The Real Big Thing

"Give a fish to a person, you'll feed him for a day; Teach him how to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime" - Often said, seldom implemented. Time and again we hear of wealthy philanthropists donating a significant portion of their savings (not income) to the less deserving ones. Such news are pleasant to read and rejoice. But the point to be pondered here is whether this is a better way to try to make the world a better place? Because as far as my little experience of 24 years goes, I do not see results from these short term "wellness" bear any fruit in the overall lives of the target people.

Consider another real life example. Floods are a yearly phenomenon in our country. The only steps that I see the public machinery taking in such situations are setting up relief camps, arranging for political visits from the air, distributing bags of food and the likes. What I never see (or maybe fail to see) is any concrete effort to keep out the cause itself; through measures like building of concrete banks, increasing their height in areas that are most affected, removal of silt etc.

My idea for the future stems from only one point - Long Term. As contrary to common beliefs that long term is a misnomer in business scenarios of the current era of evolving and rapidly changing market conditions, my belief and analysis rides on the hypothesis that the real big thing is to think "long term". And I propose to introduce two sectors that require attention for the progress and shining of businesses in the future, especially in the Indian context - Education and Supply Chain.

The President of the Republic of India has mentioned that "Education is the true alchemy that can bring India its next golden age. Our motto is unambiguous: All for knowledge, and knowledge for all." Thinking on similar lines, education is the next big thing that will drive India's growth. And when education is being talked about, it doesn't necessarily mean higher education in the form of abundance of Master degree holders or Ph.D holders. India will need an additional supply of educated labourers in the services industry in the years to come. There is a greater need to train people who may not be able to get into the conventional education system of 10+2+3/4 in lines of work that can guarantee them of something they can make a living out of. For eg. - vocational training to enable them to speak in English (something is better than nothing), teaching them accounts so that they may find jobs as clerks in small or mid level offices, teaching them to use computers which will enable them to be employed in a variety of verticals. This form of trainings are existent no doubt,  but the stress should be on more. The labour force in India is highly skewed towards agriculture, which does not need those extra hands. A better strategy from the Indian perspective will be to churn out a portion from the agricultural sector and make them capable of employment in the services sector. What is in it for big corporations and MNCs? Well, education is highly profitable if you know how to do it right. Investment is not on the extreme side, and benefits are continuous. This is why we reckon - Think Long Term.

When we talk of the term "Supply Chain", the most obvious answer that comes to our mind is that it has something to do with manufacturing. Supply chain encompasses almost every known form of business that exist today. Right from  agriculture to manufacturing to services. And according to recent statistics, India loses $65 billion every year due to inefficient supply chain systems. This is a very big number and is usually not visible because of the field's unattractiveness. Supply chain in IT is currently moving away from hardware to software with technological advancements, with cloud computing being one example. Manufacturing and distribution has become more complex than ever before. Increase in agricultural production is not directly replicated to increase in consumption due to inefficient distribution. These are the factors that need immediate and long term attention. Of course, it is specific to the industry type, but efficient systems in place in any industry will go a long way in cost and waste reduction and delivery of better products and solutions across domains. The chunk of the pie yet to be tasted is a big opportunity for private players. The benefits will not be visible in one or two years, and nor should a plan be devised with that thought in mind.

Repeating the same mantra again, thinking long term would be the key to a sustainable and cost effective system, that can improve the fortunes of many a players while making the life of the people they serve better.