Job Designations, Titles Et al

Evangelist, Chief XYZ, Consultants of all Hues, Architects coming in different shapes and sizes, a variety of Managers, and many more....Business Cards and Linkedin Profiles scream out all these different job designations at you. Some sound weighty, some normal, and some confusing.

Job Designations are definitely one HR tool used by Organizations/companies to attract new talent and to appease what exists within. There is definitely nothing wrong with that. It is just that sometimes a cursory look at some job titles/designations without further probing into what the role entails, leaves you with that little doubt about what exactly is the job all about. Have listed below some such designations that I have seen (just some examples I have seen).

(i)"Product Manager":- I have seen it to mean different things as listed below in different companies
--> Shortening of "Product Marketing Manager", and essentially a member of the Marketing Team in a Product company
--> A Role wherein the person interfaces with the Sales Team, Customers, and In-house Production/Engineering teams, to help design the roadmap of the product evolution/development such that it is in line with demands and requirements of the market/customers. In many companies, this role could also involve some form of targets for the sales revenue for the product
--> Full-fledged Sales roles with sales quotas/revenue targets in Product companies, to go out into the field and hunt for new customers
--> Technical Project Management roles in the Engineering/production department of some product companies

(ii)"Consultants" :-)....If dealt in detail, this could fill up a page or two.
--> The ever revered and coveted Management Consultant positions with the Mckinseys etc of the world, who play in the big league
--> The technical experts (IT Consultants) who actually deploy IT systems like SAP etc across industries
--> In many IT companies, a Pre-Sales role which entails technology or industry domain knowledge, is also a designated as a Consultant
--> Of course you have the HR Consultant, Financial Consultant etc, going all the way to Lifestyle consultants etc

(iii)"Architects"...Let alone, the one who helps design homes and buildings, but it could mean any of the following too:-
--> In a Software product company it could mean a person who handles the software architecture/design of a product (or products). He could be known as a Product Architect
--> In the same product company, you could have the same person (or another person) as a Solution architect i.e. one who actually helps design the implementation of a customized version of the product for each customer
---> In some IT services companies, a very Senior Software Designer or a Technical Pre-Sales Personnel, also has a designation as Architect

(iv)"Director":- In many companies, middle management roles have job titles which contain the word "Director". Of course, it is different from a person who is a Director on account of being on the Board of a Company

(v)"Business Development Manager" in the IT industry
--> The Full-fledged Sales role with sales quotas, to go get new business from existing or new customers
--> In some companies, Managers of Pre-Sales teams which help the Sales personnel with Demos and Proposal making, also have this designation (Well, essentially both Sales and Pre-Sales make up Business Development, and so this is correct. Just that job applicant should be aware that the designation could mean either one of the two).

(vi)"Associate Vice Presidents (AVPs)"/"Deputy General Managers (DGMs)"....Note: - Whatever I have written below is mostly based on what I have heard people say, and could most definitely be also be due to these people (at least some) suffering from a case of "sour grapes" :-)
--> AVPs in the Banking and Financial Services industry - Many people claim that this designation is bestowed on people in this industry much earlier in their careers, as compared to in other industries
--> Have seen a Privately owned Telecom company in the APAC region to have more DGMs than in Public Sector Banks in India. While you could easily meet with DGMs in that telecom company, the DGMs in the Public Sector Banks are virtually out of reach on account of their seniority

Sometimes the business environment in which a company operates (e.g. when it comes to what will go well with customers) and what stage of growth the company is in, also decides what designations need to be given to each role within the company. This leads to the same job designation meaning different things in 2 different industries, and sometimes in 2 different companies in the same industry.

Like I said at the beginning, there is nothing wrong in all this. It just adds to the colour of the working world. Having said that, job aspirants need to be aware of this phenomenon and should do the required research on what exactly the role entails irrespective of the job title/designations. Also, recruiters should use this awareness to evaluate resumes in greater detail, irrespective of what job titles are listed by candidates/applicants for any job position.

Is There Really A Perfect Job You Naturally Fit Into?

We have all heard that. "Hey, do not be a square peg in a round hole". "Do a job which is your passion". However, in truth are most people in the world able to get into jobs which are the "perfect fit"? Most "Square Pegs" chisel themselves into "Round Pegs" over time. Not everyone is as lucky as is the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar who truly "does not work a single day of his life", since his job is his true passion (On a separate but pertinent note, many books have been written and will be written, on how Sachin took his passion to a sublime level with his hard work, perseverance and, love for the game of cricket).

