To sink or to clear, that is the question

Hello Sir, We are from the Doobti Nayya boat company and would like to present a revolutionary product to you

Eh...ummm..We are from the Aapki Nayya Paar Laga De boat company and have come to you with a once in a lifetime opportunity

Duh...no...we have just repositioned our name from Doobti Nayya to Aapki Nayya Paar Laga De (the earlier name doesn't look nice, you know!)...we are coming out from a merger/acquisition right this moment

Hi, I had an appointment with you, how can you talk to him...it is already 8:30, come on, talk to me

We can give you any customisation at an extra cost of Rs.0.25 per customisation
We can give you the customisation at Rs.0.15 per customisation
no, Rs.0.25...no, Rs.0.15

I have this boat that is priced at Rs.2.5 and another for Rs.1.5...what, give you both of them for Re.1...umm...Rs.2???...oh...1.5?...ok fine, take it and give me the damn money

This is the prototype that we have developed after working on it for one and a half hours...and yes, we can give you three such finished products in another five minutes!!!

Yes, I did tell you that I will buy the stuff at Rs.4.5 but I can only give you Rs.2.5 for it now...you did not make me sign any contracts, did you?

I am willing to give you 3 boats for a paisa

The only thing that I can say with certainty about the marketing game organized by Dr. Panda in last night's extra class is that it was fun. I am not too sure about the learning, however. I know that I and many others in the class will still behave in the same way, given an opportunity (or rather, the lack of it) to sell something to tough customers with the competitors outnumbering the customers 6:1. It was certainly great to try to sell things by taking down customer expectations, showing prototypes, asking for orders, fulfilling them, and earning money. However, all the greatness vanished in thin air as the time started running out and the sellers literally started to strangle the oh-so-important customers with their products.

Some people did operate professionally but the problem is that when you are in Rome, you have to do as Romans do...and that is where the professionalism and the entire purpose of the exercise lost out. No body was there for the learning...not many teams were actually trying to go by the book (in my opinion, that is how things are in real life, too). Every team was trying to out do the others, out bid the others, do something...anything (giving a warranty of 25 years on a boat...for heaven's sake) to get the money and at least break even.

In Dr. Panda's words, we were also allowed to deviate a little from the pure marketing situation by being able to earn tradesperson's profit...we could rent out the raw materials for building boats. It was really funny listening to people quoting a higher rental for the raw material than its actual listed price. Yes, the night was certainly that...fun...with so many things going on in such a short span of time...sealed bids, open auctions, premium buyers, bankrupt buyers (and that too when I was almost through with my deal...grr), prototype buyers, Central Bank of India (:-)) and so much more.

I just hope that the next exercise that Dr. Panda (or any other faculty, for that matter) conducts for us, gives us some learning about the real stuff so that next time we are in such a game, we can and do learn from our mistakes.

A movie review of Dhoom is over due (as Aditya keeps reminding me every now and then). Life at the beautiful resort has come to a head yet again, with about five submissions due in the next three days. The quizzes are not yet over and the end-terms have arrived...Campus Monitor 24x7 did not adhere to its time line for the first time (out of three :-))...I want to watch another movie...still have to remove the wrapper off the Accounting book and study the damn thing for the end terms, at least...so many episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on the server, I am becoming a fan (an addict???)...