Management lessons from teaching swimming

I enjoy a good long swim after a workout session at the gym. But what I enjoy even more is when I teach someone how to swim. Especially someone who is terrified of water. Normally its about 4 classes, each 3 hours long. It starts off from the point where someone is barely comfortable standing at the 3 foot deep end and at the end of the 4th day being able to swim or bob up and down in the 15 foot end of the pool and diving into it. The person learning it is ofcourse thrilled and delighted but I cant describe the level of thrill I feel seeing the transition from this to that.

This journey with a pupil from complete lack of confidence and fear to being able to actually acheive their dream is treasure trove of experiences in how to manage or coach a team member or a team. The most important thing a manager or coach has to have is confidence in themselves and second most important thing is patience and the third most important thing is respect for the person learning… especially to be able to respect a “no”. Never push. The more open you are as a leader to hearing a no the more you can actually lead and inspire your team. I can confirm this also from my experiences as the President of a non profit organization. But those experiences I’ll write in another blog post… actually I am writing a book and will hopefully get it done by this summer. In addition to all this, its got to be fun. Smiles, celebrating small successes, helping them also see and feel great about their small successes… by george! Its like you just gave them a double-shot espresso of motivation.

Of the three styles of management  – management by incentive, management by threats or management by motivation the most difficult to accomplish is the last one and it is also the most rewarding both for the team and the leader. In either of the above two cases (teaching swimming or leading a non profit organization), the only real option available for the leader/teacher is management by motivation. Knowing when to guide, when to motivate, when to push gently and when to step back and say… “hey you go get your dream and I’ll stand here and clap”. I feel the challenge is more on the performance of the leader/teacher rather than on the team/student.

But what about the student or the team? What are their challenges? Is it skill? Knowledge? No. All these things can be acquired. The single most difficult block to overcome in all cases is fear. To be able to say “I can” is the biggest challenge. Not whether they actually can… but to just get them to beleive that they most likely can…. and they will. Whether you are heading a project at a software company, or teaching someone to teach swimming or heading a non profit organization or organizing a music concert with a huge investment… the most important thing is to help your team overcome self doubt and fear. In the summer of 2010 I taught both my parents how to swim. They accomplished this at the age of 70 and 65 respectively. Beleif, patience, respect, understanding… these carry you a long way.

Ok so thats a great strategy but tactically how do you accomplish it? What are the details? Its very simple. Let me give you an analogy. In most cases like this I see that when you have to climb 3600 steps people focus on the 100th step or the 1000th step. They forget that its the first step and the second and the third and so on that are more critical. Once you get to the 20th step the confidence is already rising. By the time you get to the 50th step the “I can” attitude is taking root. By the time you get to the 100th step its on cruise control. Its raring to go… you actually have to probably rein in the horse to conserve its energy for the long haul and to endure. But the fact is …the moment you give them a taste of success, you just have to sit back and relax and let their hunger to acheive more manifest itself in their drive and determination. All you have to do is fine tune, ask questions and facilitate.

Leadership is really about helping your team succeed and reach their goals individually and collectively.

Only the rulers changed…

A piece by my sister….

Today’s is Martyrs’ day in India…the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated  by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist . Usually on this day in schools I remember observing a minute of silence . Mahatma, who was against caste system, racism and  believed in equality of all religions was killed because some people felt he acted against the interest of Hindus and was more sympathetic towards muslims. Just yesterday I was thinking that though Mahatma had fought so hard for the independent India, it seems like India never became independent. It is indeed heart breaking to see the kind of money amassed by even the small time politicians while the common struggle for getting even the basic need met / basic wages paid for their hard day’s work. The difference between the classes of society is huge and is very easily noticeable . It hits us right on our face everyday the moment we step out of our home. 

-by Prasanthi Ganti

Marketing

I just started taking a marketing class in UT Austin from yesterday. But time and again I was reminded of my experiences in India, a trip that I got back from two days ago. Here are a few great examples of how I found people marketing simple products and making great sales.

