Opinion Individualism vs Cadre
When you buy Pantene shampoo,you as a consumer dont care about P&Gs enterprise culture,who does its R&D,Marketing or the CEOs name
When you buy Pantene shampoo,you as a consumer dont care about P&Gs enterprise culture,who does its R&D,Marketing or the CEOs name. The first benefit you seek is quality. Does it clean more efficiently,better hair growth than others? For the brand,repeat purchase is all that matters in the free economys humungous competition. Will consumers remain loyal to the brand after three purchases? Will consumers continue to purchase it even after several years of usage? In West Bengal,the common man on the street looks at political parties exactly like they check Pantene shampoos performance vs competitors like Dove.
Different political parties have tried to establish their ideologies since Independence. However,these ideologies are barely known except as broad-brush left or right wing politics. The public takeaway is only their different political leaders. In most cases in India,a single political personality drives a party,and then bequeaths his leadership power to his family,generation after generation.
Todays Bengal Left Front is not following the personality formula inherent in Indian politics. Instead they promote Sangathan, their collective political strength. The way Pantenes internal structure is opaque to consumers,is there any need to uphold Sangathan? Indias most revered Left leader was Jyoti Basu. Similarly,Communist regimes where Opposition nearly does not exist,fielded personalities like Fidel Castro in Cuba,Chinas Mao Zedong to Chou En-lai,and different generations in Russia,Lenin,Stalin,Khrushchev,Gorbachev to Putin. Cadres may want ideal Sangathani power of multiple party leaders,but the public loved Jyoti Basu not because he was head of his party but for his charismatic connect as a leader.
Like the steps P&G takes to build Pantene,with a single focus,the Trinamool has propped up their leaders personality for relevance and quick connect to mass appeal. Gandhiji came to build his career as Indias mass leader. He chose the loin cloth with wooden sandals to create his brand. In trying to become the defender of Bengali masses,the TMC leader already has her inherent,no-frills attire. Such elements count in peoples mind. Voters may press the electronic ballot button on a symbol,but in a democracy,they decide their candidate in advance. Her mass leader image has worked tremendously as observed from TMCs winning results in the last three Panchayat,Parliament and Municipality elections in Bengal. After Jyoti Basu,the Left Front has not pressed the button on a single focus representation for the partys connect to the public. So a birds eye-view on recent Bengali leaders may feature BC Roy to Jyoti Basu to Mamata Banerjee. The Left Front,not exploiting its heavyweight,34-year rule with a charismatic
leader with an offensive leadership stand,is being subjected to aggressive volleys of attack.
Everybody expects this forthcoming assembly election to be a neck-to-neck battle. The masses say its like Durga puja festivities minus the devotion. The disgraceful difference of course is that nobody dies during Puja,but election fever is killing young people and creating hate. The public would love to experience politics of collaboration.
To find out which party is saying what,an American-style TV debate between the two major party leaders with an unbiased,non-political anchor would be most welcome. In most TV debates nowadays everyone talks,rather shouts,simultaneously. Is that intentional to confuse the masses? Its unlike traditional Bengali Torja banter where the opponents creatively repartee. Today all you hear is screeching nastiness. The TMC attacks the Left Front saying theyve undemocratically only favoured Left-wing harmads (euphemism for tyrants,the word supposedly originating from Spanish Armada) without bringing any development for 34 years. The Left attacks the TMC for operating without peoples sangathanic consent,at the whim of the Union Railway Minister who neglects her all-India portfolio only to spend time in Bengal making false,invalid promises thatll never fructify. In contrast,the worlds No. 1 shampoo Pantene has Dove and others as competitors,but all are ever vigilant to retain consumer loyalty by listening to them. When international brands work harder on product quality,the consumer is the ultimate winner. The top two TV debates can reveal the leaders appetite for politics of collaboration. Through a civilised debate,the two high powered parties can make people understand their election manifesto. After the elections,ruling party needs to get opposition support to develop the state and maintain peace,law and order. More than ever,both parties should agree that Bengal needs industrialisation. Through land division in their own families,most farmers now own two acres or less and make only about Rs 40,000 per year. Can the Government help them? One way is to demonstrate ways to increase revenue to at least Rs 120,000 annually. Another is to persuade land owners to sell at a good evaluated farmland price for setting up industry for generating crores of rupees. Someone in the sellers family should get job assurance from this factory.
No economic development has happened anywhere in the world with agriculture alone. Industry is a states economic backbone. The biggest cause of Western societys recent recession was losing their countrys industrial base,outsourcing services and depending on their financial institutes only. West Bengal has to have land to invite industries. Without development,Bengali children will never experience the value of the states treasures,from tea plantations to viewing world famous mountains,landing in a natural seaport,from mineral resources to rivers to wonder-of-the-world Sunderbans. The state with its youth talent has every potential to be one big business hub of South East Asia. Its up to the political leaders to guide and show the way through mutual cooperation rather than opposition.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
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