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The Missing Sounds of Every Future Childhood

When I was young, beneath the sky so wide, I'd wait and play by roads that stretched outside. Ears tuned to catch that rhythmic roar, Father's Bullet rumbling home once more. Its deep-throated beat, a familiar tune, Signaling evenings arriving soon. The thumping heart of metal

​​The Changing Landscape of MBA Admissions: Reflections from the IIM CAP Process

Last week, I was in Mumbai to interview students participating in the CAP (Common Admission Process) for IIMs. The experience was noticeably different this year. For one, the interviews were conducted physically—a welcome departure from the online format adopted over the past few years due to the pandemic. This

The fine art of navigating the system

It has been almost two years since I took over as the placement chairperson at IIM Sirmaur. If anything, these 700-odd days have been an exercise in decoding patterns—of aspirations, anxieties, and the delicate interplay between expectation and reality. Just today, I received an email from a student who

In Education, as in Cricket, the Basics are Losing Ground

In the recent Test series against New Zealand, Indian cricket faced an uncomfortable truth. Our batters, accustomed to the explosive ethos of T20, struggled to adapt to the traditional demands of Test cricket — patience, discipline, and resilience. This transition from power hitting to defensive technique was too steep for a

Everyday brilliance with Apple intelligence

I’m sure you have been looking at the recent Apple intelligence ads. These are 1-2 minute long adverts that showcase a wide range of common use cases. 1. A man who has not read a prospectus before a serious meeting using apple intelligence to get a summary in a

Consumer Research and Bad Consumer Behavior

This week has been quite challenging for me, so I’m going to make this a quick article (bullet points type). So, let’s begin. This week, we had two sessions: 🔸How consumer research methods can be used  to uncover consumer behaviour insights 🔸Undesirable consumer behaviours In session 1 🔸Market

Pricing and Channels

This week has been quite challenging for me, so I’m going to make this a quick article (bullet points type). So, let’s begin. This week we had three classes. 🔸Pricing strategy – we discussed the case of The Springfield Nor'easters- trying to price tickets 🔸Distribution 1 -

Online Vs Offline Consumer Behavior

In today’s class, we focused on understanding the differences between online and offline consumer behaviour. Like I mentioned in class, this is something that we do not typically talk about in class rooms yet. There is actually a pretty good reason why that is the case. The topics that

The Evolution of Branding: From Cattle Marks to Corporate Giants

Branding is a diverse and multifaceted topic, often considered one of the most intriguing and creative aspects of marketing. What started as a straightforward necessity has evolved into a complex and creative field that profoundly influences consumer behavior and shapes business strategies. So, how did branding develop into the powerhouse

On the PLC

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) has a very interesting charm to it. Like living things, the PLC assumes that products are introduced first. Then they go through phases of growth, maturity, and The Product Life Cycle (PLC) possesses a fascinating and somewhat enchanting quality. It draws an intriguing parallel between

The Self in Consumption

The Self in Consumer Behavior The concept of the self has been a central theme in psychology, philosophy, and sociology for centuries. In the context of consumer behavior, understanding the self is crucial because the products we purchase and the brands we align with are often reflections of who we

Boosting Babies Article

In this article, we will discuss the case of Singapore’s baby crisis. For many, this may seem like a rather odd topic to discuss a case on. Afterall, it’s understandable that one looks at this as a public policy issue. I would agree with you if you were

Why do firms exist?

A fundamental question every young MBA should ponder is, “Why do firms exist?” This query has been explored by various scholars, and one particularly persuasive answer stands out: Firms exist to minimize transaction costs. The question we then ask is, “what are these transaction costs?”.  Transaction costs are the costs

MPesa vs UPI

In this article, we will talk about the second idea that we discussed last week. Specifically, the UPI vs MPesa Case.  There is a profound cultural and emotional attachment to physical money. We all recognise that Money, in its physical form, has held significant cultural and emotional value across various

Consumer Behavior 3

In this week’s classes, we focused on two different ideas.  The first idea, the breakdown of perception, was a conceptual one. Here we discussed about the concepts of stimulus, Weber’s law, just noticeable difference, attention, ways to get attention, interpretation,  misinterpretation, and perception. The class was full of

How to go about a Case Study: A Guide for young MBA Students

Hi everyone, before we start I just wanted to welcome you again to the course and just wanted to share that this newsletter would be your companion for MM course as well as all my other courses in the future and you can get the most out of it by

Consumer decision making process

Marketers have always been interested in understanding consumer behavior. Specifically, they have been interested in the understand consumer’s decision making processes.  After four classes of the course, I’m sure you understand now that this is a very complicated subject matter to grasp. Whenever dealing with something very complicated,

Our session on - What is marketing?

