A QUESTION OF IDEALISM.

It is said that - "if one has to be left with a reasonable amount of idealism by the time one is 50, one had better have it in great doses when one is young." This is said because idealism wear thin with time (especially in Indian conditions).

We always hope / ask that higher educational institutions must ensure that their raw material had idealism in good measure.

BUT, it is also being felt by some that - idealism is costing some bright youngsters their lives.

The murder of IIM-L passout S. Manjunath on November 19, 2005, by oil adulterators in UP. manjunath was belived to be proceeding agianst the owner of Mittal Automobiles in lakhimpur after the outlet was found involved in mass ireegularities in supply of fuel. Also, 2 years ago, Satyendra Dubey an alumnus of IIT Mumbai lost his life for blowing the whistle on corrupt contractors. Does anyone knows what happened to Dubey's murderers, & there may be others like these who fought corruption at the cost of their lives.

Isn't it that our degenerate system protects anyone powerful if the power flows from gun runners existing as politicians.

So, what should we advise to younger generation - that they should stop being idealistic; that they should be pragmatic & play the system; that they can bank on the political connections to go away with murder ... OR DO YOU THINK OTHERWISE!!!

needs can "NOT" be created!!!

We had a debate - "needs can be created", I disagree.

In my opinion there are some needs which are inherent in (almost) all humans, like the need to look good, the need to become faster, stronger, the need of more convenience, the need of love, affection, communication, the need to explore, go places, the need to learn etc.

I strongly believe that products are just made to satisfy these needs. For example - the need to communicate has been satisfied by - sending messengers, having pegions, letters, phone, pagers, mobile & so on - the products keep on changing but the need that they address has always been the same.

Similarly, there are expressed needs & there are unexpressed needs or hidden needs, & what the marketer can do is create products to satisfy the expressed needs & discover & ignite the unexpressed needs, for example - humans have always appreciated music but they were not aware that it can be listened while moving but then Sony invented walkman & the rest is history

One more example is that humans always had the need of capturing life's moments, they made paintings on walls of the caves then one day a company created camera, from then the product has been modified many times to make it easier & better for people to satisfy their need of convenience & capturing life's precious moments & mobile with camera is an extension of company's effort to satisfy the underlying needs of people.

my conclusion is - needs can not be created, they are there inside the humans & marketer's task is to find them convert it into products & satisfy them & constantly improve the products to satisfy them in a better way.

What do you say???