Episode # 28: Cola 1 :: Tea 0
Damn! They spend millions in advertising and nobody seems to care. And, now, suddenly they breed a few bacteria in their products and the country sits up to take notice! Well, I don’t know whether advertising helps increase sales, but, negative publicity can sure hinder sales! Pepsi and Coke, the notorious giants are in the News again.
In this episode we have mentioned a few statistics from the CSE reports and a few other blogs. It wasn’t hard to conclude that it is far safer to have a glass of pepsi that to have a cup of tea!
We enter the 60th year of independence! Aditya rattles off interesting bits of trivia about the country. I play the devil’s advocate.
Tell us what you think.
Episode Notes:
- Cola Con: A highly opinionated Article
- Gurcharan Das, the former Vice President and Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide seems to agree with us on the cola issue! Or is it vice versa?
- Indra Nooyi in elite company, is only the 11th woman to head a Fortune 500 Co. - Pepsi Co!
- Hindustan Times Special coverage on i-day
Yours Internetally,
Abhishek
P.S : Intro & concluding music provided by Alms for Shanti
Listen Online (64 kbps) :/Episode length : 18 mins
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I don’t know about the other companies/organizations, but the “36% of scientists at NASA” I think is very inaccurate. That figure has been around for a while - I have no idea how it got started but I’m pretty sure it’s much, much lower - probably less than 10%.
Great show though! thanks!
Comment by Shalin — August 20, 2006 @ 4:18 pm
Hey Shalin! Thanks for the info! Every other source of information about the stats that we discussed about NASA fades in comparison to your claim. (For starters, Shalin works with NASA)
Comment by Abhishek — August 20, 2006 @ 4:34 pm
I would advice CSE first to test the samples of corporation water. If we can tolerate municipal water, why not Coke and Pepsi!
I think it’s of money and publicity….nothing else.
Comment by shashi — August 22, 2006 @ 11:51 am
Hi Guys -
Great podcast! I really enjoy listening from the Boston area! Great work!
Just found this: http://www.littleindia.com/news/142/ARTICLE/1082/2006-04-12.html
I have to say, I think the numbers change regularly, and given the touchy subject of Indian professional talent in the technology arena, it can be difficult to get accurate numbers from a reliable source.
As for the cola drama, I think it’s an example of local cultures asserting their local autonomy over “outside” concerns (even if Pepsi is now headed by an Indian woman - congrats to her!) which appear to encroach upon their standards and compromise them. It’s one thing, for local folks to have pesticides in their products — it’s another for a multinational concern to do so. At a local level, I think there’s a sense that something might be able to be done. Producers of foods with pesticide residues in them can be approached by local governance and required to abide by certain standards (assuming a perfect world free of favoritism or preferential turning a blind eye, of course). But with multinational corporations, like Coke and Pepsi, there’s a sense of local disempowerment that adds to the furor, no matter what the relative percentage of pesticices in cola vs. eggs/milk/local produce. Transnational trade agreemens like GATT and NAFTA favor multinationals over local governments, and allow them to sue if local policies prevent them taking profit. (This is a gross oversimplification, of course, but that’s the bottom line). For Coke/Pepsi/whoever is from Somewhere Else to show up with product that appears to threaten local health, raises a flag that has a lot of subconscious undertones that are very much part and parcel of our increasingly interconnected world.
It’s as much an issue of local control and autonomy as it is a health issue. And it ties in with globalization’s spread. I think that explains at least some of the seemingly disproportional uproar over Pepsi/Coke.
Comment by Kay Stoner — August 23, 2006 @ 7:31 pm
jo bhi tum loog kahey…!!
im still gonna drink my tea and cola!!
Comment by omar sheikh — August 23, 2006 @ 10:00 pm
Kay Stoner: Thanks for the link! That was quite an article! I bet the Indians have a hard time walking on the streets of America! With most of the American jobs “Bangalored”, the last thing the Americans would want is we walking their streets. And the statistics of illegal immigration do not help the cause either!!!
On the Pepsi/Coke pesticide front, you have said it all - “It’s as much an issue of local control and autonomy as it is a health issue.”