IIM Sirmaur was not my first teaching stint. I had worked in a private university (DY Patil University in Navi Mumbai) before this and the students there were the first I had ever taught. Quite understandably, I was (and am still) quite fond of them. When I had left the

Consumer Behavior Chapter 1

It’s been a little over fourteen years since I joined the ‘MBA’ life. Over these years, I have revisited (almost annually) the ideas of marketing. I moved from being a postgraduate student to a PhD student and then to a faculty member. Clearly, a lot has changed. The subject

On 'Toxic' Work Cultures

This week brought some sad news. A young man with incredible credentials, working at one of the world's biggest consulting firms, tragically ended his life. Since investigations are ongoing, it might be premature to speculate on the reasons behind his drastic step. However, many of my friends and

Gritty Graphs - Elections (1/3)

It’s election season, and we are going to have a look at a lot of interesting activities at the voter level across different states. While politics is very interesting to study, it may be useful for us to take a step back and see the broader trends in the

In defense of Pcommers

In recent discussions across various social media, there has been am ongoing conversation concerning the ethical dilemmas and controversies surrounding placement coordinators at institutions nationwide. These issues gain prominence, especially during lackluster hiring seasons (such as the current one), when firms exhibit tepid enthusiasm towards expanding their workforce. Let me

Gritty Graphs - The story that is not told

Last week was pretty tight. In addition to travelling over 5000 km during this time, I actively balanced placements and family time. So I guess a break was the ‘need of the week’ (I know, this was not my best joke). Without any further ado, let’s now get on

The Unexpected Adventure - A Picture Journal Entry

It was early February, and It had not snowed in Himachal yet. The snow delay was expected to hurt tourism and agriculture - two functions that were the lifeblood of the Himachali economy. While this was sad news, I had one more reason to compound my sadness further. I am

Gritty Graphs - Visualizing Complexity

In this week’s Gritty Graphs episode, we will discuss something exciting - Flow Diagrams. These are not diagrams that move but show us how different categories flow from one another in a visual format. Trust me, these flow diagrams are powerful visual tools that do a fantastic job of

The Wrong Number That Landed an Internship

Placement committee members have some of the best stories about how they managed a ‘crisis situation’ and ensured that they left no stone unturned to get an offer from a company. What follows is one such story. In case you want to know about some of the lighter moments that

Gritty Graphs - Taxidynametrics

In this week’s episode of Gritty Graphs, we won't be diving into R code. Instead, we'll explore some ideas. As the placement chairperson at IIM Sirmaur, I thought it best to discuss placement statistics. Human beings have a penchant for simplifying complex realities into singular

The Essence of Good Assessment

For a long time, I have been writing about topics related to MBA and life. I think that has been the case for almost the whole of the last two years since I started writing. This week, I want to do something different. I want to engage my PhD students

Gritty Graphs - The Social Media Revolution

In this week’s episode of Gritty Graphs, we will discuss the rise of social media. There’s a reason we're addressing this topic now: this week marks the 20th anniversary of Facebook. The Economist published an article this week that provides an exposé on how social media

A Marketer’s Guide to Turning Defeat into Victory

Introduction About two thousand years ago, there lived a man named Jesus Christ. If we try to understand him objectively, we’d probably think of him as someone who was rejected by his peers, failed politically, did not achieve immediate success, was crucified as a criminal, and betrayed by his

Gritty Graphs - Pies everywhere

In this week's edition of Gritty Graphs, we're tackling a longstanding issue that surfaced with the inception of the first MBA program: the excessive and improper use of pie charts. It's important to acknowledge that pie charts are visually appealing. They resemble pizzas and

Last Week at Sirmaur

This week has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride. It began with the community day event, where we invited industry leaders from all across Poanta to our campus to discuss how we could enhance our connection with the pharmaceutical industry. On Tuesday, Parijat, Advaita and I had our

Gritty Graphs - Crafting Animated Data Narratives with R and gganimate

Remember  Hans Rosling TED talk where he shows us how to use the GapMinder Data? Remember the interesting trend lines? We can do something similar with a very powerful R package called ‘gganimate’, and that’s precisely what we will be looking at in this week’s edition of Gritty

Looking beyond metrics

Introduction “What gets measured gets done.” Have you ever considered how critical measurement is in achieving our goals? This axiom is a guiding principle for managers and educators alike. Take, for instance, the challenge of frequent power cuts (remember sitting without power the whole of yesterday?). The first step a

Gritty Graphs - My Tryst with India

My initial encounter with this kind of project occurred while attempting to plot brand stores on a map, a task I undertook as part of a research project that eventually became the basis of my PhD thesis. The solution I devised was quite ingenious. Let me describe the process. Using

LDLS or ALDLS?

