Swavalambi Economics of General Election
It is true that small businessmen won’t be able to match the resources of big event management companies and hence small rallies, small road shows can be incorporated as a binding rule by the policymakers and the independent agency i.e. election commissions of India will be an active partner in promoting vocal for local and strengthen the march towards AtmaNirbhar Bharat. — Alok Singh
The general election conducted usually once every five years is a living entity. It is a living entity as it provides an opportunity to eligible voters to select their respective candidates who represent them in the highest panchayat of the governance. It is a living entity as the administrative powers of the government are temporarily in the custody of the election commission of India during that time. It is a living entity as it engages media platforms aggressively, the opinion of every social media post, and every article written matters. It is a living entity as it forces the big corporations particularly in the fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) segment to strategies the maximum capture of market share in ready to consume eatables and drinks. It is a living entity as it provides an earning opportunity to service providers in the mobility sector whether it be roadways or airways. It provides an earning opportunity to businesses in stage, tent, chair, loudspeakers, and variety of printing business. It provides a business opportunity to local artisans like folk singers and other artists to showcase their creativity for their clients.
The big corporations have eyed this opportunity. The big FMCG companies are stealing the business that should be an opportunity for local FMCG to earn. The big event management companies are stealing the businesses of local and small service providers. The Bhartiya general election is conducted in hot summer and people including the workers and voters are reluctant to leave their cool comfort zone of their home. But the stakes are so high that it forces even the five-star lifestyle dependent individuals to hit the street in the hot weather. So, there is an opportunity for the support providers to milk the business opportunity.
The foreign brand FMCG companies depended on this general election to level the lost revenue and lost market share of previous financial calendar that they lost to the indigenous FMCG companies. They came up with many quantitative discounts, bundled product offers, and bulk packaging offers to reduce the bill of their customers and establish themselves aggressively in the market. In this case the customers are the political parties and the individual candidates as well as the administration that is maneuvered by the election commission of India.
The new format of the election in terms of engaging digital technology, huge and luxury automobiles, big rallies, mega road shows and plethora of appealing dresses and volumes of flowers are all shifting the business from local indigenous manufactures and service providers to big corporates and event management companies.
It is good to see that big data analytics and foreign social media trend setters are unable to impose themselves on the local population. Someone sitting abroad and sending questionnaires to our population and doing the analyses are failing in their business. There will be a few more failures and they will be out of business.
There is an anecdote that one foreign consultancy firm was doing the inventory management of egg consumption in Pune and the company was always missing the forecast band. One local consultant agreed to offer consultancy. The problem with the foreign firm was that they were unaware of the eating behaviors of the local population. In this case the local population do not eat eggs on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, few of the locals don’t eat on Sundays and so on. The other information that the local consultant had and the foreign consultant didn’t have was the Ganesh Chaturthi, and Navratri and other festivals like Ganga Dussehra. Moreover, the foreign consultant was dependent on the English calendar while the local population followed the Hindu Calendar. The days of the week are still easier to track but the festivals that keep changing dates in the English calendar are completely blind to foreign consultants. If they attempt to capture Kumbh mela that also has a variety of Maha Kumbh and Ardha Kumbh.
All these foreign consultant’s egg consumption forecasting business will throw continuous eggs on their balance sheet. They can’t forecast for a city and it can be imagined if they attempt to forecast for the nation. Eggs are perishable and they can’t help themselves. This city wise consumption deviation might have forced them to use toxic preservatives in the cold drinks inventory to forecast for the nation.
Now the foreign data analytics companies and the social media influencers are reinforcing each other to forecast the outcomes of the general election of our country with an acceptable margin of error and expect the stock exchange to dance to the outcomes of their tunes. Even domestic retail investors who might have followed the trap of such forecasts and social media financial advisers might have felt huge surprise. The first misbehavior that threw the eggs on foreign analytics and social media influencers are our stock exchanges. This egg on the face is tangible, measurable, and a hard big stick to foreigners and a warning to the artificial intelligence to not ever try to mingle in our matters and that too in matters of democratic process of election. They can’t forecast egg consumption and attempted to forecast the outcome of our general election.
But we should remember that apart from failure in eggs and election forecasts they have succeeded in the FMCG sector and we have to counter it, as the self-reliance and AtmaNirbhar Bharat is moving very slowly in this segment. Consumer awareness about the toxic preservatives and the attack on our food habits since the last four decades needs policy intervention.
The political parties should start encouraging local businesses in their election related expenses as it will provide an opportunity to connect with the locals. We can have a policy to restrict the mega road shows, and the mega rallies so that the dependency on big event management companies are eliminated.
It is true that small businessmen won’t be able to match the resources of big event management companies and hence small rallies, small road shows can be incorporated as a binding rule by the policymakers and the independent agency i.e. election commissions of India will be an active partner in promoting vocal for local and strengthen the march towards AtmaNirbhar Bharat. The festival of democracy is an important stakeholder in Swavalambi Economics that leads to Swavalambi Bharat.
(Alok Singh has a doctorate in management from the Indian Institute of Management Indore and is currently co-founder and director at AGET Business School, Jhajjar, Haryana).
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