Curious Cat Survives

A movie based on a military base in Guantanimo Bay about the suspected murder of a US marine, might not be the first thing someone recommends to a management student, however, A Few Good Men, is full of lesson on management.

1. Leadership Lessons

The movie A Few Good Men is based in a military setting, as such we see a number of people in leadership positons. Each has a distinct leadership style, but each style is shown to be effective as it helps them achieve their aims.

The first “leader” we tend to remember from A Few Good Men, is of course Col. Nathan R. Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson. Jessup is known for his draconian ways of running the Guantanamo Bay base. He will not tolerate rank insubordination even if someone has a good enough reason for it as we can see from how annoyed he was at the fact that Santiago went above the chain of command when reporting Dawson to the NIS for shooting at the Cuban guard and was not up to doing the tough exercises required at the base.

However, Dawson in many ways seems to be Jessup’s anti thesis. Filled with a sense of honor and pride, Dawson insists on doing his duty well. He seems to inspire a deep sense of respect in Downey. He is also shown to be empathetic to his fellow marines while being respectful to his seniors. It is discovered that Dawson missed out on a promotion after the latter helped out a fellow Marine who had been denied food for several days for stealing liquor from the officers’ mess. Dawson is driven by his sense of honor and believes in doing the right thing. However, for Dawson, doing the right thing often involves following orders without questioning them.

There are leadership lessons to be learnt from both these characters. It is not easy to maintain discipline in the front line. As he declares at the end of the movie, Jessup’s reality is one which we simply can not grasp and often one must resort to dire means. However, Dawson, in spite of his role in Santiago’s death, reminds us of the need to maintain the human touch. While Jessup’s methods including terrorizing people into submission, Dawson inspires Downy to follow him.

• Effectiveness VS Efficiency

One of the key concepts of management is the difference between effectiveness and efficiency.  Effectiveness refer to performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort. While Efficiency refers to  being adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.

In the movie  Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), an inexperienced U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyer, is shown to be effective and efficient at different points of time. Kaffee has always been efficient in resolving court cases quickly through court settlements. But Galloway forces him to be effective, conducting a proper long drawn examination to prove his defendant’s innocence.

Jesser seems to prefer effective means of enforcing discipline to efficient ones. The code red, which orders marines to heckle their colleagues into submission, rather than taking formal disciplinary action against a marine, is all about getting the job done quickly.

 In management we learn that efficiency is always preferred to effectiveness. However, the movie sees the two through ethical lenses, and makes the viewer remember that one must not do what is unethical even if it makes them less effective.

• Moral and Ethical Issues

Few things are black and white in life. While people’s definition of what right and wrong is varies, most people regard murder as something that can not be justified in any scenario. The movie opens with two officers being accused of murdering Santiago, and immediately the audience is made aware that a wrong has been done.

Even though Santiago’s death is always regarded as a violation of human rights in the movie, we get to know Downey and Dawson’s perspective. We come to know that while they were responsible for his death, they are essentially, “good men”. Dawson’s sense of righteousness and Dawney’s simplicity makes the audience forgive them for the unforgivable. Similarly Markinson’s guilt and efforts to take responsibility for Santiago’s death, paints him as a good man in the eyes of the audience.

• Right and Wrong in a Workplace

The complexity of the movie lies in the fact that it shows how essentially good men resolve to what’s unethical in order to manage issues. However, Dawson and Downey’s punishment at the end of the film reminds us that in spite of all our professional pressures, we have a responsibility to stop ourselves from doing so.

Dawson and Downey are found not guilty of murder but are dishonorably discharged for “conduct unbecoming a United States Marine.” Downey is confused, pointing out that Jessup confirmed that they were obeying orders, but, after getting over the initial shock, Dawson points out that they failed to stand up for those too weak to stand up for themselves, like Santiago.