Movie watching in the good old days When I was a kid, I would read the Hindu Newspaper’s ‘Friday Review’ section for movie reviews. It was not like my parents would take me to good movies when they got screened. These ‘movie reviews’ were mostly balanced articles that told

Gritty Graphs - Narendra Modi vs Dr. Manmohan Singh

This week kicked off with a really interesting graph from the Economist titled Ten charts compare Joe Biden’s record with Donald Trump’s. You can find it here. The article compared Joe Biden's presidency with that of Donald Trump using ten charts. The charts cover inflation, economic

The Spirit of Sirmaur

Embracing the Joka Spirit “At Joka, we leave no one behind!!”.  You read, hear, and feel this over and over at IIM Calcutta, my Alma Mater. There are posters that read the message. This message is printed on T-shirts. It’s even there on our website. Joka is truly a

Gritty Graphs - The Case of Hit-and-Runs

This year started off with a catastrophe. Drivers have been striking across the country. They are protesting against a new bill passed in the Lok Sabha that makes ‘hit and run’ a much more severe crime - increasing the maximum permissible jail time from 2 years (under Section 304A) to

Just last night..

As with every year, my birthday on December 29th marked the end of another chapter. This year's celebration was grand – cutting three cakes, surrounded by countless friends and family extending their wishes. It was a day spent mostly on the phone, a testament to the love and connections

A Short Ethnographic Note on Hospitals in City H

To respect privacy and confidentiality, the names of the city and hospitals mentioned in this post have been altered. During the last week, I have been a resident at hospitals in City H. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to say I became a '

What we can learn from Electoral Science

Introduction:  Last week was a whirlwind. So many things had happened, and I did not have much time to put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard). I had originally wanted to write about the idea of manufactured urgency, but then I turned on the TV and thought of

On Discrimination: Filling the other person's shoes

Zanzibar is an interesting sort of place. It is a partly self-governing state that has its own president but is not fully independent. The people of Zanzibar once had complete independence, but after their colonial past, they united with Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania. This is quite

The Journey So Far

Introduction I'd like to take a moment to congratulate myself – and here's why. This article marks the 100th publication on the site, a milestone that I’m really proud of. Over the past two years, the unwavering support of my readers has been a constant source

Illuminating Pages: From Old Bookstores to Digital Horizons—A Diwali Reflection

Ode to the old bookstore childhood Childhood is a treasure trove of memories, some of which stand out with incredible clarity. It is such memories that make us want to go back to childhood sometimes and relive our childhoods, protected from the various vices the world could throw at us.

From Enabler to Crutch: The Double-Edged Sword of AI in Education

We are living in extraordinary times. Things were markedly different around this time last year. Today, almost everyone has access to generative AI, and they use it confidently. This marks a fundamental shift, at least in the domain of education. As an early-career faculty member, I thought it would be

The Value of Conflict

Introduction The world often appears to be in a perpetual state of conflict. We are just witnessing the Israel and Palestine conflict unfold. A war continues between Ukraine and Russia. More than a dozen countries are currently engaged in high-level discussions addressing border disputes, rights to rivers that cross boundaries,

Beyond the Ad: Unpacking MakeMyTrip's Game of Framing

Introduction:  The front page of the Ahmedabad Times yesterday carried a rather peculiar advertisement from Make My Trip - a popular website that specializes in travel facilitation. I’m pretty sure you have already seen it, but just in case you have not, here’s what it looked like: The

From 'Hello World' to AI-Powered Coding: My Journey & How ChatGPT Lights the Way

Introduction I still remember the day when I wrote my first piece of code. I was in my 8th or 9th standard (around the year 2004) I think when this happened. I also think it was Ms. Shubashini’s class. It was not in C or Java, but in HTML.

Sales Stories: Crafting Authenticity and Architecting Value in Every Tale

In our previous class, we were privileged to have Mr. Shailesh Rathod share his experiences with us. Those who were present would attest to the ease with which he navigated a vast landscape of topics, delving deep into each one with an expertise that was both enlightening and engaging. His

'Problematising' Things

The first time I heard of this word, 'problematizing,' was when Dr. AF Mathews (from IIM Kozhikode) was scheduled to visit our campus and conduct a workshop on the subject. At first, I thought the word meant making a problem out of something (a good guess, I figured)

Reflections on the Consumer Behavior Course

Introduction It's hard to believe a week has already passed since the consumer behavior course wrapped up. With research deadlines approaching, I've not been able to dive into grading your projects and answer scripts. But, taking a pause, I felt the urge to document our journey.

Drawing in the Curtains: Concluding Our Deep Dive into Consumer Behavior

In our previous article, we embarked on an exploratory journey into the myriad applications of artificial intelligence. That finally coalesced into a workshop of sorts on Friday night. (I hope that was helpful btw). This week, I'd like to draw our current series on consumer behavior to a

AI, AI on the screen, what’s the best use case of them all?

