Skip to main content

Soap and Economics

First few months in a FMCG industry is all about learning. This is true for almost every kind of industry. Or better still, you never cease to learn anywhere ... usually. But then, these learnings is not only about your work or general philosophical fundas pertaining to life, universe and everything.

Having been in FMCG industry for few months has thrown up a few learnings for me too. But weirdly, I think I think I have learned most about economics and few random bits about life in a rural-ish setting (bits of which I have been mentioned in few earlier posts few months ago.)

The economics I am mentioning is not all those complex equation, but few random common-sensical, observational stuff - a la The Under Cover Economist way.

- For example, so many different things are involved in making things work for a product (apart from people managing and researching on it), say a soap - host of vendors (for different species of raw materials, packaging materials), support materials like labels, stickers etc.,

- Different agencies involved - media planning agency, advertising agency, PR agency, design agency, printers etc.

- Businesses which survive on above like Media - TV, newspaper ... even internet.

- Different kinds of people involved in taking the products to the marketplace - transporter, guys at warehouse, distributor, salesman, retailer ... and all the company people employed to smoothen the process.

- Add few more things like consultants, accountants, auditors, market research agents, software developers which provide support organization in various forms

- And then support staff (as in canteen guy, janitor etc.) or the neighboring paan waalah, the puncture repair shop opposite to the office etc.

- Then there are guys like banks or various agencies who suck in the money of the ones above and pump it into the system.

- Then there are credit card guys who tell you to spend more and more, which is used to buy more and more and feed in other such companies (with different products and services) the above people put in their money to buy the same soap and similar stuff and so on ...

With so many different companies and businesses and so many interconnections ... imagine the scale ... and all the systems that keeps money flowing and the economy ticking ...

It might seem elementary, but it's amazing. But then, this is just an extremely small part of this whole complex system of economics!

Comments

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented

(Disclaimer: I am NOT justifying any action or behavior. I am just speculating why people usually act so) _________________________________________________________ “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented” – The Truman Show (a 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey) The above line explains a great deal about why we hold on to some beliefs as gospel truths, and form our judgment about things and act in a specific pattern. This movie (which I feel is still quite under-rated!) had Jim Carrey, a person whose entire life had been a live, non-stop, unedited television show. He lived in a world which was completely artificial; everything, everyone knew that everything were fake. But the person was real. His emotions were real. He was conditioned to a certain realities of world, and believed in it. The makers of the show did not want to show him what the ‘actual’ world was. He was made not to want to explore the outside world, made to fear things that could have led him ...
5 comments
Read more

Da Vinci code : The movie

Yet another weekend comes Yet another weekend is about to be squandered doing nothing ... But this time, I managed to watch a movie, the much awaited 'da vinci code'. Was quite disappointed when the controversies surrounding it managed to postpone the release of the movie by about a week. But this weekend, I managed to watch it - adding to the list of very few Hollywood movies I have seen. Having read the book, I was more excited to see the movie, and with Tom Hanks, The excitement was even more. So there I was, seated at a not-so-good-yet-expensive multiplex. I am making an assumption that most of the people who are watching the movie would have read the book. I may be wrong. Maybe, many of us old be tempted to believe the 'facts(???)' stated in the movie(in fact the book), we usually love what is spicy, especially if it is said with such conviction as in the book, where the demarcation between the 'fact' and 'fiction' are not exactly distinguishable. D...
Post a Comment
Read more

Law of increasing competition !

"The first step of reaching the top is getting through the crowd at the bottom" How often we think to cross one level of competition, and be assured that rest of the going would be smooth, just to realize that competion has just increased ! As a child we often didn't know what we are headed for. Later on we make a decision, usually the one that would lead to something more comfortable later in life, or colloquially "do this, then there is fultoo aish". As a child I used to think that if I get good grades in school, life would be comfortable. Maybe comfortable meant "bed of roses" to me. In engineering, all the old school style of competition seemed somewhat trivial ! Bt still there is a big fight to get those coveted jobs, but again, on reaching "there", we often end up realizing that just to be ahead of the crowd, you have to compete a lot. During those job/graduation days it is a dream to get into any of the coveted b schools leading to a w...
1 comment
Read more

Games Students play

It is not about sports like soccer, cricket or TT; nor about some indoor games like chess or computer games. How often we hear words which on surface convey a simple meaning but deep inside the meaning may be totally different ?!. It is about these ‘games’. Formally defined, games are a form of ulterior transaction, and which leads to a definite payoff. Ulterior transaction is the one, which on surface may appear to be completely normal and without any hidden “trick”, but at psychological level it may mean something totally different. For example it may appear as if an adult is talking to an adult (adult – adult transaction), but at psychological level the ‘adult’ speaker may be talking to a child (adult-child transaction). (No more technical jargons from now onwards!) How often we hear the phrase “In US it isn’t so; actually there it is …” At the surface it may seem like a mature adult talking to another, stating plain facts. But at other level it is telling that “I have been to USA”....
1 comment
Read more

A matter of choice ...

You have 2 options, and you have complete freedom to choose any of these. Each option leads to an outcome which is one of those given below 1. You are happy and everyone believing that you are not and sympathising with you. 2. Everyone believing that you are happy, while in reality you are far being so. Which one will you choose ?
6 comments
Read more