A Firefly finally takes off

Monday - 22 Jan. ‘24 is a very important day in my professional life. I complete eight months today in my role as Executive Vice President at Daily Thanthi’s digital start-up division. But that’s not why it is such a significant day.

“Minmini” has been in the making for the last 30 months or so. And today, it has taken wings to fly through the globe and connect Tamils together. 

What started off as a digital transformation exercise at the group level, with the Vision of our Group Chairman and Managing Director Thiru Balasubramaniam Adityan, has now evolved into a full-fledged hyperlocal social app, ready to welcome users across the world and be a single platform for sharing posts, videos and collaborate on many other things.

 

When I first met him for my interview a few days ahead of Pongal 2023, the concept was still at an ideation stage, even as M/s Accenture was strategically advising the organisation as well as developing the product. 

From just being an alternative to the likes of “Reels” and “Shorts”, Minmini has taken giant strides over the months and is now the first hyperlocal social app focussed on local and global Tamils and is ready to connect digital users to the retail fraternity around them.

During the days of brainstorming and internal meetings since I joined in May ‘23, several ideas have evolved on how the local communities could come together, embrace each other economically and drive the society towards a single purpose of prosperity.

 

Minmini will eventually host lakhs of shops, shopkeepers and service providers such as electricians, carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, tuition teachers, tailors, drivers and every self-employed person to assist them spread their network. And all this comes “free” to the users as well as the professionals as they discover one another around them. 

The newest baby of the eponymous Daily Thanthi group, “Minmini” has taken a flying start today, quite literally. 

 

As you read this article, many of you would have already seen the full-page advertisement in today’s edition of Daily Thanthi across Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Bangalore, Dubai and Sri Lanka along with today’s edition of Times of India across Tamil Nadu. 

Our ads are live on Tv, Radio and several digital properties as well from today onwards. Here’s a link to the press release that appeared earlier today. 

 

I have been on the other side of Retail since 1997 – frontline operations for over a decade followed by Strategic Management and Business Development. Went through the ups and downs of Entrepreneurship and eventually decided to get back to professional employment – to be on this side, the digital side of things. 

 

As Superstar Rajinikanth says in one of his movies as a dialogue, “This is just a trailer, main picture is yet to come!”. 

 

Through Minmini, I believe I have a chance to onboard thousands of small and marginalised retailers on to the digital bandwagon. 

If I can make a small difference in the lives of a few hundreds, I will feel happy that one of the main purposes of my life is achieved. Time will tell.

My Himalayan Odyssey

Just like every December, my family and I departed on our annual vacation expecting intense flight delays due to fog-related congestions across various airports that converge at Delhi.  

To our good luck, the flight departed and arrived on time at Indira Gandhi International Airport New Delhi, giving us plenty of time to – shop and dine! 

Right from the word “go”, it was a shopping delight for the kids. A bit of airport shopping, in-flight (junk) food and then the eponymous walk along the inner circle at Connaught Place, New Delhi. It was their first visit to one of the retail havens of India and they enjoyed every bit, save for the prying eyes of random people on the streets. 

 

We first ate a hearty meal at Haldiram’s before undertaking the long walk, so as to end up at Wagh Bakri for a pre-dinner snack. 

 

Over the next 5 days, we travelled over 2,000 kms by road and rail across Devbhoomi Uttarakhand. We visited off-beat locations, including temples and high-points on the hills.

 

At every point of sale, it was surprising, perhaps I shouldn’t be, that the shopkeepers were accepting payments through UPI. There were instances where the vendor preferred a digital payment, for want of not accepting Rs. 500 and offering change.

 

Until 2017, this was a dream, rather a nightmare. It was not just important to carry along a Debit card, the town or city needed to have a functional ATM too. So, one had to carry adequate cash to shop, eat and consume goods and services. 

 

It is indeed incredible that in a quaint little town such as Bageshwar that the roadside vendor selling groundnuts was willing to accept Rs. 30 using UPI. 

Jageshwar, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited and offered his prayers, has atleast 50 shops and each one of them offer various items including pooja articles, trinkets, gifts and much more. All of them accept UPI payments, though many of them do not even have a credit card swiping machine. 

 

While a lot of credit would go to the Modi-style governance, I would also give it 100% to the users – shopkeepers and consumers for embracing UPI-based payments. And seamlessly. 

 

India is shinning and will further shine for the next 10-15 years, irrespective of which political party will rule the country. A continuity in regime will certainly help improve governance. The consumer boom will continue to stay as well, what with a growing middle class which is on a spending spree, whether it is during festivals or otherwise.

The tourism opportunity is opening big time in the country and domestic tourism spends are expected to double in the next 10 years. 

PM Modi’s recent visit to Lakshwadeep islands to promote tourism is nothing new. In 2019, he met the Chinese Premier at Mamallapuram, near Chennai, a historic travel point. Since then, visitors to the coastal town have swelled, post pandemic especially, including the springing up of various hotels, resorts, home stays and lodges. 

