CCC - Car Cleaner Cartel

You don’t have to be an expert in economics to know that the automobile industry in India has grown like crazy in the last decade and more, with the 4-wheeler segment making significant strides in terms of volume. A relatively undocumented offshoot of this is the job opportunities it has created for non-car owners. There are more mechanics, more puncture shops, more drivers and most importantly, a lot of car cleaners.

I first observed this in 2003, when I used to carpool with a friend of mine who lived in a high-rise apartment. There used to be around 50 cars in that complex and my friend pointed me to a guy cleaning one of the cars and told me that he was the watchman; one who took up an additional job that paid him well and was co-located with the place of his main job.

For a long time, I used to be hell bent on cleaning my car on my own, but there was a limit to how long I could procrastinate enjoying laziness (is there an oxymoron somewhere there?).  I too started using the services of the local guys who cleaned cars and this is going on now for a long time.

Most of these guys are actually kids in their late teens and take up this work in the morning, before leaving to school/college. But in the last one year, I have a much older guy doing the job and he was definitely doing a much better job than any of the other guys before. For reasons better known to him, the guy has been absconding from July and though some people have spotted him in the neighbourhood, he hasn’t come back to this car cleaning job.

So, we had to reach out to the local kids and that is when we found out about the existence of a cartel; a Car Cleaning Cartel. Apparently, there is a youngster in his early 20s who scouts our adjoining 5-6 streets and identifies cars that need to be cleaned. He then reaches out to the owners and offers his services and quotes a rate. When the owner checks with his friend in the next building, he pretty much hears the same rate and decides to employ him.

But on the day of the job, this youngster brings along a friend who proceeds to clean the car. And then on, this kid is tagged to this house and car. At the end of the month, the car owner pays this kid his monthly pay and the kid, gives a subscription fee to the youngster who brought him this job! When this kid needs to take a day off, one of his friends, who is also in that youngster’s net, shows up and ensures that the car owner never has to deduct a day’s salary.

This looks and sounds (and probably is) like the way the mafia works. Or how, a monopoly market is created. Anybody who needs to have their car cleaned has to reach out to this cartel. If not, you have to search high and low to find a cleaner and even if you do, on days that person is on leave, you have a dirty car. Not so, if you use the cartel. They ensure that someone always shows up at your doorstep and in matter of 7-8 minutes, leave you with a less dirty car. 

Steve Jobs, Apple and India

Let me clarify up front that this post has been written purely based on whatever limited knowledge I have about Steve Jobs and Apple. And believe me, that knowledge is indeed limited.
There wont be any statistical references anywhere, so if you see some numbers, it is basically a gut feel that I have.
This post is driven more by assumptions than by facts.
But the good news is that, I am willing to publish all comments that help me correct my views, if they are proven to be wrong.
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Unless you are KumbhaKarna or Rip Van Winkle or any other such character, you should know by now that Steve Jobs, may his soul rest in peace, is no longer alive. If you are indeed KK or RVW or aosc, you now know that SJ is no longer alive.

The Iron Man

This has nothing to do with the superhero published by Marvel Comics. Nor does it refer to the great Sardar Vallabhai Patel. I am referring to the ubiquitous laborer found in Indian neighborhoods – the guy who irons our clothes.

When I was probably like 5 or 6, we used to give clothes that needed to be ironed, to a guy named "Ramesh" whose "shop" was a little far away. I have no recollection of the details, but somehow that guy moved out and we started giving our clothes to this other guy near the corner of our street. And for some vague reason, we used to call him "Suresh" for many years. The best part of it was that he never corrected us and it was quite a while before we knew his real name – Vittal.

Vittal was one guy whom I sorely missed during my stay outside India. One can narrate a whole lot of things that people miss while staying outside our country – starting from our family, to the home cooked food, to riding motor cycles etc. – but the one thing I always dreaded was seeing the pile of washed clothes that needed to be ironed, because I suck big time in ironing. I used to spend some 20 minutes on a T-Shirt and yet manage to create more wrinkles then what it picked up in the dryer.

Anyways, Vittal passed away a few years back and his spot was taken over by a young couple. In what was the smoothest transition of business/clients, everyone who was with Vittal was now with his replacement. I still don’t know this guy’s name but at home, we refer to him as "Jerry" and his wife as "Harihara Saasthrigal" since they apparently resemble people with those names, or so think my parents.

Even while Vittal was around, there had been a couple of days when he didn’t turn up due to illness. On those days, we used to seek out other service providers in the neighborhood. But one such guy who runs his business out of the next street, once told my father that he is not into one-off assignments. He was keen on taking up only long-term business. That was our first exposure to the business strategies of these Iron men.

A few months back, Harihara Saasthrigal had approached my parents for some financial help – basically, they are trying to get their kid educated in an "English Medium" school beyond their reach and are obviously struggling to meet the financial requirements there. We were not into that deep a relationship with these folks and we politely refused to heed their request. One thing we did tell them that since they were earning a respectable wage, they shouldn’t spoil their reputation by asking around for money ("gouravamaana thozhil panni sambaathikkireenga, ippadi ellaam kaasu kaekkaadheenga"). Obviously she didn’t take it that well and has been kinda avoiding our house. However, we were still giving our clothes to these folks.

Like most of us do every Deepavali, we procured sweets and savories for our domestic help, the people who deliver the milk packets, the garbage collector etc. and this year too was no different. But on that day, the Iron man and his wife didn’t come to our house like they normally do. We thought that perhaps they’d come the next day, but they didn’t. On the third day, since there was a pile-up of clothes, my father went to the shop and asked Jerry to come home and pick them up. He came after 5 minutes and after giving him the clothes, my parents asked him to wait and collect the Deepavali gift.