Kaffee too is seen to be resorting to treachery to win the case. He admits to Ross that the Airmen were brought to court as a bluff to make Jessup believe that the defense had evidence of the earlier flight which he covered-up.  However, his unethical measures are to ensure that justice is served and thus ultimately brings about good.

As such the movie has a strong message about what is right and wrong, and harming a fellow human is never shown as being permissible although various perspectives that try to justify it are shown.

• Worker welfare vs Organizational goals

After Santiago reported Dawson to the NIS for shooting at the Cuban guard, Markinson advocated that Santiago be transferred immediately for safety reasons. Santiago was at danger of the other marines taking revenge on him. However Jessup refused on the grounds that this would tarnish the image of the naval base. He also makes a grand show of suggesting that transferring Santiago would mean that every other marine on the base would also have to be transferred. He decides that officers have a responsibility to ensure that all personnel are trained appropriately and that Santiago should stay for “training”. This is a classic case of a worker’s welfare being overlooked in the light of the greater organizational goals.

However, a good manager’s job is to strike a balance between the two. Markinson, who wanted to deal with the situation by transferring Santiago to another base might not have been a perfect solution but it kept both worker welfare and organizational goals in mind since it would get rid of an inefficient cadet while also ensuring he is not harmed.  

The term management encompasses an array of different functions undertaken to accomplish a task successfully. It is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working to gather in groups efficiently accomplish selected aims. Business and management share a symbiotic relation with society and culture. The social, economic and political environment influences management thought.  Management is all about “getting things done” and people have used different approaches and techniques for management at different points of history depending on the needs of the time.

The science of management began with the dawn of civilization. In his thesis, Management through the Lens of Ancient People, Ezgi Yildrim Saatci argues, “About 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, and shortly thereafter in Egypt, the emergence of ruling classes, religion, writing, and cities formed the bases of the civilization with its seeds to the many sciences such as management.”[1] It was in ancient Mesopotamia that the famous Hammurabi’s Code laid out the first rules of management. Hammurabi first established the principle that a manager was responsible for his workers; each act of a laborer or apprentice was considered the act of the contractor itself can be seen in Frederick Taylor‟s most enduring management principle of the 20th century emphasizing “management does the thinking (takes responsibility for the work) while labor carries out the plan (follows orders)”[2].  Similarly Confucius in China and Kautilya in India contributed to the first generation of management thought.

The evolution of management thought can be divided into 5 stages each marked by a major shift in the way people thought about management. While people have been formulating rules on management from the beginning of civilization itself, the industrial revolution gave rise to the first era of management thought in England, the Pre-Scientific Management Period. The second stage was of course the age of the classical theory. The Classical Perspective was replaced by the Neoclassical model which was again replaced by the Beurocratic Model.

• The Pre-Scientific Management Period

The industrial revolution that took place in the 18th century had a significant impact on management as a whole. It changed how businesses, as well as individuals, raised capitals; organize labor and the production of goods. Entrepreneurs had access to all the factors of production such as land, labor, and capital. Theirs was to make an effort to combine these factors to achieve a targeted goal successfully.

However, the new dimension that management took following the industrial revolution cannot be discussed without mentioning notable personalities who contributed their quarter. They were able to introduce useful ideas and approaches to give management a precise and universally acceptable direction. Here are some of them.

Professor Charles Babbage – United Kingdom (1729 – 1871)

Prof Babbage, a renowned professor in mathematics at Cambridge University discovered that manufacturers were relying on guesswork and suggestions and urged them to utilize mathematics and science to be more accurate and productive.

Robert Owens – United Kingdom (1771 – 1858)

Robert was regarded as the father of personnel management because of his approach and focus on employee welfare. He introduced co-operation and trade unions. Robert believed that employee welfare could determine their performance to a large extent. He encouraged the training of workers, education for their children, canteens in the workplace, shorter working hours, among others.

