This is my 52nd episode in this publication; a year has passed! When editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta had first asked me to write in his newspaper sometime ago, I was not sure I could carry it consistently. But since I started on October 4, 2009, I haven?t stopped a single week, despite global or domestic travel every week. That?s because bouquets and brickbats from you, dear readers, have kept me consistently exhilarated to write. Sometimes when readers miss the newspaper, they have complained to me and my loving assistant, Rajalakshmi, has immediately sent them the piece. I respect and honour my readers? demands. I am a great lover of consistency, which I have learnt from different experiences in life, such as business, painters, singers, entertainers, among others.
In the business domain, big thoughts applied consistently lead to sustainability and the capacity to endure the market to overcome competition. Brands that are consistent have become sustainable in business over time. An example among others is Nike. From its inception, Nike has shifted its business approach from the language of footwear to another experience of human life, the sporty character that eggs people on to ?Just do it?. In this way, Nike has the power to control the consumer in the footwear market that is highly commoditised.
Somewhere that consistency or coherence is important, for it brings a comfort feeling that is predictability. Picasso changed his painting style so many times in his 92 years of artistic life, but even without his signature there?s always something you can recognise in his paintings that identifies it to be his genius. All-time mime king Marcel Marceau, my very close friend, confided in me that he had to maintain consistency in style through his different performances across time. This way he endorsed his technique to his faithful fans from his young age, mid-life and later career mime shows.
Another outstanding example of consistency is from Colombian singer Shakira with her song Ojos Asi (Eyes like yours). I?ve seen her in at least five different concerts, from MTV Unplugged to shows in Dubai, Amsterdam and others, with different makeup, hair colour and bitsy outfits, very different ambience in stage sets and spectators, but every time her belly dance, performance steps with the mike stand and body movements were always exactly the same. I?ve even used this consistency example in different workshops I?ve conducted for my corporate clients in India and abroad. And invariably all the participants want to better understand how Shakira has achieved sustainability as a star performer by demanding to watch, over and over again, how she?s consistent in her dance!
The city of Paris, my home for the past 36 years, displays sustainability like no other. Under Napoleon III, between 1852 and 1870, Paris was transformed by his pr?fect, Baron Georges-Eug?ne Haussmann. The Haussmann Plan to modernise Paris leveled the narrow, winding medieval streets to create a network of wide avenues and neo-classical fa?ades that still make up much of modern Paris. It encompassed all aspects of urban planning, from regulations imposed on facades of buildings, streets, public parks, sewers, water works, city facilities to public monuments. Disease epidemics ceased, traffic circulation improved, trees were planted. Cleaning up living areas implied better air circulation, provision of water and evacuation of waste. A new water provisioning system led to the construction of 600 km of aqueduct between 1865 and 1900. These aqueducts discharged water in a newly-built city reservoir, the largest in the world. Haussmann?s 19th century urban scenario has up to the 21st century sustained a profound positive influence on the everyday lives of Parisians.
Last week in Greece, I was suddenly sparked with another European example of consistency. ESOMAR, the global research organisation, had invited me to deliver a keynote address to their thousand-peopled Congress in Greece, and I spoke on ?Disrupt to connect to 21st century?s Digital Zappers?. The sharp contrast of this contemporary subject in front of the 5th century BC Acropolis of Athens felt uncanny. I?ve been to Greece so often on work since 1985, but this time, dining with my Greek friends overlooking the ancient Parthenon and watching everybody busy with modern technology mobile phones, the European consistency of carefully sustaining their heritage became very stark. You will not enjoy such unique disparity between the ancient and contemporary times in a young civilisation like the US. The Acropolis and its monuments are universal symbols of the classical spirit and civilisation bequeathed by Greek antiquity to the world.
Consistency maintained very strongly year after year, generation after generation, century after century becomes an icon of symbolic expression. Picasso was consistent over 92 years, but even over short life spans consistency can be momentous. Raphael, the 16th century painter, and 18th century music composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart both died in their 30s, but left magnificent artistic works behind that have become references of classicism that we follow till today.
Sustainability has become a buzzword in the business world to satisfy shareholders from quarter to quarter results. The impact of the last recession has made business houses co-opt this word vigorously, and also use it for being politically correct in the environmental sphere. Sustainability is also related to a community?s quality of life, whether the social, economic and environmental systems that make it up are providing a healthy, productive, meaningful life for all community residents, present and future.
The Devil?s work can also be consistent. By official count, the US has conducted 1,054 nuclear tests between 1945 and 1992, the Soviet Union 715 up to 1990, France 210 nuclear tests up to 1996, UK and China 45 tests each, while India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea around 10 each. The environmental destruction is both short and long-term, triggering landslides, tsunamis, fish poisoning, earthquakes and severe atmospheric pollution. After consistently testing about 2110 nuclear bombs in the last century, the developed countries are now asking for sustainability from the rest of the world. Is it a farce when they meet at world environment summits? Surely the scientists knew the damage all these nuclear tests would cause to our planet, yet for about 50 years they continued their devil-like nuclear programme. Consciously, if we can be positively consistent in whatever we do now to protect the planet, it will result in environmental sustainability for future generations.
You may always require a zone of discomfort at least to stimulate you. Let me try to be consistent for the next 52 weeks.
?Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top managements. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com