A Symbiotic Relationship

Military might and economic growth share a symbiotic relationship and one without the other is always short lived. They both feed on each other as well as nurture the other for the benefit and overall ascent of a nation.

Whenever a nation tries to promote one at the expense of the other, and one has to just look around in the international arena to find many examples of these, it always finds itself in deep trouble soon. One of the finest examples are the so called military states (technically the ones ruled by a junta or a serviceman as its head e.g. Myanmar) or countries where the armed forces hold an extraordinary amount of power compared to other arms of the government ( such as Pakistan).

In such countries there is a strong tendency to promote the forces and they are able to corner the lions share of the budgeted resources. This mostly happens at the expense of infrastructure funding and other government development and growth programs which in the long term adversely affect the economic growth and prospects of the country.

Also with such strong focus on just one arm its power becomes disproportionate which in turn leads to issues such as corruption and nepotism all of which severely hamper and stifles enterprise resulting in economic stagnation. Both the countries mentioned above have had a the same fate of economic catastrophe as armed forces are promoted at the expense of other pressing needs.

This policy is a negative self fulfilling prophecy, initially the services request and get large amounts due to a real or perceived threat. But as increasingly money keeps getting filtered to the military there is an impact on economy of the country. This invariably results in some kind of opposition, or in extreme cases uprising, against the government or the junta and to quell that more money gets allocated to the forces with the core economic issues getting further left behind.

On the other hand if a country focusses on economic growth alone without developing sufficient military might, there is no way in which it can protect its trade interests in case they are threatened by an outside power. It is imperative thus for an economic power to maintain adequate armed forces which can protect its economic investments and interests in a hostile situation.

The erstwhile USSR had a very strong focus on space supremacy and on its armed forces. To maintain a superiority in these two spheres other aspects of economic development were ignored with deadly results for the ruling party and the country as a whole.

China after creating a strong and vibrant economy has bolstered it with military might and is adding advanced weapons and technology to its arsenal. This ensures that the country is effectively able to safeguard its varied trade interests, whether be its merchant ships sailing in the pirate infested waters or its oil wells in distant African nations.

It is important to understand that the armed forces are per se unproductive and do not add to the growth or depth of the economy. Adequate investments are to be made both in the infrastructure and in the creation of an environment which supports strong economic growth. Such growth only can sustain and bring modern equipment and weaponry to the military which the forces need to protect the economy that helps nourish it.

O What To Be

"To be or not to be" was the question for Hamlet but that has been easily answered for me. My own business has to be for me but that is where the clarity fades and I am surrounded by the plethora of promising and confusing prospects that lay in front of me.

India currently being the land of opportunity that it is, there are new avenues opening up in every imaginable field and even some which were unimaginable just a few years back. There are opportunities in the new technology space, with an increasing number of the country folks getting hooked onto the internet it presents potential beyond imagination. Almost anything which was till now done in the brick and mortar way can now be done online. What one needs is to identify either a skill which one has and then make it available to the entire world through the web or if you find yourself like me, with no visible marketable skills, then create a marketplace for people with skills but lacking enterprise to get in touch with customers.

Then there are opportunities thrown open by the fact that disposable incomes within a certain section of the country have skyrocketed in the last couple of decades. These are the people about whose salaries and packages one reads about in the newspapers. "Rs 1 crore for the latest pass out from XYZ college" is a regular yearly headline that screams through the papers. So now our Mr One Crore has to spend all that money and trust me he finds ways to do this and helping him all along are a host of new businesses that exist to make his pocket light. These include adventure sports, exotic travels, exorbitantly priced clothes (with no other differentiation except that everyone knows the particular brand is unaffordable) to luxury accessories. These are very high margin products targeted at a niche segment and saves one the trouble of grass-root marketing and sweating it out in the sun on the congested India road.

For those not inclined at milking the super rich the trickle down effect of globalization has created opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid also. With opening up of the economy and more people working outside the government there is an increasing need of Health Insurance for self employed as well as those who though currently on their company health insurance post retirement will need to buy it from outside. With a dismal penetration numbers in India as well as stone age systems in this sector it offers a number of opportunities in data management, administration outsourcing to good old brokers.

But let us in this discussion not ignore the traditional shopper in the Indian household, yes my dear readers it is the lady of the house. With hubby dears salary rising exponentially my fair lady now has much more at her disposal to make herself fairer than ever before and that is why the Beauty product and services market deserves a special mention as a robust and high growth option that any wannabe entrepreneur should only ignore at his own risk. This is a recession proof segment and has been showing phenomenal growth in India; with Tier 2 cities just waking up to the beauty revolution another boom is just right the corner.

So where does all this analysis and talk leave me, am I a bit closer to taking the right decision. Nope I am still confused, believe the only thing I am now closer to is hitting the bed. 

Enough hard work for one day.