• The Classical Theory

Prof Babbage, Robert Owens, and other names earlier mentioned can be regarded as the pioneers of management. But their contribution to the evolution of management is little. The beginning of what is known as the science of management started in the last decade of the 19th century.[3] Names like Emerson, F.W. Taylor, H.L. Grant, and others, paved the way for the establishment of what is called scientific management.

During the classical period, management thought was focused on job content, standardization, the division of labor, and a scientific approach towards the organization. It also was closely related to the industrial revolution as well as the rise of large-scale enterprises.

• The Neo-Classical Theory

This period of evolution of management thought is an improvement of the classical theory. In other words, it modified and improved upon the classical theory. For instance, Classical theory focused more on the area of job content, including the management of physical resources, while the neo-classical theory gave more profound emphasis on employee relationships in the work environment.[4]

• The Bureaucratic Model

A German Sociologist called Max Weber proposed this model. And it includes a system of rules, division of labor hinged on functional specialization, legal authority, and power, the hierarchy of authority and placement of employees based on their technical competence.[5]

In conclusion, Management is an interdisciplinary and global field that has been developed in parts over the years. Each approach has its benefits and shortcoming. In real life people in managerial roles often make use of a mix of all these approaches depending on the problem at hand and thus a linear study of how management thought evolved over time may prove to be too constricting. One must take into consideration the societal differences between  countries in order to understand how management thought evolved differently in different places around the wold.

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[1] http://www.ijssh.org/papers/377-C00021.pdf

[2] J. Nirenberg, Overcoming Hammurabi’s Curse-The Realpolitik of Building New Organizations, ebook Amazon, 2002

[3] https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-benefits-classical-management-theory-37990.html

[4] https://study.com/academy/lesson/neo-classical-theory-of-management-the-human-relations-approach.html

[5] https://smallbusiness.chron.com/bureaucratic-model-66119.html

Some movies are made to pick your brains and Syriana is one of them. With multiple interwoven narratives, each laying bare a different aspect of the political manipulation that makes up what scholars like to call international relations, the viewer is left overwhelmed and disillusioned.

The central plot of the movie involves a merger between two of US’s oil companies, boring? Well, wait till you get this, this merger is US’s golden ticket to the middle east and I don’t just mean into their oil reserves. One of the companies Killen has already gained access to Kazakhstan’s oil. But to control the middle east, Connex Oil needs to pair up with, to create an oil giant that earns more than China’s GDP.

However, control does not come that easily, the US needs to compete with China to get Lebanon to sign the deal. China has a much better deal to offer and the heir to Lebanon’s throne favours the highest bidder.

As an Indian, I couldn’t help but wonder what India’s role was in this international game of king making. The movie briefly mentions how the US considers India its ally. Looking back at the real world, it seems extremely likely that India might have supported the USA since India had rough relations with China and as the adage goes an enemy’s enemy is your friend.

The movie is purely fictional yet the economic competition between the US and China, and the extent to which the US is willing to go for control over oil is not too far off. And this brings us to another major plot point of the movie, the story of Bob Barnes, George Clooney’s character.

CIA agent Bob Barnes is sent to Beirut to kill Prince Nasir after he begins writing memoirs about a nuclear missile being stolen from Tehran. Bob suspects Iranian involvement in the nuclear missile’s disappearance but is unable to see the CIA’s efforts to cover up what happened. However, after the mission fails he comes back to the US a suspect. USA claims Bob had been acting independently and is investigated by the CIA.

Former CIA officer Robert Baer, on whom Bob’s Character is based said “In 1995 I was brought up on charges of attempting to kill Saddam Hussein. I was told not to have a lawyer, and I was–at the end of it, the FBI told me this was a capital crime and they could have brought charges against me had they wanted to. They chose not to.”

The USA finally assassinate the Pro-China-deal Prince Nasser with the help of a remotely controlled drone weapon, making way for his way less capable pro-US brother to come to power. It is no secret that the US interferes in the internal politics of smaller nations when it suits its interest.