The world at large can be divided into 3 broad categories in this aspect (Taking a career in Writing as an example):-
(i)Ones who rough it out - The unsung, unnamed "would-have-been" writers/authors, who many a times die in penury and sometime succeed with splendid rags to riches stories of struggle to tell
(ii)Ones who build a financial base and safety net as "Fat and Healthy" Square Pegs in a Round Hole, and then move to the Square Hole which though less paying is closer to their hearts (whether to succeed and stay, or to fail and retract) - Famous examples being the likes of Mr. Chetan Bhagat who made his fortunes in the Banking industry before wielding the writer's pen full time
(iii)The Square Pegs who chisel themselves into Round Pegs to Fit the Round Hole (Or put up somehow as square pegs in the round holes, if the chiseling fails). Wannabe Shakespeares or Wordsworths, choosing to be Einsteins, Donald Trumps etc
In the above list, (i) and (ii) are a Minority. The Majority are in category (iii)

People in category (iii) do not necessarily choose their careers the way they do it, due to anything which could be attributed as a serious shortcoming in them. They do so due to multiple reasons which could be viewed as being perfectly valid and sometimes not within even the individual's control:-
(a)Circumstances e.g. an unforeseen family tragedy at a crucial juncture of one's career
(b)Personal Priorities e.g. Money being a priority or a need (or both), could cause many to not seek jobs aligned with what they feel passionate about (at least not at the start of their careers)
(c)Opportunities e.g. a person born in the hinterland of any country with say no schools to go to, would find it a much tougher journey in terms of his or her career

Is the situation really that bad? Maybe not so.
--> We all have days when we feel that we are made for another job. It is almost always temporary. It is human psyche when under stress to look "for the grass on the other side which is always greener"
--> Maybe what you feel is your true passion and true calling in life is not really so. Maybe you are best fit for the job that you currently do, and in fact might be a big failure if you follow your "heart" when it comes to your career. Many times there is a logical reason why you are what you are and ended up doing a particular job
--> Maybe this is God's way of running the world. If everyone runs after their passions, maybe there would be no one to do many jobs necessary to run the world.
--> Importantly, as we all know, there is nothing in the world which is 100% perfect. So, we can never be perfectly made for any job i.e. even the roundest of pegs needs some chiseling. The want to do whatever one does perfectly and sincerely carries many a person through his or her career (and thankfully ensures that the world moves along pretty fine). If this was not true we would not have had the numerous Executives who have worn different hats like Sales, Operations, Finance etc with reasonably equal aplomb.

So, everyone only has 2 choices (choosing either one is correct) - Either have it in us to rough it out till we find a square hole, or patiently chisel away at oneself into a round peg. So, since all of us have hence made the right choice, let us close this chapter in a happy mood!! :-)

Taxation types

Some taxation "types" followed by different countries:-

(i)High Taxes Imposed, and high-end services provided to citizens e.g. USA, UK etc

(ii)No Taxes Imposed, and very, very high-end services provided to citizens!!! e.g. Dubai and other GCC countries

(iii)High Taxes imposed and poor, pathetic services provided to citizens!! e.g. India.

"Placeholders"

I am back after a long break from blogging :-). The topic of today's blog post is a tad bit random in nature.

I am sure that all of us are familiar with the term "Placeholder". I am going to write something around this term, in this blog post.

Many of us who are working with (or have worked with) India based companies in the IT / ITES services space, would probably identify with what I am about to mention in this paragraph. Often I see the signboard (Yes, the ones with a velvety red background, with letters in golden colour playing out some form of greeting etc), near the entrance of my office building, and see a message which goes like "XYZ Co Welcomes You!" The word "You" in the Welcome message is what I call a placeholder:-). Yes, you guessed it right - It means that there are no "welcom-able" current or prospective customers visiting the building that day, and so we welcome....You!

The "placeholder" phenomenon can be extended to other areas of life too.....

Many of the sports channels in India, many a times adhere to repeat telecasts of the classic knocks played by Sachin Tendulkar way back in 1998 vs Warne & Co in Sharjah, during periods when no live sporting events are there to be shown. [Please note: I am a die-hard Sachin fan, and watch each of these repeat telecasts with equal zeal. Just that I wanted to throw around some more "placeholder" examples. Warned you - This post is totally random:-)].

