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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)

The Constitution of Your Money

On the eve of India’s Republic Day, we proudly remember the adoption of our Constitution - a document that gave structure, stability and direction to a young nation. It did not promise instant success, but it provided a framework strong enough to withstand crises, disagreements and change. Interestingly, the same philosophy applies to personal finance.


Just as a nation cannot function without a Constitution, your money too needs a clear set of rules. Wealth is not built by chance or luck. It is built by discipline, structure and long-term thinking.


Right to Financial Dignity

The Constitution guarantees citizens fundamental rights. In personal finance, you too have rights - the right to financial security, the right to dignity in retirement, and the right to protect your family’s future. These rights do not come automatically. They are earned through systematic investing, adequate insurance and prudent planning. Ignoring these rights early in life often leads to financial dependence later, something no individual truly wants.


Responsibility of Discipline

Along with rights come duties. Citizens are expected to uphold the values of the Constitution. Similarly, investors must uphold financial discipline. Saving regularly, investing sufficiently and consistently, avoiding unnecessary debt and living within one’s means are not optional habits - they are duties. Many people want wealth, but few respect the responsibility that comes with building it. Without discipline, even high incomes fail to create lasting financial stability.


Managing Risk

A strong republic survives because power is balanced across institutions. In finance, this balance comes from asset allocation and diversification. Long-term goals should be supported by inflation-beating assets such as stocks, mutual funds and gold. Money meant for short-term goals must be parked in safer avenues like bank fixed deposits, recurring deposits or debt mutual funds.


This allocation ensures that you create wealth while also having liquidity for near-term expenses or emergencies. Equally important is protecting your assets with adequate health insurance and term life insurance.


Evolving With Life

Our Constitution allows amendments to stay relevant over time. Financial plans too must evolve. Income changes, family responsibilities grow, goals shift and priorities change. A plan made three years ago may not suit today’s reality. Reviewing and updating investments periodically is not a sign of uncertainty, but of maturity. Flexibility ensures relevance without abandoning core principles.


Process Over Emotion

A republic functions because laws are followed, not because emotions are trusted. Similarly, successful investing depends on process, not panic or excitement.

Market highs and lows will come and go. Investors who react emotionally often do more harm than good. Those who follow a clear financial framework remain aligned with their long-term goals. As we celebrate Republic Day, it is worth reflecting that freedom alone is not enough - structure sustains freedom. A nation survives because its Constitution is respected. Wealth survives because financial discipline is respected.

Your money deserves a Constitution of its own.


(The writer is a Chartered Accountant and CFA (USA). Financial Advisor. He could be reached on 9833133605. Views personal.)

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