DNA Files

Recently Robert Gates, Jr., a well known Black History professor from Harvard, started a television program in which he tracks peoples DNA and tries to find if there was ever a common ancestors between a very diverse set of audience. Latest advances in the DNA mapping and identification of certain strains has greatly increased the accuracy of these predictions.

But this program has set me thinking how curiously interesting and at the same time embarrassing to some it will be if this technique could be used to find blood relation between mortal enemies, race haters or for that matter leaders of different religious sects competing and hating each other.

Imagine what a difference it would make on the war on terror if it was revealed that Osama Bin Laden and George Bush had a common ancestor a couple of century back. Definitely would cause major red faces both in the Taliban camp and in the Pentagon. Also post such a revelation Osama will certainly find it very difficult to motivate the ‘Jihadis’. More or less the problem of Osama will be solved with the cult vanishing overnight.

Taking this a bit back if on the night of the Bolshevik revolution in erstwhile Russia it was revealed that Lenin and Tsar Nicholas II are distant cousins with each sharing one of the DNA strands which governs their political thought the world would surely have been a different place  and the Romanov dynasty might have survived for some more time.

And what would have been the reaction of the Knight Templars if they would have found out before the night of their great battle with Salauddin that Richard the Lion Heart had Muslim roots and shared his lineage with the Salauddin. The entire journey from Europe to the Holy Land for all those crusaders would have gone waste. Maybe also once they had decided not to fight the erstwhile enemies, would have buried the hatchet to share a delicious mouthwatering meal of Kebabs and Curry dished out by the best cooks in the Muslim court and when this culinary style would have been imported to Europe we would all have been saved from the depressing blandness of the current day continental cuisine.

More recently there has been a heated controversy in India between one Mr Bal Thackrey ( a self appointed authority of patriotism in India and Hindu right wing political leader) and the current reigning superstar of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan involving conflicting religious beliefs and certain comments made. Personally my most amusing moment would be when these two are thrown under the same family tree with blood lines criss crossing a couple of generations upwards. Oh what red faces for Shiv Sena (Thackrey’s political party), surely redder than the blood they spill in the name of religion.

Still Shackled

"Education and exposure to the world broaden the horizon and help people overcome age old prejudices and dogmas". These are jet-setting times with international citizens and all the information of and about the world available at the click of a button and yet a cursory glance around and on the world events blasts this thought to a thousand pieces.

The human race, in its long history, is in the current time and age at the "pinnacle of their civilization" and yet we see around us the same medieval or rather the dark ages thought, speech and action that plagued those sorry times.

The clash of the civilization, Islam vs. Christianity, continues to this day with the crusades being fought in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and a host of other front line Muslim and Christian nations and the empire being extended. There is no dearth of people in the west who consider the wars in the middle east as those against the infidels and a way to reduce their influence, not much different from the knights and courtiers of the 11th century Europe albeit dressed in extreme weather suites with capabilities of satellite communication to the nearest base rather than sporting the cross and brandishing a sword as was the mark of a religious warrior then.

The Muslims too see this multi front war as nothing less than an anglo-jewish conspiracy to keep the Muslim world under check and reduce the influence of the Islamic nations. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in terms of followers and has made deep inroads into many western countries, bastions of the Christian faith, through its spread especially in the marginalized sections of the society to whom its promise of equality is a great appeal in their discriminated existence.

Also the Muslim communities in most of the Islamic countries have chosen to let religious leaders decide the fate of countries and their people. Religion and politics is always a deadly concoction and these leaders have given an entire new direction to countries and replaced traditional parameters of success for governments such as welfare and development with religion, its propagation and a stick adherence to rituals. They have on religious grounds shifted the focus and introduced laws and punishments befitting the 10th century but which make the current day civil society shudder to think of.

The similarities are too blatant and obvious to be ignored, Christians regained Spain from the Muslims in the 13th century, currently France and Switzerland are both fighting their own battles to make its Muslim population behave in a more Christian manner. The battles this time are not with a sword and mace because that is a law and order issue, which cannot be compromised and anyways that is a method best used in other countries where one's own Christian citizens are out of harm's way, but on the rights of the minority Muslims to follow the diktats of their religion even when these customs in no way interfere with the lives of other citizens. I am sure the French and Swiss inquisition is not too far away.

France has banned the 'Burqa' in the name of French values and there is already a hue and cry on halal meat being served in restaurants located in Muslim dominated areas. Switzerland has put a ban on Minarets which are an essential architectural feature of Mosques and ironically still has the gumption to call itself a secular state.

France and Switzerland may both preach other countries the benefits of a plural and tolerant society but when it comes to their own countries the lessons are easily forgotten in favor of set beliefs and dogmas.