The prince’s assassination in the movie seems to be a reference to the US’s support of Muhammad Sha Reza’s coup to overthrow the monarchy in Iran, which made Reza USA’s puppet monarch in Iran. It was, in fact, US interference that began a tyrannical rule in Iran, under Reza, that triggered the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Wasim’s story shows us another aspect of this international game of manipulation. Wasim is a Pakistani immigrant who worked at the Connex refinery. He finds himself unemployed as the company hires Chinese labourers overnight. To become more employable by learning Arabic, Wasim joins an Akhara which radicalizes him.

Immigration is often linked to terrorism. However, people often forget the terrible conditions immigrants have to put up with. Syriana shows the overcrowded bunkers the labourers live in, the mistreatment in the hands of the police and the complete lack of job security in their lives which put these workers in a vulnerable position, effectively delivering them into the hands of radical extremist “liberators”. The movie shows how an innocent, rather responsible teenager is brainwashed into blowing up a US ship with the very missile that went missing at the beginning of the movie.

The US being attacked by weapons they created? Seems to ring a bell doesn’t it? Well, that is exactly what happened with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The USA funded the Mujaheddin (later to be known as the Taliban) to ward of Russians, and Hussein to fight the Iranians, basically funding the very terrorists the US would later declare war on. While it isn’t made clear that the US provided arms to the Egyptian in possession of the weapon, CIA sure did seem upset about Bob wanting to get to the root of the issue.

But where is Syriana? The answer is nowhere. Syriana is an imaginary world. It is the American Neo-Colnizer’s utopia, a land in the middle east economically, socially and politically shaped to serve the interest of the US. It is Syriana that all the characters in the film seem to be after. Even the well-meaning American energy analyst turned economic adviser Woodland who wants Lebanon to be rebuilt to fit the western idea of a progressive state and the Imam who wants to rebuild it according to his extremist religious ideology.

Sales is all about making your customer believe he needs the product you are selling. Thus most people agree that, by definition, sales requires a certain degree of manipulation on the part of the salesman. This manipulation can be of a dangerous kind where one convinces the customer to spend millions on a scam or of a harmless kind where one convinces a customer to buy 1kg of sugar instead of 500gm. Whatever may be the case, being in the profession means being in a constant tussle with your conscience, especially for new comers. The movie Rocket Singh explores this conflict better than any Bollywood movie ever has.

Anyone who has a phone knows how annoying sales calls are. Imagine being the person making those calls. All those abuses and customers hanging up even before you get to make your pitch. In a country where business men are considered evil manipulators, facing the backlash is merely part of a salesman’s job description. This creates immense psychological and social pressures for salesmen. Harpreet Singh Singh Bedi aka Rocket Singh has to come to terms with this pretty early on in the movie. Harpreet is taken aback by the rudeness with which his first call is received as a woman shouts at him for disturbing her. However, Harpreet’s colleague is quick to point out “Disturb karne se phat te hai? Sales man kaise banega?” (How will you become a salesman if you don’t want to disturb people?).

As an introvert, the movie taught me how important it is for a salesperson to get over one’s shyness and ask for help. The very reason Harpreet’s computer business did not work out was his hesitation to go forth and ask “sir can you help me?”. This might place a salesman under immense psychological pressure, especially since they are used to asking “sir, may I help you?”.

In the movie, Harpreet is faced with a moral challenge in his very first sales call. He is asked for a bribe to sell his product. He has to make a choice between doing the right thing and taking the easy way out. However, doing the right thing proves to be far from rewarding. Sindh launches a complaint with his company only to be publicly humiliated in return. Harpreet’s company has been bribing its clients to drive up sales numbers. Not only do the unethical methods adopted by certain sales agencies put its workers in an ethical dilemma, it also reflects the intense pressure on the company to meet the target numbers.

In the movie Harpreet manages to keep his moral high ground by setting up his own company Rocket Corporation. His company focuses on ethically serving the customer instead of focusing on numbers. While most promising young sales men do not find themselves in this ideal a situation, the movie reminds us all that sales is ultimately about building relationships and the best way to build a relationship is by gaining someone’s trust.