 

Similarly there have been many such examples of our PM promoting Indian tourism. Which is well followed by consumerism at its best. 

I have already swore I will tour more within India in 2024. We have shortlisted a few locations for our summer vacation during the last weekend. Where are you travelling next? Share your story.

We are already working 70+ hrs, Mr. Murthy

The world is split into two for the last week or so, ever since India’s self-made billionaire and tech mogul Mr. Narayana Murthy (NRN) said India and Indians should work long hours. It was a tete-a-tete with his former Co-Founder Mr. Mohandas Pai where he drew a parallel and to various developing economies of the previous century. 

Mr. Murthy corroborated and said that our countrymen and women should take it up as national pride and commitment to work 70 hours a week and drive the economy further, just how Germany and Japan did after the World War 2. 

A lot has been said (and remains unsaid) by top leaders, chiefs of conglomerates, politicians, State Heads, and so on, responding to NRN’s views. 

The father-in law of the current British Prime Minister Mr. Rishi Sunak, has been known to be a workaholic for well over 50 years. I travelled with him in the same flight in 2005 from Bangalore’s HAL Airport to New Delhi. He sat in the first row of the Economy class of the now defunct Jet Airways without much fuss. 

When I requested him for an autograph on a book that I bought specifically at the airport for this purpose, he politely declined, though he spent a few minutes chatting with me enquiring my whereabouts. 

Exactly a year later in 2007, another Co-Founder of Infosys, Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan and I travelled in the first class of Singapore Airlines from Bangalore to Singapore, where I was a speaker on India’s aviation future at a much revered global conference. We hardly spoke with each other as it was a midnight flight, but it was a warm eye-connect between the two of us.

No comparisons between the two, but to each his own. Infosys has been built brick by brick, click by click rather, by millions of former and present employees of the company, which was one of the front-runners of the late 90s and all through the 2000s in shaping India as the “back office of the world’s IT needs”. 

If NRN has worked for 70 hours or more a week during his prime years, so have many of his employees. And many, across IT and ITES in India continue to do so till date. 

In fact, after the Govt. imposed and later on, self-imposed WFH regimen by scores of Indians since the first ever Covid-19 led lockdown from Mar. ‘20 onwards, employees have been working for over 70 hours a week, if we were to include intermittent times spent on calls, chats and email over dinner table, on weekends and during vacations.

Earlier this year in May, I proudly completed 26 years in retail. I started my career scooping ice-cream part time from 11am to 3pm at Chennai’s first and India’s second Baskin Robbins parlour way back in 1997. I would attend NIIT to learn computer languages from 7am for 2 hours and completed my graduation at RKM Vivekananda College in the evening from 4pm till 8pm. 

 

After I finished my MBA in Marketing, I joined RPG Retail where I worked in consumer facing retail formats in Store Operations roles at Musicworld and Foodworld at Kolkata & Chennai respectively. This was followed by tenures at The Future Group and Café Coffee Day – gaining significant experience in front-end retail as well as Strategic Management. 

All along, it was a 6-day workweek for most of us, especially serving consumer aspirations, as scores of Indians came out to spend their earnings in new, shiny retail formats. 

Last week, Bengaluru’s northern suburb, Hebbal witnessed the opening of one of Asia’s largest shopping centres, aptly titled “Mall of Asia”. As much as there was celebration inside the mall, there was a severe traffic jam outside and on both sides of the National Highway (cum Airport Road) leading to the mall. 

People complained on social media with photos and videos about the massive traffic jams (while they were indeed the traffic!), which was picked up and reported extensively by mainstream media. What no one shared was the lives and strains of retail employees inside this mall and many hundreds across India, over ten million at last count in organised retail, who are working towards uplifting their own lives, their families and the Indian Economy.

Many of us, millions of us rather, Mr. Murthy are already spending over 70hrs a week at work. This includes those employed in the pharma and para-medical industry, hospital staff, semi-professional services, those working for formal transportation businesses and so on. 

Of course, our beloved staff of Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto, Dunzo, Flipkart and Amazon (in who’s Indian entity, NRN’s Catamaran Ventures was a majority shareholder until last year) who deliver us stuff from 6am till 10pm. 

The traffic jams in India are unique and mostly self-made, where urbanites spend over 90 mins a day driving from/to work. This is also a part of the 70-hr work week. In a city like Bangalore, where the condos and apartments are mostly owned by IT & ITES professionals, the EMIs to banks flow through people who work over 70 hours a week, who ironically end up living in compromised, rental houses for well over half their lives!

The pressures of being employed are, at times, worse than the nightmares of several self-made Entrepreneurs who dread interest and debt repayments. EMIs for salaried people, on the other hand is a domiciles sword which hangs above one’s head all the time, all through their lives.

What we don’t expect or even ask for often, especially in retail Mr. Murthy, is an appreciation of our work. At least, do give us an acknowledgement that we are overworked as a tribe. And that’s enough. About our contribution to nation-building, lesser said the better, Sir.