The case for agricultural carbon credits

Farm-level carbon sequestration — through cover cropping, reduced tillage, agroforestry, soil organic matter restoration — is real and measurable. Carbon markets can direct private capital to farmers who would otherwise have no financial incentive to change practices. For smallholder farmers in the Global South especially, credit revenues can be transformative income. At scale, nature-based solutions could contribute meaningfully to national emissions pathways.

The serious problems

Additionality is hard to prove. Would the farmer have changed practices anyway? If yes, the credit is fictional. Verification is expensive and often shallow.

Permanence is fragile. Carbon stored in soil or trees can be released by drought, flood, fire, or simply a farmer reverting practices when the credit contract ends. Soil carbon in particular is poorly understood and highly variable.

The offset logic lets buyers off the hook. When a multinational buys credits to claim "net zero," it substitutes accounting for actual decarbonization. Critics (rightly) argue this delays the harder industrial transformation that is actually necessary.

Power asymmetries are stark. Global commodity buyers and carbon brokers capture most of the value. Farmers — especially smallholders — often receive a fraction of the credit price and bear most of the implementation risk and cost.

Quality is wildly uneven. The voluntary carbon market has produced credits of deeply varying integrity. High-profile scandals (REDD+ overstatements, rainforest credits that didn’t protect forests) have eroded credibility significantly.

Agricultural carbon markets are at best a complementary instrument, not a solution. The actual solution to the climate crisis requires:
- Rapid, deep cuts in fossil fuel combustion (which no amount of soil carbon offsets)
- Regulatory mandates, not voluntary markets
Public investment in agroecological transition, not just price signals
- Farmer agency in designing programs, not just compliance roles

Where carbon markets do have a legitimate role is in bridging finance for farmers transitioning to regenerative practices — if credit quality standards are rigorous, farmer economics are equitable, and buyers are simultaneously reducing their own emissions rather than using credits as a substitute.

The risk is that well-designed programs are a genuine tool, but the market as currently structured is often a mechanism for climate theatre that benefits intermediaries more than farmers or the atmosphere.

My recent experience at the JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar was anything but mindful. Rather, I was surrounded by a large number of dragon fly associates, who lacked focus and purpose and went about their tasks in a classic administrative, non-efficient manner, instead of deep focus, guest empathy and attentive communication and responsiveness.

Though the welcome at the front desk was genuine (could it be because I am a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite member?), the room allocation process was messy. Presumably the hotel was all sold out and staff were having tough time managing the stream of guests.

This is an interesting conundrum. Hotels would give anything to have full occupancy. However, when this does happen, most hotels, including J W Marriott Mumbai Sahar are in dire straits not knowing how to multi-task and yet maintain the focus. Dragon fly behaviour was all around me and the buzz was not at all positive.

The allocated room was not up to the mark. I found broken cupboard doors, uncleaned table tops, badly maintained telephones, no call back facility if the At your Service line is busy. The TV was not functioning and the only way to order room service was to start the TV and scan the QR code. In hindsight, the QR code could have been placed in an easily accessible place like the writing desk instead of hiding it inside the television. All guest assistance lines on the phone were always busy and the responsiveness of associates very minimal and uncaring. When the request for a physical copy of the menu was placed, I was given a flimsy small letters printout (which I could not read) of the breakfast menu, when in fact, I had requested for dinner! The staff serving the room was not aware of the finer elements of hospitality and were mostly clerical in their behaviour and nature.

The Executive Lounge was also another disaster in the waiting. With dim lighting and dark corners, the place was not at all inviting. Dishes and tables were in disarray, food items on the buffet table were not replenished. Neither did the hotel keep any identifiers to communicate to the guests the cuisine that was on offer. Stewards milled about aimlessly and instead of the decent hushed tones that are characteristic of a lounge environment, spoke rather loudly spilling kitchen language into the executive areas.

The chefs and their assistants on the live counters were least interested in their work and my requests for a serving of the kathi rolls went completely unanswered ignored. The cuisine was nothing great and the cocktails/drinks menu was limited. Here too, the environment resembled more like a countryside bar than a lounge in a five star property. Attentiveness, Responsiveness, Elegance — all were missing in action quite unequivocally.

I was keen to check out of the property immediately, however stayed backed when the GM personally requested not to depart on the promise that things would turn out for the better.

Alas, that did not happen!

A specially curated meal by the Chef de Cuisine at the Romano’s Italian outlet did not materialise. For one, the staff did not know that such a plan was indeed in place, which goes on to show the failure of internal communication in the property and also portrays a certain disinterest or lack of passion in relation to guest commitments. The meal at Romano’s was nothing great — the penne was horrible with the meat of poor quality. My guest liked the fish meal, but I do not know if it was for real or she was just being polite. The sommelier had very poor knowledge of wines and more so on wine + cuisine pairing. We had a Pinot Grigio white wine which did not go well at all with the red meat, despite the sommelier almost swearing that it would!

The only saving grace for JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar was its breakfast spread, which was amazing with wide variety and tasty preparations. However, staff attention here too lacked sincerity and commitment to guests. It did improve over the 3 days during my stay, but only marginally.