The guy very bluntly refused to take it. He said that since we had insulted his wife a few months back, he was not going to accept such gifts from us. He claimed that we had told his wife not to beg and ever since, he didn’t want our business. And it was only because my father always went to his place that he collected our clothes.

A mini scene was getting created and even our domestic help pitched in our support. At the end, the guy took the clothes and delivered them in the evening. It was obvious to us at this point that we had to look for a new Iron man. If this couple were taking a distorted view of what was mentioned, simply because they didn’t get what they wanted, then there is no point in engaging them for our help. Moreover, that woman is also well known in the neighborhood for being a big gossip and we now had to worry about our reputation as well.

Anyways, we now decided to take our business to a guy who was the brother of a lady who used to deliver milk at home. So my father went over to his shop and asked him to pick up clothes from home. This guy and his wife started asking where we lived. My father told him and their next question was "Why are leaving your current Iron man?" My father told him that we’ve had a misunderstanding and want to move on. Pat came the next question "Is that Iron man ok with me picking up your account?". My father said that since we are having a misunderstanding, it shouldn’t matter whether the old Iron man is okay with it or not. But the new Iron man clearly said that he wouldn’t come to our home and pick up the clothes, since it would be like intruding into that Iron man’s territory. So if we had to get this new dude to iron clothes for us, we’d have to bring it to him and pick it up later.

This was obviously not going to work considering the number of clothes that go for ironing. We invariably have some 15 or so in every bundle and lugging it around for 4 or 5 streets isn’t going to work. So, we decided to try another guy closer to our residence. This is the same guy whom I referred to in an earlier paragraph; the same guy who said that he’d do only big business and not one-off requests.

Here too, my father was questioned a couple of times as to whether the Iron man was okay with his business moving. After a couple of repeated clarifications, the wife of the Iron man said that she would come by in a short while and pick up the clothes.

So my father came home and was waiting. But there was no sign of this lady. He was loitering around our balcony when he noticed that the lady was now in the vicinity of the Iron man who had fought with us. There seemed to have been some sort of discussion and my father then observed this lady walk back to her shop.

Some 5-10 minutes later our door bell rang and when my mother opened the door, Harihara Saasthrigal was standing at our door step. Slightly bewildered, my mother asked her why she had come here. This girl then went on apologizing profusely for what she and her husband had said. When we opened the grille gate, she continued her apologies and said that she didn’t tell her husband that we had asked her not to beg. She said that he’d misunderstood what she reported to him and as was his habit, had talked to us in a rough manner.

She went on to request us to ignore the whole episode and continue our business with her. At one point she even fell at my parents’ feet asking for forgiveness. At that point, we had no choice but to forgive her and once again, Jerry and Harihara Saasthrigal are back in Fort Knox’s business.

But the main point to note in the whole episode was how these Iron men seemed to demand a No Objection Certificate from the previous vendor before we selected them as the replacement vendor for providing the ironing service. Perhaps they have an association or guild or an organization of some sort that has passed rules about these things. Otherwise in this day and age, I find it hard to believe that people are actually living by unwritten rules covering business ethics. It is tough to envision a similar approach from big corporate houses!

Politics and corporates

This post may be understood more by the people who work for companies, where there are various internal business units working with each other.

I am trying to draw an analogy of the way the UPA (and similar political alliances) and a typical corporate body function.

Lets take the UPA in India. The main party here is the Congress (I). But it does not have enough number of elected representatives in the Parliament to form the Government on its own.

So, it goes ahead and takes support from other regional parties - DMK being an outstanding example - and forms the Government.

But, the Congress (I) has to share some of the powers with the regional parties, else they would just walk out. But they cant give them too much power, 'coz, that would then leave nothing for the Congress (I).

So what they do is, retain the most critical seats of power within themselves and distribute the seemingly important ones to the members of the alliance. This way, the regional satraps are happy that they get the very visible posts (and hence helping their monetary requirements) and the main party is happy that they still have the REAL posts and the power.

The main thing that drives all these parties is the power and the money that comes along with it. They know full well that if they stay separated from each other, they would still make some money and probably get some fancy post. But, if they want the REAL DEAL, they have to come together.

That's why, even though they may well be united at the centre, they could well be direct competitors at the regional level - e.g.: Congress and Communists at the Centre and in states like Kerala and W.Bengal.

Having said all this, one must understand and accept the undercurrents of ego clashes, desire for power and money that runs through these people on a daily basis. They are together not really for the people. If at all the people benefit, its only a by-product. Their main goal is to keep the "opponents" away from reaping these benefits.

Now, my friends in the field of Software testing, please extrapolate the above example to the way a software company is structured. All companies are primarily oriented towards the Industry verticals as their main business units. The testing departments is almost a service department for these verticals.

So, for any account and project, the drive is still coming from the vertical unit and the testing folk are only "used". We are given fancy posts like Test Managers or Leads or Delivery Anchors. But ultimately, all master decisions are taken only by the heads at the vertical unit. This is the case in all companies.

The testing team does have its exclusive accounts and projects. That's like the regional parties having the main say in the state legislative assembly or the local bodies. When it comes to the centre, they are still only "strategic partners".

I am sure that this analogy can be extended to other businesses as well and I am only quoting from the experience I've had in two software companies.