The European Union has also gone one step ahead and elected as its President a person who openly holds views supporting a Europe for Christians and has put a question mark on Turkey's entry into the EU sighting the predominant Muslim composition of its population. Many may point out that the post of the EU President may not have much power and does not amount to much but nonetheless it is a strong indication of which way the water flows in Europe today.

With such events happening, governed by our combined thought which still languishes in the prejudices and impressions of the dark ages it is little surprise that despite of all the progress we have made technologically and otherwise we have not moved even a step to alleviating human suffering and misery which is the ultimate parameter of all progress.

Somalia - Time for action

Somalia has been much in news recently for both the audacity of its pirates as well as the increasing presence of Al - Qaida on its ground. Both of these are disturbing trends for which all major powers have got together, their navies to protect the waters around the horn of Africa and aid agencies and governments trying to stabilize and strengthen the Somali government to be more efficient and effective.

Though much has been said about the poor conditions and lack of opportunities coupled with corruption which has brought Somalia to this state, to date I have read just one fleeting reference to the fact that Western European countries are still in the process of exploiting and ruining this already beleaguered country for their own petty gains and conveniences. The waters around Africa, specially countries like Somalia, with a weak and inefficient government are a favorite dumping ground of waste both toxic and otherwise for these European powers.

Shiploads of this reject from Europe finds its way to these waters where it is quietly discharged into the Indian Ocean, away from the watchful eyes of any law enforcement agency, wreaking havoc on the marine life and the ecosystem of the place. This abuse of the environment has already resulted in a mass extinction of the fisheries of the area which were and are a prime source of sustenance for the already deprived population living around these waters.

This dumping is against all international rules and treaties and is causing environmental degradation in the Indian Ocean at a massive scale resulting in the systematic elimination of not only the fisheries but all other fauna living in these waters. 

Another exploitation of this region has been through the European fishing vessels which have been depleting the resources under the pretext of sustained fishing. The logic that was doled out was the locals will over fish the region and with the advanced electronics of European boats they fish just the amount which will help re-grow the original population. This convenient argument keeps the locals out of their own fishing regions, this is a classic example of the local community suffering for the betterment of the foreigners.

Such exploitation and abuse of local resources are wrong and coupled with the fact that no benefit is passed to the local community, are the breeding grounds from where the likes of Al-Qaida find their recruits from. This kind of exploitation has been a common theme in all regions where terrorist organizations have found a foothold and grown strong.

The western European powers have always, at-least ever since the advent of shipping to take man across oceans, believed that the whole world exists for them to exploit and plunder. They have caused us two world wars and numerous other wars with their belligerent and greedy attitude.

There appears to be no change in the European attitude, they have not learnt much from history and hence slim chances that things will be rectified on their own. It is therefore the responsibility of the rest of the countries, organizations and individuals committed to the cause of non-exploitation and sustained development, as well as all those who shirk at the idea of Somalia becoming another Afghanistan, join hands and exert pressure and influence on the Europeans to immediately stop their illegal and exploitative activities.

Break the mold - From History

Last time I wrote about the business scenario in which breaking from the mold helped Apple become one of the most profitable computer manufacturers. Taking a dig on the same topic from a historical perspective brings to mind two very famous military characters separated by around 2,000 years but similar in many aspects, Hannibal and Suvorov.

Both were great military leaders who have had a deep impact military thought and helped redefine the art of war in their own lifetimes. One charted new course in-order to attack its arch rival and the other again broke all conventional wisdom in order to save his army from dissipation at the hands of the enemy.

Hannibal Barca was the commander of Carthaginian forces in Spain. At that time Carthage and Rome were involved in an all or none battle of survival. The winner of these Punic wars, as they are called would be the master of the Mediterranean.

Rome with its superior naval forces was invincible at sea and had a natural barrier and protector in the north, The Alps. The mighty Alps rose in the north of Italy creating a natural wall to keep enemies, conquerers and attackers at bay. This left Carthage with very little options in terms of means to take the battle to Rome.

But not for Hannibal, knowing the Roman naval might he created a bold plan to attack the empire from the north. This plan not only involved travel through regions controlled by belligerent tribes but also a dash across the treacherous Alps. His already formidable task was made tougher by the fact that he ran into a Roman patrol in the southern Alps region (the only part possible for an army to make a crossing from) thus making the enemy cautious.

So what did Hannibal do, turnaround to come bak with another plan, think of how to get past the Roman navy or just sit back and defend his territory for now. None, instead Hannibal Barca did the extraordinary, the unthinkable, a military and logistical complete break from the traditional school of thought and moved up north on the Alps to make a crossing from there.

It was a dangerous journey, filled with treacherous slopes made worst by the baggage being carried by soldiers as part of the provisions, barbaric tribes ready to take on an entire army on the strength of the knowledge of the terrain and the fast approaching winter which threatened their very existence. But in-sipte of these odds Hannibal persevered and crossed the Alps to throw a great military and logistical surprise on the Romans and bring the war right at their doors.