One of the Hindi movie channels (Don't remember which one), uses the Govinda starrer "Dulhe Raja" as a placeholder, with repeat telecasts of this "superhit comedy masala".

A few years back, one of the English movie channels was using the Stallone starrer "Cliffhanger" as a "placeholder".

Ok, folks I am done with all the random notes:-). Will be back soon with something "less random"... Enjoy....

(Mis)use of Business Terms Or "MBA Jargons"

All of us who have done an MBA course, would have experienced the thrill of getting familiar with the various business terms (also referred to many a times as "MBA jargons"). These terms which were Greek to our ears till then, and used to be something which were mouthed only by presenters on various business related TV channels and by corporate honchos, suddenly becomes something we understand and use with ease. Makes many of us feel like, we are now in the big league :-).

So, is having a knowledge of these terms, really important? Yes, very much, if you have to operate smoothly in the business world. However, just like with most things in life, we need to use them correctly and in the right places (with the right people). Listing below some incidents in this context, which might help explain to some extent what prompted folks to term important business terms as MBA "jargons".

Incident(s) 1: There are more than one instance of teams from the revered "Big Four" Management Consultant Firms having been thrown out of boardrooms due to (a)Incorrect application of business terms in the context of the presentation, (b)Overdoing the usage of business terms, in front of the business world stalwarts in the audience, especially when the solution being presented in no way appears close to solving the business problem of the client.

Incident 2: While doing my MBA, my study group had to study the employee transportation system in BPOs and present the results to an automobile company. The automobile company wanted to understand which of their models in the "cab category" would meet the needs of the BPO industry. As part of this study, we got an appointment with the Head of the Employee Transportation and Security division at a leading BPO firm. We had to interview this gentleman to understand the primary needs and requirements of his team and the employees, when it comes to the kind of cabs they use for employee pick-ups and drops. My study group mate, chose to healthily intersperse his questions to the person whom we were interviewing, with the heaviest of "MBA jargons"(some of which are never heard outside the realm of a MBA classroom). As should not be a surprise, it had the Head of the Transport Division (an ex-Army man, with pure Operations experience), totally flummoxed! It took a good 5-10 minutes, for me to intervene and bring back the interview on track (without offending my study group mate, in front of everyone)!!

My MBA classmate forgot the basic principle that we were all taught in our Marketing classes: Speak in the language of your customer (or audience), or else you are doomed to lose him or her completely (and to paint yourself as a show-off)!!


Incident 3: A trend among many B-Schoolers is to come up with "business" jokes, and to use the newly learnt business terms/"MBA jargons" to describe non-business everyday scenarios. Given the already pathetic sense of humour of some of them, I do not think I need to explain how unbearable the "MBA" jokes they come up with could be :-). (Note: My apologies to those with a good sense of humour, who come up with good jokes i.e. MBA related or otherwise)

I am sure many of the readers of this blog (MBAs, current B-schoolers, and others), would have more interesting incidents and perspective to share in this context. Welcoming your thoughts and inputs.

Catch you later folks. Shall be back with some blogs on some other business-related topics.

India and Pak - Pls Do Not Unite As One Nation!

As the new year dawned upon us, I am sure most (if not all) the readers of Times of India would have been surprised (pleasantly or otherwise), at seeing the "Aman ki Aasha" initiative to promote Indo-Pak relationships at the level of the general populace. I would be honest enough to admit that I was not really overjoyed, even though I find it a positive attempt by Times of India (and their counterpart across the border - The Jang Group of Newspapers of Pakistan). One good thing about the newspaper articles which have been appearing over the past few weeks as part of this initiative, is the realistic view aired in most of them that all this is not a replacement of the much needed attempts (political and military) to rein in the anti-social minority (terrorists etc) who are still a potent and real threat to the peace loving majority on both sides of the border.

This blog post is covering a topic which is closely related to the aspect highlighted in the opening paragraph above. A few weeks back I also jumped on to the Twitter-ing bandwagon, and became part of the burgeoning "tweeple" population. As soon as I joined the micro-blogging site, I promptly became a follower on Twitter to a number of celebrities including a renowned Indian model and actress. The actress tweeted an idea on Indo-Pak relationships to her followers that, India and Pakistan should unite and become one sovereign nation. I strongly believe this idea is quaint, but purely idealistic and impractical when it comes to actual implementation (and more importantly, not needed at all to be considered)

Listed further below are some points from an Indian perspective (and some generic, overall points), as to why there is no need to unite both countries as a single sovereign entity. I am sure that there would be many of our friends in Pakistan, who would support my view on this topic, with points to add from their perspective. I request readers of this blog from both sides of the Indo-Pak border, to read this blog post and the subsequent comments from others with an open mind. If you find my views to be offensive in any manner, I apologise in advance.

