the ball trapped in the wicket keeper’s pads. He looks towards the fine leg as if to tell the batsman that the ball has gone past him. The batsman promptly takes of for a single and he is runout by Kallu. There are congratulations all around and no one thinks of the poor batsman who has been done in by cheating. The concerted appealing of all the fieldsmen to pressurize the umpire in giving a decision is also called gamesmanship.

All this leaves us with lots of bad taste in the mouth. What can be done to arrest this alarming trend? Some of the things we can do are

• Be honest to one self,

• Believe in the means as much as the ends,

• A name earned out of honesty is worth ten times the money or fame earned out of cheating,

• Believe in building long term relationship based on trust and genuine concern,

• It is nor glamorous to cheat, in many cases it shows the desperateness,

• People will finally associate themselves with honest people, would you like to have a honest person for a friend or a person who cheats?

Cheating an Ultimate way of fooling oneself (Part 2)

Students face severe pressure and their performance and results dictate their jobs and settlement in life. Thus it is not surprising that they indulge in various forms of cheating.  Some of the many of the examples of students cheating are

• Students taking additional sheets in the examinations for the single purpose of making the answer book bulky. It has been noticed that the students write only around 8 lines amounting to sometimes to 50 words in a page. Lots of blank space and sheets are also left unwritten.

• Now a days telerphonic interviews have become common place. Telephonic interviews are very popular  among the US employees. It has been noticed that many of the students indulge in subterfuge that is the student that is being interviewed is not the same as the student who applied for the job. In many cases it is the faculty member of the institute who takes the interview.

• Many of the applicants who apply for H1B apply with fake credentials. This has become such a rampant practice that students of some universities are viewed suspiciously by the embassy officials of many countries.

• There has been cases of students trying to tamper with the OMR (optical magnetic recorder) answer sheet that is used in many competitive examinations. There is a recorded instance of a student who darkened all the holes and got 100/100. If only had he got darkened 90/100 he would have succeeded in his attempt.

• Java was only introduced in the year 1995 . In 1996 a young Indian immigrant in USA had applied for a JAVA job and mentioned 5 years of JAVA experience. The HR head (incidentally another Indian) wryly commented “maybe he is referring to his JAVA (Motorcycle riding) experience!”

Computer institutes: The cases of computer institutes cheating are dime a dozen. The carrot of part time placements, final placement, live projects, spurious discounts, fake scholarships, and of the ultimate lure “Job in the US of A” are dangled to snare the students into the institute. Infact there were so many institutes in Ameerpet, Hyderabad, India that it was called United States of Ameerpet.

Cheating in Politics: The politicians have evolved cheating into a very fine tuned art. Booth capturing, rigging and impersonation have become common place occurrences. In this context it is interesting to note what a senior leader like Ajit Panja of Trinomol Congress has said about the Electronic Voting Machine.

Mr.Panja had remarked that when using the machine the voter should first press the first green button on the EVM. The sound of the beep means the machine in working condition and later the voter can press the button of his choice. What he had in his mind was very dubious in nature. It goes without saying that the first button of the EVM in that particular election had the TC symbol and the minute that green button is pressed the vote is cast. It is not known as to how many voters were taken in by this blatant attempt to deceive.

Ethics and Professional Sales Management (Part 3)

The final facet of the ethics problem is what is referred to as role conflict. This is where the salesperson is caught between doing what is best for the employer versus what is best for the prospect or customer. A frequent scenario is a temporary price reduction due to an upcoming marketing promotion. In this case the customer is ready to make the purchase decision right now, yet could save 20 percent by waiting a couple of weeks. The trouble here is the promotion has not yet been announced to the public and if the sales person voluntarily tells everyone, then he or she will have no orders to turn in for several weeks.

Another dimension is the well known fact that many people in business think it is ok that is to "bend the rules" once in a while if it results in getting ahead. This attitude prevails not because it's permissible, but because few people are seldom caught and punished for these actions. After all, booking that last order of the year that puts you over quota by lying to the prospect about a pending price increase isn't going to get you fired.

So just how does someone go about deciding what is ethical? Several criteria can be applied to every questionable sales activity to determine this more clearly. The initial test is whether you would want someone to do the same thing to you. How would you feel not getting the whole story about a used car you are going to purchase for your spouse? What if the seller knows, but never states that the car was in a terrible front end collision and the alignment can never be fixed to where it doesn't affect the steering?

The next test is whether you would want others in the general public to know what you did. Would the things the customers say about you would all be nice and complimentary or would the details embarrass you? Consider if you had to tell your parents about each and every one of your sales. Would your mother or father be proud of you or ashamed that you are their offspring?

A final guideline is whether or not anyone can suffer any degree of damage by your choice of conduct.