Introduction About a month ago, a few of my friends and I started discussing how it was going to be changing the classroom. In the true spirit of intellectual extrapolation, we meandered through many potential future timelines and discussed ethics, operations, customer service and everything else in between. We also

B2B Consumer behavior

Introduction For almost the entirety of the course, we have been speaking about B2C consumer behavior. Interestingly, this is precisely the angle that almost every textbook of consumer behavior also takes. There is hardly any input on how businesses behave when they consume. I am positive that you will be

Lies.. Lies.. Lies

We are all familiar with the tale of King Yudhisthira (also known as Dharma) from the epic tale of the Mahabharata - the monarch who never told a lie. While he is possibly a work of fiction, and most definitely been exaggerated by any stretch of imagination, his fictional existence

In Pursuit of Perfection

Introduction: Over the course of the last week, I’ve spent over a half a day correcting answer papers. The process, to say the least, has been tiring. When I started off correcting, I was hoping I’d complete correcting in about 6 hours and started off with much enthusiasm.

Beneath the AI Hood : Balancing Progress and Ethics

"India experienced an alarming 1.5 lakh fatalities due to road accidents in 2022, according to the Ministry of Road Transport. This number does not even take into account the unreported accidents, amplifying the risks of human error in driving even further. Imagine an imminent future where AI-powered, driverless

The Power of Persuasion: From Consumer Behavior to National Policy

Introduction: In our previous class, we explored a concept that plays an integral role in our everyday decisions, often without us even realizing it - the concept of persuasion. This potent tool is not only pivotal in shaping consumer behavior and crafting effective marketing strategies but also extends beyond these

Cold Emails: A Gateway to Warm Opportunities

Imagine running a bustling hospital in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. Every day is chock-full of work, leaving you with little to no time to think about anything other than your KPIs. One day, you find an intriguing email in your inbox, which reads: “Hi Mr. Karthik, I was

Attitudes and the art of changing them

Introduction: For today’s letter, let’s move away from the marketing concepts just for a bit and talk about something more (or less) fun. Let’s talk about Newton’s first law. I don’t make jokes this early in my letters - or do I?. Newton’s first

Reciprocity of Learning and Motivation: A Bidirectional Relationship

Back in class, we discussed how motivation can and does influence learning. We spoke about how a motivated person is likely to invest more effort, persist longer in the face of challenges, and ultimately learn more effectively. We also discussed how we could design strategies (based on different learning theories)

From Raw Numbers to Narratives: Some thoughts on the fine Art of Data Visualization

A few months ago, I saw a very interesting chart in the Financial times. Let me show you: Is your spidey sense tingling? Something about this chart seems off, does it not? Well, if you have not figured it out already, this line chart tried to depict two variables that

Unveiling the Counter-Conditioning Tactics of Our Canine Friends

Introduction: I write to you today with intriguing and pressing news that harkens back to our discussions in consumer behavior class, specifically the concept of classical conditioning. You may recall our discussion about Pavlov's dogs. Pavlov demonstrated that when a dog heard a bell ringing before being fed,

The Consumer Decision Making Process: Amazon.com

The best marketers are those who understand their customers. Now, this leads us to the question, "How do we understand them?". The obvious answer here is, of course, Marketing Research. While this answer is technically correct, the exact answer lies in consumer research, a very specific subset of

Reflections on Student Clubs and Committees: A Journey with PetPals

A quintessential aspect of IIM life is taking part in club and committee activities. Every student joins these collectives and works for a cause larger than themselves. These are the early days of a new batch at IIM Sirmaur and I thought it would be a good time to write

Interplay of Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity in Consumer Choices

In order to dive deeper into our discussion about the Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity (MAO) framework, we must first clarify a fundamental concept central to marketing and consumer behavior studies. It revolves around the topic of consumer needs. The belief that marketers or businesses can create needs is, in fact,

Consumer Behavior - Taking a step back II

During our last class, we delved into the intersection of marketing research and consumer behavior, featuring some unexpected guest stars from the world of Greek philosophy - Ontology and Epistemology. We then navigated our way through topics like measurement, statistics, sampling, biases, and even touched on the world of psephology.

The question of integrity

A few days ago Infoedge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani posted something interesting on his twitter handle . He shared an anecdote about a convocation speech at IIM A given by Dr. Verghese Kurien, the then Chairman at NDDB. The speech was far from the usual sugar-coated advice, filled instead with harsh realities

Consumer Behavior - Taking a step back

During the first session of consumer behavior, we decided to take a step back and revisit the learnings we had from the previous courses. Specifically, we looked at the learnings from the Marketing Management 101 Course.

Adipurush: A Marketing Case Study

'Adipurush' has been capturing headlines, and it's time I joined the conversation with an article of my own. Why delve into 'Adipurush' in a space where I predominantly focus on academics? Well, let me bridge that gap with the concept of "marketing".

