But this pictue that i clicked sometime back, seems to rest at the forefront of my memory and refuses to go away ! Here i was at a restaurant in Bangalore. Having ordered a take away, I had nothing else to do, but twiddle my thumb and check the cobwebs. Thats when i looked at the main notice board in the restaurant !
The wide array of services befuddle me !
Ranging from giving Punjabi Lassi, to Tandoori Chicken, Aloo Gobi to a real estate business is quite a spectrum.
Add Life Insurance, Medical Insurance, Mutual Funds, Tax Return filing, share brokering, Public Provident Fund through State Bank Of India, ‘all woodwork’ (wardrobe etc)…. under one roof..well, the spectrum becomes SOME spectrum !
Dawning the curiosity coat, i approach the chap manning the counter, and ask him how many people form part of this set up, vaguely pointing to the notice board and the array of services displayed ! He looks up, shouts out ‘two Tandoori’ to his waiters, and says, ‘One’.
And adds with an emphatic ‘ME’ in a ‘dont-you-see-it-dude’ tone !
I look up with a ‘Lassi-to-Unit-Linked-Insurance-Plans-is-a-quite-a- stretch’ look on my face. His eyes look sqaurely into mine, and asks me, what do i want to do : buy shares ? sell shares ? Do you have house to rent out ? Do you need to rent a house ? File tax returns….?
The big burly gent arches his eyebrows, wanting to know what i would prefer ?
An apparition of my commerce professor, with balding head and steady voice appears in front of me ! With no fear of sounding ‘repetitive’, he used to say, ‘stick to fundamentals’ !
‘Err..’ i reply, ‘my rotis and gobi masala’ !
Take-out food and your finaces put in order. Where was this guy while Lehman’s was going down?!
I worry about the economy, you know. Could all of this be a house of cards?
Pearl
Should Lehman Bandhu have taken pointers from this guy ? But what amazing confidence ……..
I think it is a bit like Shri Dhirubhai Ambani. First establish the core business and then ‘backward integrate’ it to expand the company.
Though in this case it seems to be ‘sidewards/lateral integration’. He has his core business (food) firmly entrenched which brings in the walk-in’s. If he could convert even 10-20% of those walk-in’s to do other business with him, it will give a steady income at no extra cost. Although would the ‘aloo paratha’ customers trust him with their life savings is another matter.
So much of hype about modularity and SOX compliance in ‘Corporate America’…..given the circumstances our good old nationalised banks where ‘customer service’ is not in the vocabulory seems to be a safe bet….
LOL! I thought you might add Sir! 😀
ok, now its time to enjoy some rumors .. 😛 got one in the morning about icici
diversified… and i guess he will survive any market crash 🙂
AIG had two ads planned for release and are now withdrawing it. The campaigns theme was ‘Strength to Be There’ .
Ironic isn’t it?
Niru
Pearl : i wonder too ! And worry about the economy has truly gone into every single country !
Ugich : I tell you ! The confidence bowled me out !
Ganesh : backward integration ! Well,thats a neat term ! Aloo of oneself would be an expression to rememeber
ms Cris : I should have !! LOL !@
Praveen : I think so. But hope not ! I hope our banks are better of. But we live in a connected world
Dinu : ICICI !?!? I guess not. The gove is not going to let that happen !
Manu : You bet..he will ! You bet !
Niru : Ironic ! How very !
My guess is that his cousin or his friend knows another cousin or friend who actually is a Direct Sales Agent for one of these brokers/underwriters who actually get business for the Insurance Companies.
Did you get the link or do you want me to post another comment 😉
Cheers……Jam