top of page

By:

Rashmi Kulkarni

23 March 2025 at 2:58:52 pm

Making a New Normal Feel Obvious

Normal is not what’s written. Normal is what repeats. The temple bell rings at the same time every day. Not everyone prays. Not everyone even walks in. Some people don’t care at all. And yet when that bell rings, the whole neighborhood syncs. Shops open, chores move, calls pause. The bell doesn’t convince anyone. It simply creates rhythm. That’s how “normal” is built inside a legacy MSME too. Not by speeches. By repetition. Quick recap: Week 1: You inherited an equilibrium. Week 2: People...

Making a New Normal Feel Obvious

Normal is not what’s written. Normal is what repeats. The temple bell rings at the same time every day. Not everyone prays. Not everyone even walks in. Some people don’t care at all. And yet when that bell rings, the whole neighborhood syncs. Shops open, chores move, calls pause. The bell doesn’t convince anyone. It simply creates rhythm. That’s how “normal” is built inside a legacy MSME too. Not by speeches. By repetition. Quick recap: Week 1: You inherited an equilibrium. Week 2: People resist loss, not improvement. Week 3: Status quo wins when your new way is harder. Week 4 is the next problem: even when your idea is good and even when it is easy, it can still fail because people don’t move together. One team starts. Another team waits. One person follows. Another person quietly returns to the old way. So, the old normal comes back … not because your idea was wrong, but because your new normal never became normal. Which Seat? • Inherited : people expect direction, but they only shift when they see what you consistently protect. • Hired : people wait for proof “Is this just a corporate habit you’ll drop in a month?” • Promoted : people watch whether you stay consistent under pressure. Now here’s the useful idea from Thomas Schelling: a “focal point”. Don’t worry about the term. In simple words, it means: you don’t need everyone convinced. You need one clear anchor that everyone can align around. In a legacy MSME, that anchor is rarely a policy document. It’s not a rollout email. It’s a ritual. Why Rituals? These firms run on informal rules, relationships, memory, and quick calls. That flexibility keeps work moving, but it also makes change socially risky. Even supportive people hesitate because they’re thinking: “If I follow this and others don’t, I’ll look foolish.” “If I share real numbers, will I become the target?” “If I push this new flow, will I upset a senior person?” “If I do it properly, will it slow me down?” When people feel that risk, they wait. And waiting is how the status quo survives. A focal ritual breaks the waiting. It sends one clean signal: “This is real. This is how we work now.” Focal Ritual It’s a short, fixed review that repeats with the same format. For example: a weekly scoreboard review (15 minutes) a daily dispatch huddle (10 minutes) a fixed purchase-approval window (cutoff + queue) The meeting isn’t the magic. The repetition is. When it repeats without drama, it becomes believable. When it becomes believable, people start syncing to it, even the ones who were unsure. Common Mistake New leaders enter with energy and pressure: “show impact”. So they try to fix reporting, planning, quality, procurement, digitization … everything. The result is predictable. People don’t know what is truly “must follow”. So everything becomes “optional”. They do a little of each, and nothing holds. If you want change to stick, pick one focal ritual and make it sacred. Not forever. Just long enough for the bell to become the bell. Field Test Step 1 : Pick one pain area that creates daily chaos: delayed dispatch, pending purchase approvals, rework, overdue collections. Step 2 : Set the ritual: Fixed time, fixed duration (15 minutes). One scoreboard (one page, one screen). Same three questions every time: – What moved since last time? – What is stuck and why? – What decision is needed today? One owner who closes the loop (decisions + due dates). Step 3 : Protect it for 8 weeks. Don’t cancel because you’re busy. Don’t skip because a VIP came. Don’t “postpone once” because someone complained. I’ve seen a simple weekly dispatch scoreboard die this exact way. Week one was sharp. By week three, it got pushed “just this once” because someone had a client visit. Week four, it moved again for “urgent work”. After that, nobody took it seriously. The old follow-ups returned, and the leader was back to chasing people daily. The first casual cancellation tells the system: “This was a phase”. And the old normal returns fast. One Warning Don’t turn the ritual into policing. If it becomes humiliation, people will hide information. If it becomes shouting, people will stop speaking. If it becomes a lecture, people will mentally leave. Keep it calm. Keep it consistent. Keep it useful. A bell doesn’t shout. It just rings. (The author is Co-founder at PPS Consulting and a business operations advisor. She helps businesses across sectors and geographies improve execution through global best practices. She could be reached at rashmi@ppsconsulting.biz)