Positive Impacts:

1. Information in Power

The main difference between buying items online and offline is the amount of information you get. E commerce has made me a much more informed buyer since I now base my purchase decisions on specifications and reviews provided online instead of how influential a salesman at a mall is.

• Compare, Compare, Compare

There are so many options available online, with no pressure to buy the item before the mall closes or we have to leave, I can take my time to compare the products and find the best one.

• Do Not Settle

Online shopping appeals to me as I no longer have to settle for a product I only half like because that seems to be the best option available. With so many options available online, you are sure to find something you like.

• At the Touch of a Button

Online shopping takes away the unpleasantness of having to wait in long queues from shopping. Items can be bought at a touch of a button and delivered at your doorstep. For an incredibly lazy person like me, this means I am actually motivated to purchase some of the monthly groceries I need instead of surviving on junk food.

• Easy to Follow

Online shopping makes it easier to track orders and deliveries. This makes buying white goods online a better option than buying them offline.

Negative impacts:

1. Impulse Buy

The ease of buying things online from the comfort of your home makes it very easy to purchase things on an impulse. I have recently been tempted to buy a set of flamingo shaped fairy lights, a toaster that burns part of the bread to add a floral design, and a set of post its which look like salami slices. Needless to say I have absolutely no use for any of them.

• Buying Products when Unsure of Quality

While buying clothes online, it is hard to be sure of the quality of the product. Most clothes don’t look half as good in real life. Last time my friend bought a ghagra from Club Factory, the material was flimsy and it looked nothing like the picture online.

• Misplaced orders

Amazon is notorious for mixing up products. If you want something for an occasion order it at least two months in advance to give them time to get it right.  

• Communication Problems

Once a site mixes up your order get ready for a never-ending series of miscommunications as you try to explain what exactly went wrong.

• No direct contact between buyer and seller

Sellers have traditionally had to build up relationships with their customers over the years gaining their trust. However, in the age of e-commerce this social aspect of marketing is fading away. As a consumer, I no longer view making a purchase a social activity the way my grandmother’s generation did. For me it is a simple matter of who offers the best deal.

When asked what they want while buying a product most consumers reply they want value for money. For most consumers this means products that give them higher benefits at lower prices. Yet, the same consumers tend to avoid cheaper products. This is because the consumers perceives these products to be of a lower quality and prefer to buy slightly more expensive products which they believe are of a better quality. Thus how a consumer perceives a product is the most important factor when it comes to whether the product will sell.

We as consumers too have our own ideas of what value for money is. I have tried to show my perception of the products I see around me every day in the form of a grid.

	Low Benefit	Same Benefit	High Benefit
High Price	I-pod	i-phone	Airline services
Same Price	Lays	Colgate	Pg accommodation
Low Price	Local trains	Xiaomi	Jio

• I-pods are expensive, however, in the era of smartphones, a device that only stores music is not of much use. Thus I believe ipods belong to the high price low benefit category of products.

• I-phones too are pretty expensive, most Apple supporters buy iphones due to the quality of their cameras, voice recorder and display. However, Xiaomi Poco has the same features at a much lower price.  Thus according to me iphones belong to the high price same benefit category of products.

• Airline tickets from Bangalore to Kolkata are twice as expensive as Railway tickets. However, a flight saves a considerable amount of time. While a train journey takes over 2 days, a flight takes 5 hours. Since time is money, Airline services belong to the high price high benefit category for me.

• Lays is notorious for selling chips packets with almost no chips. However, almost all chips brands have similar prices. Thus buying any other brand would be more cost effective since the consumer would get more chips for the same price. Thus I categorize Lays chips as a same price low benefit product.

•  Colgate and Pepsodent are sold at about the same price and both of them have the same benefits. Thus I place both these products in the same price same benefit category.

