People keep cursing the software industry that it is a place where the incumbents start to lose the interest in learning. The research quotient in them starts to dwindle and they begin to just start managing the monotonous jobs and projects. This is being too harsh on them (us). Who says that the software professionals don’t foster research? All it needs is a change in perspective and the outlook. Guys just think again and watch back. The software companies these days are the hot beds for new management strategies which people have not learned till date. The management gurus should take the cases for case studies. I am not exaggerating the scene. Let me explain one event.
Place - Dingosys (Name not real)
Time - Friday morning.
The people are checking their mails and busy sending the TGIF mails and the weekend plans to their pals. Suddenly a mail pops up from the Top Guns of that center. It reads Gala Garment Mela. Starting next Monday for a week. As usual, the custom goes and the mail is deleted permanently from the mail boxes of all the persons. Next the scene is Monday Morning. No one would be aware of one such mela that is to be started that day. As they speed towards their buildings, they come across some kind of make shift shops being set up and some unusual decoration and commotion welcoming them. Banners hanging all over. Then the fact is again resurfaced in their minds. That’s it. From then, at each possible that they could make out, during the tea break, lunch break, and while returning home, they keep stopping at the stalls and begin to watch the items on display. At the first look, these items are no great master pieces. They are the same normal items which could be seen in any normal showrooms. But our fraternity would be looking and gazing with great astonishment and admiring every bit of it. This is the time when the vendors bring out the best of their strategies. They keep augmenting the features of the objects beyond the physical appearance and mental comprehension. This side the guys keep swaying their heads and blinking their eyes. Finally at one point the sale is closed. The soft guys in the course of time because of the circumstances at work begin to come to terms with the conditions and fail to raise the voice and forget one of the feature of shopping, bargain. There is something called a quote price on which you can argue and come to a profitable price to you. They do not raise their voice. Only thing they ask is “Are cards accepted?”. These shop persons will be ready for such things and immediately say “Yes” and finally the trap is ready and we are held in it.
We fail to take into account the features of a product that were taken as important in a purchase. Features, utility, price, packaging and stature. The last otherwise less important feature takes predominance here and the dynamics of market are distorted. Some one who wants to apply some of the learnt sciences will feel it very difficult to do it. This is because no existing strategy would be holding good here. There is a new strategy that has germinated in the soils of the software industry. “THE BLIND BULL STRATEGY”.
According to this strategy, the purchasing capacity of the person does not depend on the power of his purse. It depends on the ability of the seller to create a sense of pride in the purchaser and that is all, the purchase happens even on credit. The seller tries to set flowery features and the bait works for the buyer as he is blind to the real features. He nods to the offer and takes it. Just like a blind bull, which grazes upon anything that comes its way without discriminating it.
There is a opportunity for the marketers. The software industry seems to appear as a dump yard for their merchandise. Anything that has surpassed the usable life of nearing the end of the life, would be earmarked. They bring such goods to one place and once they form a good size of stock, they bang the software companies and within a week’s time, they achieve nearing 80% sales. Great right. Never was the selling that easy for them. There is equal opportunity for all industries. Garments, footwear, personal care, housing, real estate, furniture, ornaments, cutlery, crockery and many more.
Not that these kinds of sales are always bad. There are times when the otherwise un accessible things become accessible and we get great services. But not always. There is a matter of distinction that we have to maintain and know what we need and what we don’t and what we should take and what we should not. What is the price most suitable and what is not. Come guys, we were once the brightest and we need to prove that we still are the best.
Don’t let this strategy get to a regular implementation. Think twice and ask thrice and seek a dozen times before you buy something. We don’t get those moneys just like that. It is the hard earned money out of the sweat of our brow.