NIRF - A Guiding Star or a Snapshot into the past?

This article delves into the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and its recent rankings release, examining the framework's shortcomings and the need for a more nuanced understanding of rankings in assessing the academic and placement quality of management institutes.

Campus without students - Some reflections on the peace and quiet

After nearly 5 weeks, the campus sits in silence, devoid of bustling corridors and lively discussions. I miss my students—their questions, debates, and the joy of pushing their boundaries. This interlude prompts introspection on our teaching journey, eagerly awaiting the return of spirited chaos.

Women Empowerment and Equality: Reflections from a Panel Discussion

Stepping in There are always going to be times when life throws something different at you. Something different happened to me a few days ago. It was around 5 pm, and it was time to go home. As on any other day, I decided to pack up, and called Dr.

The Inexorable Rise of Walmart

Exploring the Case Context In his 1983 book ‘Imagined Communities’ Benedict Anderson argued that the idea of nation was socially constructed. He went on to say that the very idea of Nationalism is just the imagination of a bunch of people who ‘perceived’ themselves to be a part of a

Appointing a consumer distributor

The Teracom Limited case Introduction Over twenty years ago, Frazier wrote in a paper in the Journal of the Academic of Marketing Science, “we have barely touched the surface of all the managerial issues that need to be addressed” in the context of managing channels of distribution. While much has

New Year Special Issue : Actionable Ideas to Digital Minimalism

This is a long one, but I think at least one thing in here will help you make a positive change in your life Introduction There is nothing special about the first of January. It’s simply an arbitrary cut off point in the continuous stream of days that makes

Sales Forecasting - Some Thoughts and Ideas

Introduction A few years back, while I was still a PhD Student, something interesting happened. I met an MBA student who began arguing with a professor. This was not an unusual occurrence on campus. This particular conversation however, was different. They were debating about the validity and use of the

The 'Curious' Case of Amazon

A Salesperson's Perspective Introduction Many of what Sun Tzu said is still relevant today in a variety of fields such as business, politics, and psychology. Clearly, his teachings are also relevant to the young and budding salespeople of tomorrow. Today, we shall start with one of his one

Sales - The road oft taken

Jindi Enterprises – Finding a new Sales Manager I’m sure you’ve noticed. Almost every case that was used as a part of the Sales and Distribution Management course is under three years old. The decision to use recent cases was a conscious one. I anticipated that using such cases

boAt Lifestyle - To leapfrog or not to?

Why physical retailing is here to stay Introduction For many decades Indian boys and girls were told the exact same thing, “Study hard, get into a good college, settle down in life”. The language used and tone may have varied from state to state, but the content has remained rather

Role of Technology in Marketing Research

Getting your own Jarvis Just last week I had the opportunity to sit down for lunch with some executives from an upcoming marketing tech company. In addition to discussion placements and summer internships, we also talked about other trending ideas in the field of marketing.  Somehow, such discussions have increasingly

Experiments - Part 2

Introduction Remember the YouTube Short from the previous newsletter. Just in case you forgot, here’s the link. Please do watch it again. Now that you have watched it, let’s perform a little thought experiment. If we were to prove dinitrophenol (DNP) had deadly effects (including but not limited

Experiments - Part 1

What is an experiment? In simple terms, an experiment is “a scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact.”. Human beings have been using experiments for a very, very long time. Remember Dexter’s Laboratory where Dexter, the wiz kid does crazy experiments?

Rural Inclusion Demystified

(partially) In the context of rural marketing, Project Shakti is one of India’s greatest success stories. Hundreds of scholars over have studied it over the years and produced thousands of reports. Simply put, Project Shakti is the world’ s largest ‘home-to-home’ operation. It sought to achieve the twin goals

The 8 am surprise

Today was one of those days when my fingers ached to type for some reason. So, I just decided to. The great thing about today is, it had in store for me many new experiences too. So, unlike other write-ups in this newsletter series, this one is just going to

Digging into Factor Analysis

Hi Everyone!! I finally found some time alone to sit down and pen an introductory article on factor analysis. So here goes! At a fundamental level Factor Analysis (FA) is a data reduction tool. It tries to look for patterns in observable data to uncover hidden or ‘latent’ variables. The

Acquiring Sales Superpowers!