• PG accommodation comes is almost as expensive as renting a one room apartment in Bangalore. However, PG accommodation comes with food as well as services such as room cleaning and laundry. Thus PG accommodation is a same price high benefit product for me. However, some people prefer the privacy of their own apartment. In this case the perception of the product changes and PGs seem to be same price low benefit products to those who prize their privacy.

• Platform tickets for local trains are substantially cheaper than chair car tickets from Chennai to Bangalore. However, local trains are usually overcrowded and there is usually no place to sit. Thus I believe local trains to be low benefit, low price products.

• Xiaomi phones come at low prices yet have the same benefits as phones that have much higher prices. Thus they belong to the same benefit low price group of products.

• Jio prepaid plans come at low prices and have higher benefits than its competitors such as Vodafone. For example, Jio allows unlimited internet use for its customers. Thus it falls into the low price high benefit product category.

Growing up in a humble middle class family in Kolkata, I have always been taught to be weary of technology. The dangers of sharing information online were explained to me over and over again throughout my childhood. However, today I find myself using e commerce and m commerce just as much as the next person, and so do my parents. As mobiles became indispensable, and e commerce sites became more accessible, even the weariest consumers had an urge to “just try it out once” and ultimately got hooked to online shopping. My story is pretty similar.

It all started one day when I was alone at home with nothing to eat, my parents had gone out and I could not leave the house to go get something. After much apprehension, I downloaded the Swiggy app and ordered a plate of steamed momos for myself. To my surprise, the delivery man did not turn up at my doorstep with a gun in his hand, neither did the food go missing. My initial act of bravery soon convinced me that e commerce wasn’t the evil I had begun to believe it was and in no time I started doing most of my shopping online.

Fast forward a few years and I am in Singapore. My friends and I are hooked on to a C to C platform known as Carousel. We sell our clothes, makeup and accessories, in order to be able to afford the latest trends. We turn up in college without our laptops and phones, we sold them to save up for that remote controlled unicycle. One of my friends try to rent out his room on Carousel for some extra cash, his parents aren’t too happy with that.

E commerce makes purchasing items a simple matter of clicking a button and it is easy to get carried away. However, once I learnt to resist the temptation of impulse buys E commerce and M commerce have affected my social life in ways I never thought it would. As a child, inviting people over to my place meant a great amount of planning, we had to decide what snacks to get for them, what dinner to prepare keeping in mind their likes and dislikes. Now, as a 22 year old living in Bangalore, I find myself inviting my friends and relatives over for get-togethers without even giving the matter a second thought. All I have to do is book them an Ola or an Uber to my place and we can decide on what food we order on swiggy later.

For a typical sentimental Indian like me, the best thing about e commerce is that it allows me to send people I care about gifts from time to time. After moving to Bangalore, I have often felt guilty about not being there on my mother’s birthday or not being there to comfort my best friend when she’s having a bad day. While traditional gift stores would laugh at me for trying to get a Rs 20 chocolate or a single muffin delivered to my mother’s place, Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo and Amazon don’t seem to mind.

Of course from a more logical point of view, the wonder of e commerce lies in the amount of information it has made available to people. It is almost impossible to over-charge a consumer for a product since the first thing they do is check the prices online. Thus e commerce as a whole has made life easier for most of us.

Airlines:

Fashion and Retail

FMCG Goods

Banking and Finance

Products which we can’t do without today might become obsolete tomorrow. In fact, all products have what is called a product lifecycle. A new product will go through five stages before its lifecycle comes to an end, Development, Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. In this article I will attempt to look at products we use in our daily life and analyze which stage of the life cycle each product is at.

Development- Though products that are being developed are not usually sold to the public, there are times when we might use such products. For example, an app developer might allow a limited number of people to try out a product before the app is launched. At this stage costs are high even though there are no sales. This is because the research and development costs are highest at this stage.