Today it's very possible for any salesperson to rationalize away the justification for unethical conduct. This is especially true when things aren't going well in one’s sales career. That's when the temptation enters to bend the rules or do something wrong where the outcome is very beneficial. The reason salespeople are even faced with these opportunities to stray across the line is partly due to their loose supervision by others. Often, salespeople are remotely managed and their actions are not witnessed by company executives. Giving sales people this much implied trust requires that those hired must have a strong sense of ethical values.

In summary, ethics is at the foundation of the effort to elevate sales as a true profession in its own right. By reinforcing the concept that the size of the gray area between legal and ethical conduct is narrow, not large, progress will have been made in raising the standards expected of all salespeople.

The field of sales is undergoing dramatic change and evolution thanks to technology and other automation. Out of this picture a new breed of salesperson has emerged - the sales executive. This highly skilled and educated individual will have risen through the ranks of field selling by virtue of his or her commitment to a personal code of conduct. In the new order of selling, there will no longer be any room at the top for those whose conduct is anything else but absolutely ethical.

Ethics and Professional Sales Management (Part 2)

There are laws that restrict such things as price discrimination where unfair discounts are given to some buyers but not others. In the world of sales, it is a very common situation where a buyer will request "special" or preferential pricing as a condition to placing an order. Or, a buyer will insist on some form of long-term price guarantee that is not offered to others. In each of these cases, it is illegal to do so.

However, firms and their respective sales staff often grant these concessions in the effort to secure orders. While there are technical ways to circumvent getting into trouble on these points, the average salesperson typically does not have the knowledge or authority to do so. In the end, it is usually the company that bears the burden of the legal mess, as the salesperson is let off the hook because he or she is merely acting as an agent for the employer.

There are some activities that are deemed as "unfair competition." Most obvious to salespeople is the tendency when out selling to make statements about competitors, which are false, deceptive, or damaging. Other illegal actions include such things as giving kickbacks and bribes to buyers, either in the form of money or merchandise for personal use. The final significant areas of illegal activities are: misrepresenting the quality of the products being sold; deceptive advertising about pricing, free products, special "discounts"; and, misleading claims that are part of the inducement to purchase a product or service.

What about the ethics side? Well, the first thing to acknowledge is that the line between legal and ethical is increasingly blurred when the topic of sales arises. In fact, probably no other line of work has so many opportunities to do something which is classified as legal, but the action itself is unethical.

More often than not, unethical behavior occurs when it will directly benefit the salesperson - otherwise why would anyone subject themselves to such behavior in the first place? Take the sales person who entertains a buyer at lunch and encourages that person to have a couple of alcoholic drinks in order to get him or her relaxed. Then the sales person lays on some fancy closing techniques that literally catch the buyer off guard to the point they sign the order over lunch. Illegal - no, but unethical - very much so!

The primary reason salespeople do this is due to pressure, and that pressure comes from a variety of sources. The main source is sales managers who refuse to miss making their sales quotas for fear of losing their annual bonus or having their potential for promotion ruined. Sales people are literally ordered to make sales "at all costs" under these circumstances. There is no limit to how and when these pressures can hit a salesperson.

Ethics and Professional Sales Management (Part 1)

Almost a day doesn't go by where there isn't some news report of a firm or individual that has gotten caught for some "wrong doing" in the conduct of business activities. This range is very broad, such as failing to pay taxes, or deceptive advertising practices - just to name a few.

Within the vast sea of opportunity for any business or person to get in trouble lurks the sales function. Probably no other activity has so much chance to destroy a company or individual's career. The sales person is the first contact point and for the customer the sales person is the company and the wrong doings of the sales person will be viewed by default as the wrong doings of the company.

One important relationship between sales and ethics is the lack of preparation and planning needed in order to work as a salesperson. To begin with, few people grow up desiring to be in sales in the first place. Often, most young people fall into it because they can't get any other type of "real" job. Second, nothing is taught in classrooms about sales, either at the high school or college level.

For example a sales person who buys discounted products of his company and uses it for himself is legally not doing anything wrong but ethically definitely he is disgracing himself. Same is the case with air line staff that hog all the scratch cards for themselves and give only those scratch cards (which are slightly scratched so that the item is known) to the airline passengers are not doing anything wrong from their point of view. They can always claim that what item that they are scratched is not free but available at a subsided price and that they are paying the same price as the airline customers. But the point is the scratch cards are never meant for the airline staff. They are meant to act as a incentive for airline passengers to use the same airline again and again (This has happened to the author on Jetlite flight from Hyderabad to Mumbai)

An accepted definition of ethics is the science of moral duty or the science of ideal human character. Therefore, ethics are moral principles or practices. That's why they are referred as standards of professional conduct. When someone acts in an ethical fashion it means they are conforming to some standard of moral behavior.

Most people operate their daily lives under a personal code of ethics which dictates things that they will or will not do. For example, take a salesperson who desperately needs a certain order to make quota for the year and tells this to the prospect who wants to delay the order until after the first of the year. The fact here is that while it would be legal to share the information about how bad the representative needs the order, it would be viewed as unethical to do so.