Also sorry for the blog post to be long. Sorry, still working on the aspect of keeping my posts short and crisp, while still interesting enough :-). I tend to get a bit carried away by the subject of the blog post and by my tendency to make the language flowery:-).

Anyways, coming back to the topic, let us first go for the significant reasons for not uniting India and Pakistan as one nation.....
1> Economic Reasons:
India is zooming ahead economically, and is being recognized globally as a leading supplier of high end services in information technology etc. This is good, as it is inline with the views of all leading macro-economists that any country is truly developing when its economy moves from being primarily agrarian, to one which is more based on industries (including a keen focus on high-end services). Furthermore, this economic growth is buoyed by a young, well-educated, and English speaking Indian workforce. In this context, do we see any gains by uniting with Pakistan? My answer to this question is an unfortunate (but emphatic) "No". Why? I have jotted down a few points below as an answer.

--> Pakistan has an unstable democracy, and a highly disturbing law and order scenario. Especially, the reach and effects of terrorism are deep-rooted across Pakistan (unlike the same effecting only parts of India, while the business nerve centres are pretty much insulated from the same). If we bring in Pakistan into our fold, all of these things would scare away the foreign companies and investors (We cannot afford it!!)
--> Pakistan's GDP heavily hinges on foreign aid and on remittances by their citizens who have re-patriated to other countries. The Indian economy (especially since 1991), has seen growth purely fuelled by internal efforts. How many companies or business powerhouses of the calibre of an Infosys, the Tata empire, the Reliance empire etc, can Pakistan boast of? So, as is obvious, what would be the attraction to the Indian side to partner with Pakistan in this context?
--> Most of the future needs of Indian economic growth, requires a well-educated, English-speaking workforce. With the educational institutions in Pakistan not being anywhere close to the Indian ones in terms of quality (and an over-supply in this context within India), India cannot see any advantanges coming from the Pak side on this front.
--> Pakistan does not have much of an industry to speak of, with most of the economy still being primarily agrarian in nature. We have a pretty decent agricultural sector (even though it might not be the best in the world) of our own in India. Given this, Pakistan's economy does not paint a lucrative picture to the Indian side.
--> The Pakistani market is not really big, lucrative,or even relevant in many cases, to Indian businesses. So their go the export prospects, right out of the window. As the above points hint at, there is really no big business case for imports from Pakistan. So with this being the sad view from the Indian side on the export-import front, what viable bilateral trade are we really hinting at??? This coupled with the bitter ground realities in terms of the security situation, paints a very stark picture of things unfortunately - Which self-respecting business concern on either side of the border would put to risk their existence, by investing hard-earned money into any cross-border venture???