India housing market outperforms global peers: Knight Frank

India’s residential housing market continues to outperform most global peers, demonstrating resilience amid easing interest rates and an uneven global recovery, according to Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index Q3 2025 and India Real Estate: Office and Residential Market – H2 2025 reports.


Globally, annual house price growth strengthened modestly to 2.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2025 as major central banks pivoted towards monetary easing. Against this backdrop, India emerged as one of the strongest performers, ranking 10th worldwide with a 9.6 per cent year-on-year rise in residential property prices.


India was also the only Asia-Pacific market to feature in the global top 10, significantly outperforming the global average and underlining the strength of end-user-driven demand.


Turkey topped the global charts with nominal price growth of 32.2 per cent year-on-year, although real prices remained marginally negative due to high inflation. Other strong performers included North Macedonia, Portugal, Bulgaria and Hungary, largely driven by supply constraints and sustained demand in select European markets.


Knight Frank’s data shows that residential sales across India’s top eight cities remained steady in 2025 at over 348,000 units, with the second half of the year recording the highest sales volumes since 2013. Despite an increase in unsold inventory, largely due to the launch of higher-value projects, market health indicators remained stable. The quarters-to-sell ratio stood at a balanced 5.8 quarters, indicating sustained absorption.


Price growth was broad-based across major Indian cities. The National Capital Region led the pack with a sharp 19 per cent year-on-year increase, followed by Hyderabad at 13 per cent, Bengaluru at 12 per cent and Mumbai at 7 per cent.


According to the report, this upward momentum reflects strong demand in the premium and mid-to-premium segments, supported by cumulative interest-rate cuts, benign inflation and rising household incomes.


A significant structural shift in buyer preferences continued through 2025. Homes priced above Rs 1 crore accounted for nearly 50 per cent of total residential sales, highlighting growing demand for larger, better-quality homes in well-located developments. Developers, in response, have moderated new launches, focused on execution and offered targeted financing incentives rather than resorting to price corrections, helping maintain sales momentum.


Commenting on the outlook, Shishir Baijal, International Partner, Chairman and Managing Director of Knight Frank India, said India’s housing market continues to stand apart in an otherwise uneven global environment. “The combination of strong economic growth, easing financial conditions and a decisive shift towards end-user-led demand has created a more mature and resilient residential cycle. As we move into 2026, we expect the market to be defined by stable absorption, selective price appreciation and disciplined supply, rather than speculative excess,” he said.


Globally, emerging and select European markets dominated the upper end of the price growth rankings in Q3 2025, while several mature markets continued to lag. Price declines persisted in parts of Northern Europe and East Asia, underscoring the uneven nature of the global housing recovery.


Looking ahead, Knight Frank expects a cautiously improving outlook for global housing markets. The broad pivot towards rate cuts is easing borrowing costs and supporting buyer sentiment, but real price growth remains under pressure in many countries due to lingering inflation.


“Nominal growth has edged higher again as central banks pivot towards cuts, but real gains are still hard-won. To see firmer growth into 2026, policymakers will need to maintain an easing stance while inflation continues to retreat,” said Liam Bailey, Global Head of Research at Knight Frank.


With supportive global monetary conditions and robust domestic fundamentals, India’s residential sector is well positioned to sustain its relative outperformance in the period ahead, the report noted.

Comments

bottom of page