The Political Economy of Selling Thomas Mann, the German novelist, once said, “Everything is politics”. The statement is short but carries profound meaning. Politics is one of those omnipresent things that one can never get rid of. As budding business executives, rest assured that you will experience varying degrees of

Sales: A Transaction Cost Theory Perspective

Hello everyone! Let’s say we want a table. There are few ways you can go about getting a table. First, you may go to the market, climb into a few shops, compare alternatives, and then make a purchase and plan to ship it home. But this is by no

Session 7- Segmentation in Practice

Katanas I’m sure most of you have already realised that I read and watch a lot of anime and fantasy. I have watched every episode of Dragon ball Z multiple times even before it was officially released in India. The same goes for Naruto, Pokémon, and a whole host

SADMAN - Session 3 - The Basis of Selling Strategy

Dear Students, I have been super busy with administrative responsibilities and convocation preparation since last class. I finally managed to squeeze out some time and I thought I should quickly summarise the session and charter a course forward. First, let me welcome you to the course!! Sales and distribution is

SADMAN - Session 2 - Introduction to Selling

Debunking assumptions, ridding the comforts of certainty, and embracing uncertainty. From the last class: In the first class of the sales and distribution management course (which I shall henceforth call the SADMAN Course for obvious reasons) we tried to understand how sales had a lot to do with listening to

MM2 - Session 2 - Ethics of Marketing Research

In the second session of marketing research we delved right into the Amazon Shopper Panel: Paying Customers for Their Data case by: Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli. The short case discusses how Amazon’s new consumer panel program seeks to understand the behaviour of its users outside of Amazon. At

SADMAN - Session 1 - Welcome to the Course

Dear Students, I was caught up with some admin work for the last few days and could not find time to put pen to paper for the newsletter. I finally found some time and I thought I should quickly summarise the session and charter a course forward. First, let me

CB Session 17 – B2B Consumer behaviour

The decision-making unit: Over the course of the last sixteen session, we have almost entirely focused on studying the behaviour of individuals like you and me. Psychologists (and marketers by extension) today can grasp ‘human’ consumer behaviour to a great extent. However, the idea of B2B consumer behaviour is altogether

MM Feedback – 2022 Edition – Chapter 1

The PESTEL Framework As you are already aware, I have been busy correcting answer papers over the last few days. At the moment, I’m done with about 60 answer sheets. While I have been making note of the issues with the assumptions that you are making, I thought there

CB Session 16 - B2B Consumption and Reverse Logistics

Hi Students, It seems like it’s raining apologies for delays from my end. I’ve really been behind on my reading and writing lately. Let’s get to the point and summarise the key ideas in the Flipkart product returns case. If there is one thing that you have

MM Sessions 19 and 20 - Presentations, Reports, and Closing Remarks

Hi Everyone, Congrats on completing the first end term examinations!! I’m sure this must have been a first of its kind experience for many of you. The idea behind ‘testing’ is no longer retention of facts and ability to recall, but application and the creation of knowledge. Let me

MM Session 18 - Marketing Ethics

Introduction Do you recall the first session in the marketing management course? Remember when I asked you all what the first thing that came to your mind was when I said ‘marketing’? Many of you said things like ‘selling’, ‘manipulating’, and ‘convincing’. On that day, we discussed and agreed that

CB Session 15 - Prospect theory, biases, and misbehaving

Challenging the Homo-economicus assumption Disclaimer Apologies for not being able to send in the newsletter yesterday. I have been swamped with work and have not been able to find time to put pen to paper. But then here I am, typing away right now. Introduction For most of the course,

MM Session 17 - Netflix in 2011

Introduction In today’s session, we discussed the “Netflix: Pricing Decision 2011” case by David Robinson and Max Oltersdorf. Let me take a moment to briefly summarise the case. On July 12, 2011, Netflix the online movie streaming service decided to split its DVD rental and Online streaming businesses. Until

MM Session 16 - Economic Foundations of Pricing

Introduction The issue of pricing lies at the very heart of marketing. In fact, it also happens to be one of the four Ps of marketing (Fun fact, the 4Ps was a term coined by Jerome McCarthy). Much of our theoretical understanding of pricing comes find their roots in economics.

MM Session 15 - Castrol India Limited : An innovative distribution channel - case discussion

Introduction: In the fifteenth session of the marketing management course, we dived deep into the Castrol India Limited case written by Dr. Renuka Kamath. The case discusses in some detail the changes in consumer behaviour that occurred when 2 stroke engines were replaced by 4 stroke engines. In short, the

MM Session 14 - The Foundations of Distribution

In the last class, we discussed the foundational concepts of distribution. Before we began devouring the flesh of the matter, we began by asking, why do organisations exist? Many of you pointed out that organisations exist to solve problems that exist in society. Some of you argued that organisations exist

CB - Notes and observations from Mid Term Presentations

Paving a way to better presentations - conceptually and visually Over the course of the last two sessions, students of both sections completed the mid-course presentations. Congratulations!! I felt every team put their best foot forward and worked on teasing out very interesting angles that added to the class learning.

CB Session 10 - Persuasion and Influence

Introduction: In today’s class, we discussed the case of Boosting babies by Dr. Susheela A. Varghese from Singapore Management University. The case goes into great depts to detail similar birth rate problem. Specifically, how Singapore moved from 6 babies per mother to less than 2 in under fifty years.

