Age Based Products

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A Step A Day, customer care, innovation

When we go out in the rain, those of us who wear spectacles keep wishing there was a model which had wipers to keep away the rain. We look for an innovative way to get rid of a real problem. Many companies look at creating products for specific segments of society. One such segment is that of older people. Eric A. Taub writes of different products meant for older people in his article in the New York Times called For The Advanced in Age , Easy To Use Technology. These include more easy to operate cell phones, automotive controls and more easy to see numerals and numbers in gadgetry.

I think another innovative product which has helped considerably is the use of progressive lenses in spectacles which has replaced the bi-focals. Example: the ones made by the European company Essilor. This has been a considerable improvement over bi-focals which have not undergone major change since Benjamin Franklin first made them over 200 years ago.

In the era of bi-focals, you had to constantly peer from the top of your spectacles or the bottom of the spectacles to see objects far and near. Progressive lenses get rid of this problem. One has to adapt to new technology though. Many of us accustomed to wearing bi-focals for many years took time to get rid of the habit of moving our heads up or down.

In some magazines you see articles which can be read in different font sizes. This is a comfort feature for readers of all ages. Again an example of using technology to provide greater ease and comfort to the customer.

After all, innovation is all about anticipating and meeting customer needs.

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This is Post No: 272 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.

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Stress City

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A Step A Day, Stress

Decades ago, my city of Bangalore was called the Pensioners Paradise and also the Garden City. These days it is better known as the IT Hub, The Pub City and I am sad to say it is fast becoming Stress City.

Bangalore says a recent article in the Economic Times has the most number of suicides in India. Every month about 200 people commit suicide in Bangalore- largely due to stress, loneliness and financial insecurity. Most stress is induced by work related issues such as pressure to perform, competition at work, demanding work schedules and tight deadlines.

“Don’t Touch My Perks”

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A Step A Day, Compensation, perquisites

Apparently, employees at Google were up in arms when the costs of their day care program went up substantially. This and other cases of how sensitive an issue like employee perquisites can be is presented so well in a recent article in Knowledge@Wharton titled “ Don’t Touch My Perks“. I would strongly recommend that everyone dealing with employee perks – their design or management- reads this article.

7 Objections & How To Deal With Them

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A Step A Day, overcoming objections, sales process

Business is all about selling- your products, your services or your expertise. In the selling process, something that turns up as predictably as the sun rising tomorrow are objections. Yes, objections are a vital part of the game- they are intrinsic to the whole process of negotiating a deal. Very seldom are you lucky enough to have some one say “This suits me perfectly in all aspects. I’ll take it”. Objections, as is often said, should be welcomed because they indicate a ray of interest. The fact that the potential buyer has a few objections indicates that he is thinking about your product. He is weighing your solution against other options.

The Customer Matters Most

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A Step A Day, customer care, Dr. Janelle Barlow

Organisations in a competitive world are so engrossed with improving profits and delivering better results for their share holders that sometimes they are forgetting the most important person in the business cycle- the customer. Rules are formed and organisations structured in ways to suit internal requirements. Processes are chalked to seemingly improve internal speed of delivery without caring to stop and think what this does to the ultimate recipient of the service.

What Has Age Got To Do With It?

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A Step A Day, human spirit, Olympic Games

Is “age” only in your mind?  Do people think that “age” is a bar to achievement? Do they allow themselves to let the world go by citing age as an excuse. There are achievers in different fields who have achieved much at relatively older ages. In this context, I was delighted to read Tara Parker-Pope write in the New York Times about the Oldies in the recent 2008 Olympics at Beijing.

Salary Hikes to Be Lower

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A Step A Day, Indian Economy, people management

Inflation is hitting the Indian economy and hitting it hard. Recent reports suggest that the rate of inflation has gone up even further and touched 12.63 % for the week ended August 9. This is the highest in the last 13 years. What is amazing is that inflation was only around 4.3 % a year ago! We are speaking of a three fold increase in such a short period.

With this kind of increase, somethings had to be hit- one of them is salary hikes in corporate India for 2009.

Gadget Bound, Tongue Tied

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A Step A Day, gadgets, quality of life, technology

In a recent party the level of conversation surprised me. People simply didn’t seem to have much to say….about anything. After the initial greetings and perfunctory pleasantries, people huddled in various corners- taking sneak looks at their PDA’s, picking up the latest from their Blackberrys and looking for that next call- the one which they were waiting for.

Our Best Olympics ever

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A Step A Day, Abhinav Bindra, Olympic Games, Sushil Kumar, Vijender Kumar

Never in the history of the Olympic Games has India won 3 medals in a single Olympics. We have many good things to take away from the Beijing Olympics of 2008:

1. For the first time ever, an Indian won a Gold medal in an individual event. The honour went to 25 year old Abhinav Bindra in the 10 metres air rifle shooting.
2. For the first time ever, an Indian won a medal in boxing. That honour went to 22 year old Vijender Kumar who won the bronze medal.
3. After a long gap of 52 years, India won a medal in wrestling. This was through Sushil Kumar who won the bronze medal.

How Were the Relays Blown?

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A Step A Day, Olympic Games, team roles

While an individual athletic event like the 100 metres sprint or the 110 metres hurdles has its own charm, there is nothing quite so exciting as a relay- the 4x 100 is an example. Watching a relay squad combining as a team, retrieving lost ground in future legs and having sychronised exchange of batons from one leg to the next makes for thrilling moments for the spectators. Yet there has to be a great deal of co-ordination between the team members. As kids we were taught that the cardinal sin in running a relay race is to drop the baton. The team gets automatically disqualified and all your efforts go in vain.