More to less. Too much to too little.
Deluge to famine~
This is because it's been more than a month since I've written.
And have wanted to write every now and then. When I came back from a brilliant vacation to Pondicherry with wonderful people. When I went home for the Christmas break and loved it. When I returned, into the New Year, to a pretty sweltry Mumbai. When we got serenaded by some pretty fine music on the Durshet picnic. And when this and that. But now I just forget.
As I try to stir my mind up for some dope, general ponderings on a choice gone-just-a-little-amiss.
1. Small fish in a big pond is not that bad after all. The ocean supports the whales as much as the shrimps. The small fry find their troupe and you get a well-functioning, enthusiastic and fun team.
2. What good are systems that enslave and not facilitate. A certain amount of chaos might help organizations tide through. A little bit of improvization is always a good idea.
The problem with the market research industry is that sticking to set processes (that haven't been changed or infact been stifled to evolve) has become the end. This is typically how the tail wags the dog. So they're trying to frantically follow your method of recording data, transcription, content analysis, in the same rut, whereas the situation is desperate for something more. For better note-taking, presentation, etc. Let innovation be rewarded!
3. Imagine how nice it would be in some circles to see what flavours of chocolates do children like best, if there is a ready market for black-heads remover market, if a certain bank's portfolio management is on track or if the vodka in some other format is taken to by the brand loyalists. It is indeed fantastic to look at so many product categories, consumer segments and need states. But getting flustered under the weight of paper-work and insane amount of content analysis is not what I ask.
4. In the rush to examine products and consumers, researchers are drawing extensively on stereotypes. A research which would otherwise be thorough in 5 weeks is commissioned for 2 (ofcourse the client is the king; he says 2, it is 2) and therefore a certain researcher thought that one of the things that chocolates do is to bribe the child for studying, (because she remembers doing that with her own child), even though not a single mention was made by the sample, in that direction.
Ofcourse, the name of the game is to remove biases as much as possible, but in the manic race towards a deadline, biases are all they live by.
5. In Qualitative research, the numbers are so small, the sample so unrepresentative that every comment has to be measured most carefully. (Like everything else, there is little time for that).
3. The market research agency culture is blighted to treat employees a.k.a 'resources' like other non-living resources that probably don't need an open door, continuous feedback and constructive criticism.
The fear to face a senior, who's faced with fear of a client research team who in turn is faced with the fear of reporting to the product team is a vicious circle. Where's the good work in a sadistic world?
4. Our lobby (The resources' lobby) is such a weakling. One doesn't need to feel guilty for wanting a weekend, which I'm afraid has become the norm. Work extremely hard; plug away at work; Toil for reports on fire, but working without a shred of knowledge if the work is any good or not, whether it's going to be used or not; whether it needs refinement or nuancing (feedback in short) is like a car whirring it's engine mad, to thrust out from a mucky cavity for take-off.
The deal is I can work in the corporate world but can't make my world so corporate (read static . Once I'm back from work in the evening sometime, I want to cook my food, walk back to my place listening to some music, Facebook for a while and then sleep a good night's sleep like in a Cittaslow town!
Later