MM Session 13 - The Product Life Cycle

Introduction: The PLC is one of the most misunderstood and abused tools in all of marketing and strategy. For instance, Turnbull and Meenaghan (1980) state that “the PLC concept views the process of market introduction from the point of view of the marketing company”. Obviously this is incorrect. According to

CB Session 9 - Self and the Extended Self

One of the most cited articles in all of marketing has to be his 1988 paper, “Possessions and the Extended Self” by Dr. Russel Belk (found here ). To understand this better, you may have to check out Highways and Buyways: Naturalistic Research from the Consumer Behavior Odyssey (by the same

Independence Day - A Marketer's Perspective

Greetings!! A few days ago, I had a heated discussion with one of my friends. The issue being debated was simple. She seems to think Independence Day should not be celebrated because it reminds us of a time when we were dependent and enslaved, and bad memories are best forgotten.

CB Session 7 - Consumer Decision Making Process

Paradigms, Theories, and Transformative Consumer Research Review: In the previous class, we discussed how Zerodha, the discount stockbroking platform, could use its understanding of consumer behaviour to efficiently enter consumers' set evaluation set and become the go-to service provider using technology and transparency. Paradigm shifts: In today's

CB Session 6 - Preferences and Choices

The case of Zerodha Introduction: In today’s class, we discussed the case of Zerodha - the discount stock broking firm. According to NSE data from March 2022, Zerodha held 17% of all unique clients in India and reigned as the market leader (See Exhibit A for more details). An

Consumer Behaviour so far..

A quick recap of the first five sessions Over the last three weeks, we have been discussing the various facets of consumer behaviour. We began our exploratory journey by acknowledging that, as a course, consumer behaviour would help even if you do not choose a profession in marketing. Since all

Paonta Dairies - 01

It has been a few months since I managed to put pen to paper, or rather, finger to keyboard. To be honest, I was busy writing code for a paper that was in the revise and resubmit stage. I managed to complete and submit that on the 30th, and I

The Third Cent

You gave me your two cents, here's the third. This is Dr. Karthikeyan Balakumar’s Newsletter, a digital newsletter in which I document what happened in class this week, the key learnings that we had, and the ideas that were worth pondering over.

The Diary of an Unemployed Academic – Part 2

The disengagement phase took a rather long duration of time for me. In fact, as of the date of writing, I feel the college still has been in touch with me. Some in the senior management want me to resume my services too. However, I think that is not the

The Diary of an Unemployed Academic - Part 1

May 10. 2022. The life of an academic is not a bed of roses, especially when you are very young in the system and trying hard to balance teaching, research, and administration. And if said academic is working in the private sector, life gets to be a little bit tougher.

The mysterious case of the WhatsApp broadcast list

For a very long time, I have been using the broadcast feature that is neatly tucked inside WhatsApp. For the uninitiated, the broadcast feature is basically a means to transmit one piece of information (text or graphical) to a list of contacts that you have already created. Unlike the groups

Ideas to teach the Sales and Distribution Course #1

One of the key concepts that I try to drive home in both my Principles of marketing course and the sales and distribution course is ‘good marketing is what makes sales redundant’. On the techniques that I plan to use to drive home this point is this. Step 1: Just

Courseware on Introduction to Research Methods

Sometime back in February, I developed this 3 hour module on applied research methods for a workshop that I was organising. The idea was to create a slide deck that introduced students to a small set of methods that are commonly used in research contexts. I am now sharing it

Ideas to teach the Principles of Marketing course #1

Here is a little something that I came up with today. I plan on using it as a part of my principles of marketing course for first year MBA students. The hope is that this will prove to be a good segway into the ideas of societal good and marketing

The Adventures of Midgey the Cat

Most of you are aware that I am a self-declared cat slave. My cat master Midgey often likes to give me interesting challenges. Back in 2019, this was her rupturing her diaphragm and staying in the hospital for 3 full nights until she could move around. In 2020, the year

The Death of All Things Good

I have always believed that people in general are capable of doing good. More often than not, it is the circumstances in which they are that make them do unpleasant acts that have the potential to hurt or harm others. Something happened yesterday and that had me thinking for a

Perspectives

I was just beginning to take a break from working on a review and resubmit and having a friendly conversation with Dr. Sanja Pattnayak (MBA chairperson and associate professor of Economics) and Dr. Manu Prasad (assistant professor in the OB/HR area), when Dr. Urvashi Rathod (Prof. of MIS, and

Middlemen in Indian Agriculture

Introduction: Over the past 70 years, India has had tremendous successes and massive failures in the field of Agriculture. On the bright side, there was sustained agricultural growth since Independence that helped the nation transition from a situation of dependency during the late 40s, to green revolution led nascent self-sufficiency