2> Social and Cultural Reasons
We in India see the following things which we value and enjoy a lot, being promptly endangered, if at all India and Pakistan get united:-
--> We are a truely secular nation. Our constitution itself says that. On the other hand, Pakistan is an officially stated Islamic state. I am more than sure that, we in India love to maintain our society's status quo in this respect. An unification of countries with this background, would cause major mutual adjustment issues. It is a "merger" destined for disaster.
(a)We have Muslims and Christians captaining national cricketing sides, being cherished film heroes, being Presidents of the country. All of us in India, have seen through school and at work, that ours is a truly equal opportunity culture when it comes to employment options (If you have the skills and means, you get an equal shot at becoming whatever you want to). I would like my friends in Pakistan to look into their hearts and tell us, if they really foresee a non-Muslim ever becoming the Prime Minister or President of Pakistan?! I am not denying that we have had our share of non-secular organizations and communal riots. However when viewed in the context of our huge population and long history, these are very few in number and purely outliers!
(b)Our society allows each religion to freely practice their cultures. To that effect (unlike what some countries in developed Europe are doing now), we have prudently ensured that we do not implement an impractical Uniform Civil Code. What we have on the other side of the border, is continuous honorification of the Muslim Sharia law (In the 21st Century??!!). Sorry about it, but most of us in India, find that a tardy bit repulsive!!
---> It is very increasingly and obviously getting clear that full-fledged embracement of globalisation is the way forward for any nation, economy, or society. Given this, it is sad to see people on the other side of the border (i)still largely being non-English speaking, (ii)overtly obsessed with non-significant matters related to orthodoxy like what dress should an individual wear etc!!
---> Any nation aspiring to be a developed country, should ensure that it creates an environment where the bedrock of talent is what comprises the majority of the population i.e. civil society. India has managed to successfully maintain that balance between our talented defence forces and our immensely gifted civil society. The fact that the same has repeatedly been failed to be achieved in Pakistan, is an indication that something very basic needs to be fixed in their very structure.
---> Last but not the least is the overall mindset in Pakistan (at least what is very clearly portrayed to us), which is perplexing and non-impressive to people in India (especially the current generation). Improvement in one's conditions can happen only and only if, one accepts that there are internal flaws and that they need to be fixed. Ascribing everything to be due to India, is really funny!! Even we have had (and still have) our share of systemic challenges in the form of corruption etc in India, but as is clearly seen to the world, we are at least moving with decent speed on the path to development (Yes we are not yet there with the USAs and UKs of the world, but at least we are on the path!). It was appalling for me to see a panel discussion focussed on the Pakistani economy , where a group of well-educated Pakistani economists haughtily refused to acknowledge the business achievements of India, and quite amusingly patted their own backs for the huge contribution in the form of remittances from Pakistani expatriates to the GDP!!!

Political and Military Reasons:
--> Given the "far from comfortable" military relationship between the 2 countries, I don't think we can even begin to imagine the acutely painful efforts required to combine the defence forces and intelligence agenecies from both sides of the border into one. (Also an important side effect of this attempt: What would happen to the top honchos in the Pakistani defence establishment, who would have very rightly carried aspirations of ruling their nation in the future? When you couple the broken dreams of a military man, who is being forced to shake hands with someone who he has been trained to see as an enemy, you can never predict the possible disastrous results.)
-->What about the terrorists? Who do they see as enemy now and attack? What new and even more dangerous agendas would they come up with, to keep their "careers" alive?
-->Other than the terrorists, we have so many politicians on both sides of the border whose careers hinge on India-Pak animosity. Don't you think they would resort to the "do anything it takes to protect my existence" technique??
-->The kind of evil forces which fomented the killer post-partition 1947 riots, are still alive in both the countries in some form or the other. Do you think this unification of countries is so important and relevant enough, to result in the inevitable shedding of blood of millions of innocents??!!
--> For India: A unification would mean, sharing a border with an unstable Afghanistan. It would mean having lawless tribal areas in Pakistan under our jurisdiction. Do we really want to take all this on to our plate? I do not think so.

Now for some insignificant "reasons" for not uniting India and Pakistan as one nation.....
--> There is this thought that India would become a super-power in cricket and hockey, if both nations unite :-). Well I have 2 views listed below on why this is thought is far-fetched
(a)Indian cricket team is currently well-positioned in Test, ODIs and 20-20, without the unification of nations. The state of Indian hockey is what it is due to internal systemic issues, and cannot get resolved with an unification of nations
(b)By unifying the nations - The cricketing world will see only 11 good cricketers, instead of the 22 that they get to see now :-)
--> This is perhaps the most insignificant one. There is a statement which is constantly made that we (Indians and Pakistanis) are the same people, and hence the nations should unite. Yes it is true we are the "same people", in the sense that we are both of South Asian ethnicity. However, many people forget that in terms of similarities in food habits, language etc, the commonality is limited to just the people residing in few of the North Indian states. I do not think that the natives of states in Southern and Eastern India, have that much in common with Pakistanis as far as food habits etc are concerned.
--> The "adverse" impacts in terms of what each side is missing out, when it comes to the music and movies being produced on the other side of the border, is pure "overplay". Firstly, Indians have their entertainment needs more than met by the huge volumes churned out by Bolloywood and the plethora of indigineous bands (To top it all Indians also have free access to content from Hollywood etc). Besides, in today's internet world, "clamping down cross-border interactions" can no longer prevent us from enjoying what is produced by Pakistani artistes and moviemakers. To think of it, when Pakistanis managed to smuggle video cassettes of banned Hindi movies into their country in the pre-Internet era, no one can stop us in today's world of webcasts, Youtube, global launches etc.

