Mr. Vijay Athreye, 15.03.2006
AVP & National Head Rural & Social, Tata AIG
Challenge and Fresh Fish
As soon as I saw the notice say ‘Microinsurance’, I had geared myself up for a talk loaded with technical details and concepts regarding the 4P’s etc. The colloquium turned out to be very different from what I expected.
Did you know that some villagers end up paying as much as 400% as interest on loans? Sounds crazy? Well, I wish it was! “Farmers often drown in debt,” Mr,Athreye told us. Insurance pops in to prevent this debt from being handed down over many generations, like it is in many a rural family. Before TATA AIG (Mr. Athreye works in the organization) entered microinsurance, LIC was dominating the scene. They brought in products that were pure-risk products. Premiums were made as small as Rs.140 per annum. The agents are women in these rural areas, (ingenious, since Rs.600-800 per month is a neat supplementary income for them). Marketing a concept like Insurance in rural areas is definitely a challenge. One requires a minimum education level to even understand the Ads. Such ventures require one to think out of the box: and if you’re the one in the hot seat, ‘that’s when each of you will figure out that there are quite a few things they don’t teach you in MBA’, said the wise Mr.Athreye.
As he promised right at the start of the talk, he covered some points he felt were some things any fresh (post)graduate should keep in mind before he steps out into the corporate world. The first lesson came through to us pretty straight. It showed us that most of our responses were so conditioned; we may fail to see the real situation. So now, let’s try it on you readers: What do see in the sentence that follows in quotes ‘Once upon a a time?’ How many of you noticed that the article ‘a’ is repeated twice in the sentence? 80% of the students missed it.
A marvelous story followed, about an incident during Mr. Athreye’s time in Deccan Aviation: it was about a monk named Swami Kaleshwar and (The) John Gray: author of ‘Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.’ The author had so much faith in the powers of the monk from Andhra Pradesh, that he actually hired a helicopter to take him from his home to Vizag, at the cost of Rs.7 lakhs! Now what the consultants who wrote their project proposal didn’t mention was that besides politicians, movie producers and mining projects, Swamijis would generate them enough revenue to suffice three months’ break-even. How can one perceive that unless you have a mind-frame that accepts the unexpected, even?
I end with the story that has formed the title of this article: When Japanese fishermen were trying to find a solution to the continuing complaints from customers about the ‘freshness’ of the fresh fish, they first went in for the most obvious solution: cold storages right at the dock, even on board the ship; when this was found wanting they created a pond to put the fresh catch in. However, fish out of their natural environment were sluggish and lost their characteristic vitality. Now how do you solve the problem that fish looked ‘bored’ and hence, much unlike ‘fresh’ fish…….? Solution: Put a small shark in the pond.
Nothing like a challenge to perk things up a bit!
This colloquium was truly unique in content and the style of delivery. Mr.Athreye spoke in a manner that took us along with him. Instead of meting out concepts for us to retain, he was insightful in choosing some points that we can carry with us for many years to come.
Rajeswari Mani
1st MBA
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