Agile in India – 2 – Exit Barriers

We the Indians have this unabated trust we develop for few brands and we find it very difficult to change.   My dad who passed away last year,  never bought anything other than a "BATA"  footwear.    That is what he has been buying and knows what to expect.  It was out of his system to try another one.   If you think I could be anymore adventurous than my dad, think again.  I drove Honda Accord during my stint in US.    That’s because most other Indians around me were driving that.  I now drive Hyundai Santro in India.

Either sticking to what we have been doing or following the crowd around us, we the Indians are not too good at taking "risk".    Be it  BATA,  Honda Accord or CMM, once we start living with, we will not want to move away.  (In lighter vein, may be that’s why our divorce rate is so low )

We are okay walking along with the crowd, even if it is delaying us.  We feel that is better than  taking the risk of trying a new path.

Here is an  article in Hindu Business that talked in lay man terms about  brand loyalty and commitment.   Besides our inherent nature of going with the crowd, this article talked about exit barriers of moving away from brands.   Case discussed here is about  the difficulty of letting to go the mobile number.

"…..Because if they change their service providers, their numbers would also change and that could mean that someone somewhere would not be able to get in touch with them.

Let us then look beyond satisfaction. The fact that the number will change serves as an exit barrier. So it would appear that the presence of a strong exit barrier increases commitment.

However, it can be argued by many people (including me!), that the exit barrier has increased only behavioural loyalty and not emotional commitment. In fact, the frustration at being unable to change the brand may actually reduce the commitment felt to it…."

Coming to Indian IT industry, it is easy to understand that they hardly had to endure any major cultural shift so far.  They may have moved from one certification to other.    But the basics of Indian s/w industry have not gone through any major "cultural" changes.   Specifically, two aspects to note.

• Wanting to have control on every project/team
• Boast the hot certificate to earn next project

These two essentially determine how they earn business and deliver.   Any deviation from these two will form a tough exit barrier.

Any idea is welcome as long as the above two fundamentals are not touched.  Be it Agile or something else.  It is okay if you want to try a practice prescribed by Agile.    But if you try to completely upset those two tenets of how the organizations are run, you are not welcome.

Thanks

-Akki