To conclude, let me reiterate that peace between India and Pakistan is very important. In fact, it is the starting point to ensure that every citizen of both countries gets his/her rightful chance to be part of the development wave sweeping across countries like India and China. The only thing is that a realistic way of achieving this peace, is for both countries to stay out of each other's path, instead of being unified. As a fitting analogy, two brothers of a family who have proven themselves incapable of living together without feuding, need to live separately minding their own businesses in the interest of the peace of mind of the overall family :-). So, India and Pakistan should remain separate countries, with each focussing on their own business of uplifting the standard of living of their citizens (without wasting resources in harming each other).

So, that is all folks:-). Shall be back with a blog post on something closer to my field of work - The usage(or is it misuse?) of business terms and "jargons". I am sure many of you would relate to the same in some way or the other. :-)

Do Protect The Earth,.. AND ALSO Jobs?!

The recently concluded drama at Flopenhagen (Sorry, Copenhagen), made me think about something which is usually a pretty neglected topic when it comes to debates on environment related issues etc. (Note that I am just highlighting this side-effect to trigger a constructive debate on this topic, and in no way am I stating that the issues related to environmental protection are not important)
--> Sidenote: Well, the Danish capital could do well by changing its name anyways, given the popularity(or is it notoriety?!) the new word has attained.

I wanted to dwell on the possible effects on the professional and personal lives of people working in certain industries, upon implementation of all or some of the solutions being suggested to overcome the problems faced by the Earth's environment.

Please feel free to send in all your cerebral "bricks and bouquets", regarding this topic. I would especially solicit interesting inputs and insights from the readers of my blog who are (a)domain experts in the few industries covered below, (b) environmentalists, (c)social scientists, (d)economists etc. Of course all the others are also welcome to send in their valuable inputs. Please feel free to add insights about other industries which I might have missed out in this blogpost.

Before I list out points about each of the industries, I would like to put down some scenarios which I believe could exist:-
*Scenario 1: Skills of people working in the "polluting" industry, are not transferable to be used in the "non-polluting" industry which is being touted as an environmentally friendly replacement. However, the existing market demand for products of the "polluting" industry sustains itself for many number of years. This helps in the workforce in the "polluting" industry to gracefully reach retirement during these many number of years.
--> Suggested Action: Non Required, as there will not be a mass unemployment issue

*Scenario 2: Skills of people working in the "polluting" industry, are not transferable to be used in the "non-polluting" industry which is being touted as an environmentally friendly replacement. To compound problems for the folks working in the "polluting" industry, the market for their products also vanishes in no time.
--> Suggested Action: Governments to work closely with industry and intervene timely with proper plans, to ensure that the effected workforce and their families do not suffer due to no fault of theirs.

*Scenario 3: Skills of people working in the "polluting" industry, are transferable to be used in the "non-polluting" industry which is being touted as an environmentally friendly replacement. However, the number of available jobs in the "newer" industry, is much lesser in number.
--> Suggested Action: Ditto, as for Scenario 2 described above.

*Scenario 4: Only certain market segments of the "polluting" industry needs to be "shut down".
--> Suggested Action: Can be easily resolved.

*Scenario 5: Each member of the workforce of "polluting" industry can be promptly transferred to the "new" industry.
--> Suggested Action: Well, what else do you want? It is Utopia! :-).


Having listed the scenarios which I could think of, let us go to some of the concerned industries --

* The Oil and Gas Industry (Upstream activities like oil exploration etc, all the way to cover downstream activities like marketing of petroleum products etc):- The Upstream activities would fall in the "Scenario 1" category. The Downstream activities would come closest to falling in the "Scenario 5" category

*Non-Renewable Energy: Scenario 1 is applicable in this case

*Auto Industry (Vehicles running on petrol, diesel): Again, Scenario 1 is applicable for this industry

*Plastics: Scenario 4 is applicable in this case

*Poultry and livestock: Ditto as for the Plastics industry i.e. Scenario 4

The importance of policy makers taking adequate measures to cover the scenarios described in this blog post, can be realised from the following scenario which occured in a different context (some of you would be aware of it):- Textile units in Bangladesh which employed children as workers, were abrupty shutdown. The result was an even worse future for the kids who lost their jobs. Since the children's families lost an important source of income without any means to replenish the same, most of them were forced to become child prostitutes. This forced the policy makers to implement a solution which was more pragmatic in nature.

Catch you folks later, with a blog post on the legendary "Sales Vs Production" fight :-)