Teacher as a student

 

For the past few weeks I had become a student again. I spent almost 4 weeks at various business schools in Hyderabad and Pune. Ostensibly I was teaching. But actually I was learning. Interacting with post graduate students on the cusp of starting a career or charting out on their own, understanding how tomorrow’s customers think today, gauging the pulse of a small sample size of today’s dominant youth has been always fascinating. And this time was no different. So here is what I learnt. A few pointers.

1)      The youth are homogeneous yet are influenced by geographical nuances. Take the example of Patanjali. My experience with the youth show that youngsters are not too fond of the brand. It’s mostly being bought by the 35 or 40 plus who have been influenced by Baba Ramdev’s yoga or his Ayurvedic medicines. In the north youth know about Baba, have seen someone in the family try the brand, have tried it themselves too. But in the south Patanjali is more conspicuous by its absence. Youngsters are more amazed by it’s success story as they have neither seen or encountered the brand. Patanjali is clearly a north phenomena. Has someone access to its regional sales or distribution data?

2)      The thinking of the youth is very urban. All the business schools I went to, had a fair bit of the crowd from towns like Jaipur, Nashik, Haridwar, Ludhiana etc but their thought process on the whole was very urban. They seem to have either forgotten their roots or are embarrassed about it or worse do not realise the potential of these places. In one business school I was judging a competition where students were presenting how to position and launch some known brands in unrelated categories. One category which was spoken about was hotels. And almost every team focussed on big towns. No one even thought about a potential business opportunity which exists in the small towns. If tomorrow’s marketers also ignore Bharat then we and they are in trouble.

3)      The English hangover dominates. At least two set of students approached me to bounce off an ecommerce based home delivery business model. I was thrilled by their entrepreneurial spirit. They were targeting towns like Lucknow, Chandigarh. Aha! At last someone who was sensing business opportunity in Bharat. But their thinking, ideas, branding and even apps were all in English. There is no doubt that knowledge of English and its use is very critical to be part of a global system. But are the youngsters getting so brain washed that they were not thinking in Indian language or using Indian languages when it was really required? In my mind there is no doubt that mobile or digital based business models, apps or even money transactions will explode if we provide the interface in local Indian language. It’s not the lack of knowledge of English. But it’s a lack of ease of use of English. And yet when the business model demanded Indian language, the students were overpowered by the aura of English.

4)      Traditional media is dead. At least for the youth. They don’t read newspapers. They watch TV rarely. Their life revolves around the smart phones. You tube, whatsapp and even Facebook. As one student put it very bluntly, “the last time I read newspapers, watched TV and read business magazines was when I was preparing for interviews and group discussions for admission to B schools.” Viral seems to be the hottest media. But I must say I was surprised at the lack of attention towards LinkedIn. They were unsure about how LikedIn could help and how could they use it.

5)      Finally, I am convinced that AIDA is now AISDAS. After interest is search and after action is share. And if the share is positive then it generates new Interest and the cycle can go on repeatedly, unbroken. The youngsters are practicing this model. And brands which want to make a difference better start thinking how they can influence the two new S. Else they will be the third S. Stale.