Will they come back, When the tide turns?

Everyone know that recession is temporary and is not going to last forever. It’s like a storm through which ships have to sail through. But it seems most of the ships are losing their bearing and getting disoriented. When the storm ends, will they be able reach where they had intended to go.

Employees and Customers are raison d'être for the companies. And there is a risk that in these hard times, myopic companies may loose them both.

Employees: During Oil Embargo, there were mass layoffs from affected oil companies. When the embargo ended, the employees were not willing to join back. They had lost their confidence in the companies.
This can be very well the case with companies today who are laying-off. Will the employees like to return to these companies? And even if they return, will they be as motivated and loyal as before.
Offering pay-cuts instead makes sense, since you provide security to an employee, don’t loose the tacit knowledge base and also create a sort of emotional bond and loyalty in hard times. A caveat though, the pay-cut should be non-discriminatory, i.e. everyone from top to bottom should take the cut.

Customers: Marketing is the first casualty in cost-reduction during recession, which can be justified to some extent. But a company needs to take care that it does not disappear from the minds of the people and when the economy recovers, customers have totally forgotten about the company. Then it will take more effort to gain back the share of customers mind and also the market. It’s critical for companies to preserve their market share at these times. A customer may not buy today, but if remembers you, then he may buy tomorrow.

E-Waste Recycling: A Cash Machine....

As part of our MBA, a team of me and my friends prepared a Business Plan for E-waste Recycling in Madrid. The opportunity is huge in Spain, in fact it is a big market all over the world.
E-waste (computers, laptops, mobiles, printers etc..), constitutes of plastics and many rare earth metals which pollute environment. And surprisingly, 95% of an E-waste can be recycled. A kilo of E-waste has more concentration of gold than what one gets from gold mines.

A large portion of E-waste generated in the world lands up in China and India, where it is processed by unorganised and informal players. According to a survey by IRG systems South Asia, a subsidiary of the IRG, Washington DC, USA, the total waste from electronic and electrical equipment in India has been estimated to be 1,46,180 tonnes per year. Add to this the E-waste shipped from developed nations and the opportunity becomes huge.

While collecting data and crunching numbers, the profitablility became glaring. Its the adoption of the idea that has been slow and many investors are not aware of this emerging sector.