Two thousand years later Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Suvorov, the Generalissimo of Russia's Ground and Naval forces, re-did a Hannibal when he once again crossed the Alps in a flight to save his surrounded army.

Suvorov was the Russian general during the Napoleanic wars earning fame in conflicts across Europe during the reign of Catherine. He was a man of open and honest disposition, which did not do much to endear him to his superiors. Because of his opinions on the military policies of the new Tsar he fell in disfavour with Paul I. Later as Russian fortunes dwindeled in the war he was called back to lead the troops.

At 70 years Suvorov crushed the French in northern Italy and was ordered to move on to Switzerland to face Messana who was knocking on the doors there. His army was to meet up with reinforcements before the face to face. As with all well laid plans of mice and men the reinforcements did not arrive and precious five days were lost. Suvorov took the most hostile of the passes and fought his way through French held territory to reach Switzerland, only to find himself in a French trap.

Suvorov's options were to fight bravely (take the superior French head on) or press for re-inforcements from the allies and buy time till they arrived, both logical and honorable options for a trapped old general. But instead with the enemy closing in on him everyday, the battle tired Russians under their dynamic leader once again did what was considered a military impossibility, with an army not equipped or clothed for the cold, took on the 9000ft high Alps to save themselves from an imminent French onslaught. Instead of waiting from fresh reinforcements from the allies Suvorov turned military thought on its head to escape by scaling what was a formidable wall.

Suvorov in-spite of losses was able to save a large part of his army from annihilation at the hands of the French by doing that which not many in his age would have recommended.

Both these military leaders show that what has not been done doesn't mean that it cannot be done and sometimes doing just that differentiates between people who make history and people who become history.

Break the mold - From Business

If anybody has bought a computer lately, my best guess is, you would not have found much difference between the various brands on the shelf except for the 50 or 100 bucks on the price or the slight difference in design which generally escapes the price conscious eyes.

The personal computer and the laptop market since the mid 90's has increasingly become commoditized with price being the governing criteria in the Wintel space for any form of market leadership. The HP's, Acers, Dell's of the world mostly compete on price and this has led to industry migration (from the west to cheaper Taiwan and China), consolidation (big mergers such as HP - Compaq) to outright selloff (IBM moving out of the segment all together).

This price leadership mentality is strangely followed by all the players (not one could resist the temptation). Though this has had the benefit of bringing the computer to the masses it has been enormously detrimental to the financial health of the manufacturers, with all of them now working on wafer thin margins and plans to enter the services space, with its higher margins, so as to survive.

In this market Apple stands out as a beacon of hope and also a lesson to others. If you were Apple your business case would not have made much cheer in the investment community. You are in a commodity market, which is dominated by Wintel (approx 90% market share), the major operating system Windows (again a 90% market) does not sleeps too well with your hardware and you yourself proclaim that Apple software is recommended as it runs best with our hardware. 

Yes you have taken great pains to make your productivity suite compatible with Microsoft Office, but still you are way far from striking it big.

So how is it then that Apple is able to sell the same configuration as others at 3X the cost of its competitors. 

Differentiation, that is the keyword in this case. Instead of blindly following the market and getting involved in the price cut race, Apple has been able to think differently, break out of the mold and follow a path of greater prosperity.

Apple has focussed its energies on a couple of factors to set itself apart and then done a great job of marketing, through hype, secrecy and rumor to hammer in these points into the customers psyche. 

The first of these differentiators is the user experience of its machines. Right from the word go the rich GUI experience, the excellent visual display etc. all of it sets the product apart. This is the reason why whenever they launch a product or any of their promotional material, photos  and its sharing are an integral part. This is a downstream advantage, or the user level advantage they highlight, which stems from their upstream investment in superior display technology.

The other serious area of focus has been to make the experience as natural for the end user as possible. This is where their ground breaking work in multi-touch comes in. Their designers, instead of treading the beaten path, have started right from the scratch on this aspect and come up with more natural ways of doing things on the computer. That is why moving around the page on an Apple Macbook or Mac mouse is a breeze, if you want to scroll the page down just put two fingers and do it, if left then that's the way your fingers go and so on. This is in huge contrast to its competitors where one has to use the scroll bar to move left or right or the Lenovo (erstwhile IBM) finger killing trackpoint.

Apple has created an around itself an image of innovation in design which is not only user friendly but environment friendly with a line of products which have the least impact on the environment, all aspects which its target audience appreciates and is ready to pay extra for.

Apple is a classic case in point where a company is able to not only survive but thrive on a not so price conscious, but quality and innovation seeking segment of the market, where it is able to raise its products to cult value status by focussing and excelling on certain product features, marketing it well and backing it up with great after sales support.

And yes that very few viruses are written for the Mac OS definitely helps.