I hope Coke will come out with its legandry phrase, “Happy Days are here again.” soon. But, this time they’ll keep their fingers crossed!
I browsed through your website. And I am sure you and plagiarism don’t go down well together. I loved the title of your book! We have an episode on Plagiasirm as well. Check it out. You may have a few comments on it!
Omar: I’m with you! As I write this, I am sipping chai!
Comment by Abhishek — August 24, 2006 @ 8:20 am
Kay : you are really going after Kavya huh!!! you can find her back at Harvad now.. she works as a counsellor so she is not that far. May be you can just go over ask her to review your book.
Omar : Long time mann… good to see you. Have you tried Redbull, Caffeine + Cola = Gooooodddd
Comment by Aditya — August 24, 2006 @ 9:59 am
Hey guys - I actually found you through your “Kaavya-Cast”. There was all this hullabaloo going on about her for a while, and she really got reamed in the US press… I think it was unfair and a little hypocritical of a lot of “outraged” people. Since I’m writing a book about how her story “segue-ways” with India-related globalization issues, I thought it would be wise to see what folks in India are/were saying about her and the situation. So, I’m glad I found your podcast! Great insight. And I’ve kept listening for other reasons, too. I don’t follow Sachin enough to know, one way or the other, if I agree with you
Actually, it’s not a personal thing with Kaavya — it’s much bigger than that, and her story has an almost mythical quality to it, in the cultural context of the American Dream (if you know where to look). I did try contacting her via e-mail at a couple of different addresses, but I haven’t heard back from her. I hope I do! Maybe I’ll drive over to Harvard and give her a copy of the book.
There were actually a whole lot of things going on in the States behind the scenes during the Kaavya situation that are tied in to a larger picture of this country. Globalization/offshoring ties in with it, as well — and all those unreported stories you mentioned in one of your prior podcasts about Indian companies getting fired from their contracts.
It really such a great story we see unfolding around us, at this point in history, if you can put personal feelings aside and look at it from a 10,000-foot view. Of course, that’s very difficult, when people’s survival is at stake. Nobody’s talking much about the truth behind the truth and experiences behind India outsourcing — but here’s a tip for a future podcast — http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=BWK&Date=20060801&ID=5912591
Again, thanks for your work, and keep up the great podcasts!
Kay
Comment by Kay Stoner — August 24, 2006 @ 7:32 pm
Hey Abhishek -
Well, as long as Indians walking American streets are paying American taxes and buying American goods and services, it’s not so terrible. The offshoring has people nervous, tho’.
You’d be surprised how American IT folks feel about Indians. I’ve always worked with Indians as long as I’ve been a software engineer (10 years) There are three Indian folks in the adjoining cubicles to me, right now. And there’s a Pakistani gal across the room. I’ve grew up across the street from two Indian families who spoke mostly Hindi, and my mom used to buy her bags of basmati rice from the Indian store on the main intersection in our town.
Sure, people get “Bangalored”, but that kind of thing happens here every decade. In the 70’s it was auto manufacturing going to Japan, in the 80’s it was textiles going to Asia, in the 90’s it was… well, the 90’s were somewhat uneventful in this respect, what with the good times of the Clinton Administration. Now, we’re back to the global movement of jobs. Guess folks will just need to be clever and figure out where they fit in best in the global economy. I did it, and others can too. No excuses for not being prepared!
Anyway, a lot of the India techies have plenty in common with American techies — we’re a “geek nation” that transcends global boundaries, with our own languages, our own logic, our own “power structure”, so it’s not just a simple case of “our” jobs going to “your” country. After all, we built out the internet, so people can interact with each other from far distances. And I get to listen to this podcast.
It’s not all bad. Complicated, sure, but not all bad.
Cheers
Kay
Comment by Kay Stoner — August 24, 2006 @ 8:01 pm
What do these statistics mean? Nothing. We are all just human beings, the word “Indian” doesn’t mean anything, we are all Indians, and we are all not Indians, we all have the same human heart.