Chai Stop
You might think I am talking about a “Starbucks Type” joint. There are indeed places like that – Coffee Day for example. But what I am going to tell you about beats that any day I feel. A large majority of the Indian population doesnt really think of going to places like Starbucks or Coffee Day. Its simply too expensive. These are your average Joe folks who start early in the morning, take the bus, get to their work a couple of hours later. They leave work late and you can find them at 7 pm, 8pm 9pm at bus stops waiting patiently for the bus to take them home for a quick dinner and a few hours of sleep before the maddening rush of the next day.
Near on such bus stop at a corner where an opening connects the highway to the feeder side road stood a man with 2 or 3 flasks of tea. He stood right at that point where pedestrians walk, where scooterists have to slow down and turn to get off the highway. Thats also the place were people have to slow down to get onto the highway and it is on the way to the bus stop (probably 10 – 15 yards away from the bus stop). His Chai is a welcome break, an almost unnoticed refreshment in the dust and sweat filled commute of the people who stop by. Unnoticed but almost addictive in the comfort it provides. His teenage son periodically comes back with filled flasks and takes back the empty ones.
At Rs 10 per cup (half the size of what you’d get in Coffee day and a third in price) its almost irresistable. Its Chai after all. In the minds of those buying it how different would it get between Coffee day and this guy’s flask? Even with an estimation of every 10th person passing by him and a total of 200 – 300 people a day, he makes an estimated Rs 2000 – 3000 a day. Even very conservatively a sum of 1000 results in a tax free earning of 24,000 a month and a whopping range of (Rs 2,88,000 – Rs. 8,64,000). My sister’s driver makes Rs 8000 a month. So to make as much as him this “chai in a flask” person only needs 34 customers a day at Rs. 10 per cup. Comparing this to Coffee day … from one customer Coffee day makes Rs 30 (including taxes). This guy makes Rs 20 – 30 on the same amount of chai TAX FREE (depending on the coffee day cup volume vs this chai wallah’s cup volume) on the same volume of chai sold. And he is at a busy intersection.

Kalmane Coffee

A spectacular way in which you can take a mispronounced word and turn it into a product brand. So imagine a very poor street vendor who doesnt know how to properly pronounce coffee and instead says “Kaapi”. Imagine this happening all over a country with a billion people.  Kaapi – a word known to everyone, amusing, maybe frowned upon yet recognization and something that evokes that comforting feeling of that simplicity of life and the warm fresh aroma of coffee. Now take this word and name all your coffee offerings with Kaapi. And you have Kalmane Coffee.

Though unfortunately I couldnt sample their coffees because their coffee shop at the Phoenix mall in Bangalore didnt have any of the 5 or 6 options I chose on their menu.

Vitamin Bedsheets

An aunt of mine went to buy a bedsheet for her son in Austin, to send along with me. The salesman showed her a special bedsheet, so he said. He announced it as a vitamin bedsheet. Wrap yourself in it and you’ll have vitamins go into your body. No need to take any pills. Seeing through his gimmick she asked, what about when its put in a clothes washer. He said “This is special ma’am. It wont lose its vitamin content”. I bet any less educated or less knowledgeable of the ways of the world, maybe she’d have been impressed and would’ve bought it. I say this as I hazard a guess that it obviously it worked on a lot of others or else he wouldnt be using this approach to make the sale.

Ice Gola/Gus Gola

While I growing outside the school or at the bus stop there’d this guy who had a wooden box on the wheels and serving ice during summer on a stick and he’d pour a syrup on it to make it sweet. It probably cost 5 paise or 10 paise. (100 paise = 1 rupee and to give a perspective today 50 rupees approximately is the exchange rate with a dollar. At that time it was probably 30 rupees.)

During this trip I found how simple marketing can make this into a dramatically profitable business. Starting a company/service called Gus Gola someone created a brand and recruited people to work as servers and setup nice looking colorful stalls. The workers have attractively designed uniforms and the mobile stall itself looks very clean and  tastefully done. There are now about 30 different syrups and a sign clearly stating that the ice is made from mineral water. The guy making the gola wears gloves. But all this is on a street corner so I am not sure if it really matters. But the marketing definitely does the trick. The procedure is still the same, the product is still the same and the place still the same. All that has changed is the packaging.

What this has done is that its brought this product out from the perception that its a poor man’s delicacy. The price is higher hence its worthy of the middle class consumption. The mineral water reassures the middle class mothers that the gola is safe for their children and the cool ads and colors makes it appear that its worth spending the $30 on it.

One such company came up and succeeded. 10 other guys started similar companies and named their products similarly.

Want to sell ice? All you have to do is make it sweet and market it.

Tata Nano

A couple of years ago Tata introduced the “cheapest car in the world” – the Tata Nano. However due to mechanical and other engine problems its reputation took a hit. The company worked hard to fix many of these and price rose from approximately $2.5 K to slightly above $3000. Still despite all the hype the actual sales didnt exceed 50% of the targets. Asking around a bit I realized that the car was marketed as the poor man’s car. Even poor men do not want to be labelled poor men and definitely dont want to be associated with the poor man’s car. Consequently the poor men preferred buying more expensive cars at second hand or just brand new more expensive cars. Here is an example of where a marketing campaign actually ended up hurting the product sales that it was supposed to help increase. .