Ideas to teach Marketing Research #1

In this series, I am planning on documenting my journey as I build a course on marketing research. Over the course of the last one month, I have been thinking about how best to deliver the marketing research course next year. I am clear about two things here. One, the

Carpool Rides - A Micro Case on Pricing

2021 was the year when the second COVID-19 wave struck India. During the time, many people actively chose to use personal transport mediums such as cars to commute. Dr. KB was one of those individuals. Instead of commuting to work by the more convenient and cost efficient local train network,

Developing the Marketing Research MBA Course - 2021 edition

Last week, when preparing for the marketing research course that I was to teach, I decided to critically review the slides from my previous course (the principles of marketing) to recap and create linkages whenever possible.  While doing so, something struck me. I thought, perhaps it would be a good

Iron and Steel

Teaching is a wonderful profession. In addition to ‘in class’ knowledge dissemination, teaching encompasses a lot of activities. In any traditional B School  (basically a finishing school programme spanning the breadth of the Pacific Ocean), this typically encompasses the set of all activities such as instructing students on proper dressing,

New Year Resolutions

The last few weeks have been tough. Between handling family issues, completing the last bits of two papers that we are submitting to journals, and preparing for classes that are scheduled to start next week, I have been super occupied. One of the reasons that I set up the website

Letter from the past

I’m not sure why, but I have been thinking about my school days a lot recently. I thought this post from my past would be a nice addition to the posts section. This was my speech during my 12th standard. I never really gained the heart to make it

About Love and the Sacrifice of Self

When I was very young, I recall we had a prayer that went something like “… There is no love without the sacrifice of self…” I don’t recall anything more from that prayer, but the message stayed. For most of my formative years, I thought those words were the absolute

Update: First set of open courseware content is now live

Hi Everyone, I’ve finally figured out how to upload files and enable users to download from the side. You should now be able to download the slides and other course related material that I used when teaching my first course (principles of marketing) to MBA students from the resources

The decision to Open Source my courseware

While pursuing both my MBA and my PhD, I had observed professors (and visiting faculty) often reuse their question papers from previous years. Consequently, the students who had access to previous year question papers had an edge over others. More often than not, these papers were circulated selectively and good

Late Book Review: The Paradoxical Prime Minister

It has been some time since I could pen to paper. But I have resolved to write something today. My writer friends tell me that it is, in fact, the discipline to write regularly everyday that makes or breaks a good writer. While YouTube is filling up with late reviews

The F**k conundrum

It has been about 2-3 weeks since my little son (he’s 22 months old as I write this) started repeating the words that we commonly use at home (that includes Tamil, Telugu, and English words). I really think he knows what most of these words mean as well. For

Is R simply faster on Linux? (Part 2)

Apologies for the delay in reporting the findings. One reason there was a delay was due to the lack of any useful findings. Like I mentioned in the previous post, I installed linux (for those who are guessing, Linux Mint) on my work machine on Tuesday. After installing the necessary

Is R simply faster on Linux? (Part 1)

Let me begin with a quick disclaimer. I have been using R for a few years now. When I was working on my dissertation, I began learning the language and would consider myself to be something more than a novice with R. I do know some work arounds to possible

The difference between control group and control variables

This question came up in class sometime last week. Clearly, the two words relate to different ideas (A quick google search would illustrate this point). But, at it’s core, I think they are one in the same thing. Let me explain. The central idea behind both the control group

Some pointers on Edu-Tech apps for parents and educators

Education is one of the many fields that the internet helped democratize. With increasing mobile and internet penetration, a plethora of apps made by Edu-Tech firms have been finding increasing acceptance among Indian parents. It may be argued that there are two forces at play here. First, parents want to

Why this blog?

“The Sardar was a man of few words. He wrote very little; he hardly kept any record of his public or party work. He destroyed letters addressed to him after reading them and replied by hand, not keeping copies” – Minaben, Daughter of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Excerpt From Hindol Sengupta’s

Plotting the supply and demand curves in class using live data collected from students ;Part II

Well, I have some very good news and not so good news from the sessions on pricing. On the plus side, the live demonstration went well. The students had interesting conversations and created their own supply and demand curves. I even managed to catch the suppliers just when they were

Plotting the supply and demand curves in class using live data collected from students

The equilibrium price is one of the key ideas that a student has to understand if he/she were to appreciate pricing. This week, I am going to be dealing with the topic of pricing in my class, and I thought it would be a great idea to start by

Six reasons I hate and three reasons I love about online teaching

For years, I wanted to stand before a class of bright young minds and teach. After having completed my PhD (in marketing) from IIM Calcutta after nearly four years, I picked up a teaching assignment at the Vijay Patil School of Management in Navi Mumbai. It was a new school,