I cant understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
-Depeche Mode, People are People, 1982
Comment by Joe Palos — August 25, 2006 @ 4:38 pm
Joe: deep mannnn
Comment by Aditya — August 25, 2006 @ 5:48 pm
Kay: I like your attitude. But, I hope there are others who share your views! Infact one of the articles in the Mckinsey Quarterly states that outsourcing is good for America.
1) For every dollar of corporate spending outsourced to India, the US economy captures more than three-quarters of the benefit and gains as much as $1.14 in return. Far from being a zero-sum game, offshoring creates mutual economic benefit.
2) True, some US workers will lose their jobs, but this painful reality doesn’t weaken the case for free trade.
3) For every dollar of corporate spending that moves offshore, US companies save 58 cents, and the quality of the services they buy is often higher
4) A technician in India , for instance, can read a magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI) scan for a fraction of what it would cost in the United States . Transferring that position to India might cause a US medical technician to be laid off, but lower prices for life-saving technologies mean that more sick people can receive them.
5) Indian companies that provide offshore services also buy goods and services ranging from computers and telecommunications equipment to legal, financial, and marketing expertise. Often, they buy these from US companies. A call center in Bangalore , for instance, could use HP computers, Microsoft software, and telephones from Lucent Technologies, and it may be audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Thanks to such corporate and individual buyers, exports from the United States to India stood at $5 billion in 2003, compared with $3.7 billion in 2000; they rose by 22 percent from 2002 to 2003 alone.
6) Kay, you have rightly mentioned about the 1970’s scenerio. US manufacturing employment shrank by 2 million jobs over 20 years—but net employment increased by 43 million jobs in other areas, such as educational and health services, professional and business services, trade and transport, government, leisure and hospitality, and financial services. Over the same period, manufacturing output increased despite the decline in the number of manufacturing workers, because factories became more productive. Higher productivity means a higher national income and a higher standard of living.
7) The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 22 million new US jobs, mostly in business services, health care, social services, transportation, and communications, will be created in the period from 2000 to 2010.
8) According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has the highest rate of reemployment of any OECD country by a factor of almost two. Over the past ten years, 35 million new jobs have been created, and, according to the OECD, job growth was fastest in high-wage occupations.
9) Consider the way the US semiconductor industry reinvented itself after losing out to Japanese competitors, in the late 1980s. The Japanese quickly dominated many segments, including memory chips, and spurred a public outcry over unfair competition and the loss of high-paying white-collar US jobs. The big US players—Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments—abandoned the dynamic-random-access-memory (DRAM) business. But this exit prompted them to invest more heavily in the production of microprocessors and logic products—the next growth wave in semiconductors. Intel and Texas Instruments became the significant global forces in microprocessors and digital-signal processors (the “brain” in mobile telephones), respectively. Motorola gained a strong position in microcontrollers and automotive semiconductors. Throughout this shift toward higher-value-added activities, the total number of US jobs in semiconductors and closely related electronics fields held constant, at around half a million.
Phew.. doesn’t that say it all?
Your comment made me reseach a bit and I learned a lot from the googling that ensued!
Good Luck with your book! Would love to read it!
Comment by Abhishek — August 29, 2006 @ 7:39 am
Thanks for the stats, Abhishek - very interesting and helpful.
I think one thing folks have to keep in mind, is just how dynamic the American economy and the American people can be. Sometimes we’re at our best when things appear to be at their “worst”, so we all just need to keep hanging in there, learn our lessons, and do the best we can with what we have.
We all also need to pay close attention not only to price and cost savings, but to quality, as well, and build our success and progress qualitatively, as well as quantitatively, to the global economy. A lack of self-criticism on either side of the oceans just holds us back in what should (and can!) be a very dynamic and progressive industry.
Folks may want to pay a visit to http://blog.a2xconsulting.com/ to join in a global discussion on the ups and downs of offshoring.
Lots of great food for thought!
My book will be out in another week. You’ll be able to buy it online via a link at www.kaystoner.com. You can pre-order a signed copy now, in fact. Check out the site for updates.
Comment by Kay Stoner — August 29, 2006 @ 3:36 pm