Introduction- At this stage products have just been introduced in the market. These products are heavily advertised and the costs are higher than revenues. One example of such a product is the Aisle, the dating app which is being heavily advertised on digital platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Few people know about these products and the products and thus sales are relatively low. While Etsy is a popular platform for independent creators in the US, few people know about it in India where it is just being launched. Thus in India, Etsy too is at the Introduction stage.

Growth- At this stage companies experience fast growth as their market share increases exponentially. Profits increase too till the product hits its peak. Paytm is a service that is at this stage of its life cycle. A few years ago no one trusted mobile banking, however today all most all small shops and corner stores use paytm in India. Another example is Dunzo an app that provides delivery services in Bengaluru, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Chennai and Mumbai.

Maturity- The apps Uber and Ola are at this stage. According to a recent Economic times article, daily rides have inched up a mere 4% in the past six months. These products have been in the market for quite some time and gained a large proportion of the market share. However, now the growth rate is reaching a plateau period. Products at this stage remain profitable and thus a company must make most of its product at this stage before it hits the decline stage.

Decline- At this stage, the market share of a product start decreasing. This could either be because everyone who could potentially buy a product has already become saturated or because consumers are switching to another alternative. Facebook and Twitter are at this stage of their life cycle.

What stage of its life cycle a product is at does not determine how long it has been around. How long a product takes to go though each stage is determined by the nature of the product.

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an end and all product life cycles (PLC) have five stages development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. However, some products seem to defy this concept, they have been around forever. Think of the timeless Levis Jeans. Well, these products are not as immortal as they might seem and no, they do not defy the concept of product life cycles. Some PLCs (like some infinities) are simply bigger than others.

There are mainly three kinds of PLC curves style, fashion, and fad. Products with style PLCs have the longest life cycles, these products seem to be around forever. In fact even when they do go out of fashion they are revived after a while. This is because style is a basic and distinctive mode of expression. A style can last for generations and can go in and out of vogue. Some examples of such product are t shirts and Jeans. People usually do not think much before investing in such an item if the cost of the product is relatively low. Items such as these are not likely to go out of style as long as the product lasts. Everyone has owned at least some of these products at some point of their life.

However, there is another category of timeless products which includes BMW cars and Harley Davidson bikes. While these products are not likely to get obsolete any time soon, consumers view them as a onetime investment and there is considerable decision making involved in the purchase of such a product.

Products under the fashion category have a relatively longer life cycle, while style is timeless, fashion is popular for particular period of time and has more social, political and economic influence. A product in takes a considerable amount of time to become a part of the fashion of the time. A product in fashion becomes obsolete after its life cycle has been lived out unlike products in style. For example, corsets which were a part of Victorian fashion have today become a symbol of society’s oppression of women. Another example of a product in fashion is an economic cooker which was popular around 1970s but very few people in gen-y know about. These products become so imbedded in the culture, it is often difficult to imagine life without them. For example, a Victorian woman would have seen a corset at a necessity and not a fashion accessory. As such there is little to no decision making involved when buying such a product.

The fads however are short lived but catch on like fire. These products do not satisfy a strong need and thus merely appeal to a small section of people who are looking for something new and exciting to buy. These products are usually bought by young people. Examples of fads are games like Angry Birds and Pac-Man, and products like Gold face masks, waterproof ziplocks for phones, and t shirts with quotes from a new film. People usually buy these products on an impulse and there is next to no decision making involved. However, fads are often confused as fashion by consumers and not following a fad could lead to being ostracized in society.

As such, the best way to discern how long a product will be around is to look at how a consumer decides to buy it. If the consumer is able to give a reason for wanting a product it is less likely to be a fad, if the consumer believes that the product is necessary to function in society, the product is likely to be in fashion and will have a relatively longer lifespan. However, for an item to become part of our style, it must meet the need of humanity and not just the need of an age, it must constantly upgrade itself to keep up with fashion and make sure it does not focus on unnecessary features which will only interest consumers for a short period of time.