Beware of the "Vulture Culture" gaining ground
In our folklore, there is an adage that says nobody notices a man climbing onto an elephant but for some strange reason everybody sees him falling off. And this was before the age of Youtube!
There is a lot of bad news doing the rounds. This is only natural at times like this as companies struggle to protect their bottom-lines and even stay afloat. But what is not natural is the ‘vulture culture’ that is gaining ground with people beginning to feed off such news to generate even more alarm.
We have to be wary of this. Yes, bad news sells, but extraordinary times demand extraordinary rules. Rather than giving prominence to doomsday forecasters, all of us collectively need to focus in the right direction. And I mean everybody - be it media, analysts, investors, entrepreneurs, employees, government.
This is the time to stay positive. The time to look for the hidden opportunity. And there are quite a few who are doing just that.
As a case in point, let us look at rural India. Many of us still believe that in India the term ‘rural economy’ implies agriculture. Would it surprise you to know that industry and services now constitute around 60% of income generated in rural India? And this share is only rising. Rural India has also traditionally been equated with poverty. Yet today, according to estimation by Omkar Goswani, people belonging to top 20% households in rural areas spend much more than an average urban household.
Looking behind the veneer, these statistics tell us a story of pioneers finding emerging opportunities in the villages of India.
In HCL, we call it ‘blue ocean strategy’ - to look for opportunity where few people have ventured before. We are not the only ones. There are several companies that are still managing to splash bright colours on today’s bleak canvas by posting healthy growth rates.
The fact is that India still promises ‘growth’ and even at the most pessimistic forecast of 5%, it is still higher than the Hindu rate of growth that had plagued the economy for years. In fact, the world is hoping it will lead the world out of its troubles. I was reading an interview with Mr. Suman Bery, Director-General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, in which he likened the present state of the economy to “a kind of step adjustment” between a period of unsustainable boom and another growth period. Unlike those who believe we are in a downward spiral like the rest of the world, respected economists like Mr Bery validate believers like us who are convinced that this is a ‘corrective’ stage; that our fundamentals are strong. We have a large domestic market to support a sound economic base, growing infrastructure, and the necessary policy support.
However, the critical piece in this jigsaw is our attitude, and that is what we have to protect from corrosion, guarding ourselves zealously against the Vulture Culture.