I must also applaud the hotel management (GM, Front Office Manager and Director Operations) for speaking with me and understanding areas where the property failed guest expectations even on some of the basic tenets of hospitality.

Clearly this was one of the worst stays of my life at a Marriott property and while I will stay again owing to the locational convenience, it remains to be seen how much change the property can bring about especially when on my Equator Rating scale, the property rating/score is -53 (minus 53), which falls in the poor category. The details of the scoring mechanism can be found here.

I started Hotelesque as there is a deep characterisation about hospitality that I wish to communicate and also because most hoteliers miss this unique proposition. Through my years of observation and research, I have been able to develop unique insights about hotels and the associates who run the show — which I am keen to share to the benefit of the industry such that the bar is always raised high and excuses for excellence do not exist. Ask for an invite to join Hotelesque by sending an email to unmesh@purposeleaders.net — and join if you deeply care about hospitality.

This platform is called Hotelesque (as in picturesque), where deep insights drive the meaning and intent of the true essence of hospitality that I wish to communicate. And I do so because this essence and purpose is exponentially failing today!

Across the 100 plus properties globally with leading hospitality brands that I have stayed in over the past decade or so, this true essence nurturing is a hard struggle and not always obvious to associates and guests alike. I hope to be able to remove such blind spots through timely and topical leadership writings on Hotelesque and provide coaching to hotel leaders and associates where they are keen to ensure better purpose + profits performance through the practice of true essence.

The beginning of the essence + purpose debacle happens with hotels when associates fail to live up to the brand promise across the touch points in a guest journey in a property. It is very important to understand “why” a particular property has a definitive brand positioning and how it is crucial to ensuring a structured process of service delivery, leading to higher guest satisfaction scores and better profits. Be it “authentic hospitality” as in the case of Hyatt or “travel brilliantly” as in the case of Marriott, the practice of these brand propositions are rarely seen. And where this is visible, the performance of hotel associates has been superlative and joyous.

The true essence of hospitality also exists in its fundamental truth which are basic human needs: just as we need food, water, shelter as our bare minimum needs (and we can add to that income and internet too!), hotels similarly exist to fulfil these needs through F&B (food + water), rooms (shelter) and other services that go towards fulfilling yet another basic human need — that of feeling immersive joy and happiness. To this extent, hospitality indeed is a noble profession.

The passion that needs to go as a firm intent into being a hotelier (at any departmental or leadership level) is a rarity in today’s multi-transactional hospitality market. With a transactional behaviour shadowing emotional intelligence, many hotels struggle to meet guest expectations as well as owner expectations. In this regard, it is high time that the Standard Operating Process (though important) is coupled with a Standard Operating Purpose, to deliver the greatest value to guests and other stakeholders.

Through the learnings gained from multiple sessions I have conducted with associates in hotels around the world, I have designed two tools that when used consistently help hotels achieve the true essence of hospitality and evolve into a purpose brand and stay there.

REVPAR-I stands for Resilience, Empathy, Volatility (management), Purpose (stickiness), Adaptability and Reclaiming Identity. Applied to hotel properties and associate behaviour, this tool implemented through a series of on-site workshops and online consistent coaching in a safe and non-judgemental space, helps hotels work the magic of hospitality at all levels of customer connect and functions within the property. The core of this tool is the ability to manage self-emotions better and transform them into creative energy and vibrancy that rubs positively on guest experiences, resulting in better utilisation of hotel services and higher REVPAR, ARR and overall revenues. This, in fact, is the fundamental tenet of purpose-based profits.

The second tool is Equator Rating.

While rating and assessments systems abound, I was always in search of a simple tool which allows individuals, teams and organisations to measure performance and progress without tearing their hair apart or deploying complicated evaluation systems. Not that they are not important, it is just that they are not empowering enough. And Net Promoter Scores, being sample based, don’t help as they give only a part of the picture.

So I designed the Equator Rating System where the highest score is “Zero”.

Zero, because it indicates balance and mid-point or optimum best and has integers on both sides of it, which contribute to this rating system. Zero is always powerful — it stands tall across division, multiplication, addition or subtraction, in all these equations, when zero is used, the net result is always “Zero”.

The Equator Rating System plots performance and excellence across a negative scale. For every non-outcome oriented scenario, the designated score is “-1”. Multiple performance negativities lead to many minus ones. Let’s say a hotel does not deliver on 14 counts, then the score is -14 and the hotel needs to take 14 steps to reach zero and recover lost ground. Once zero is reached, the performance is stable.

Equator Ratings can be used for all kinds of evaluation and is a simple tool in the hands of employees and leaders to raise the bar and grow.

Combining REVPAR-I Coaching and Equator Rating implementation across guest stay cycles on a regular basis is a powerful solution in the hands of hotel leaders and associates.

This then is my take on hospitality essence management with truthful purpose!

Ask for an invite to join Hotelesque by sending an email to unmesh@purposeleaders.net — and join if you deeply care about hospitality.

Over the past many days, many have asked me on our Coaches Authentication Platform on www.livesantorini.life, “What is Contrarian Coaching?”, while a few others have accepted it as some form of coaching (which they will eventually learn), just like various other coaching frameworks out there: NLP, transformational therapy and many such.

So let’s get to the fundamentals.

There is no set meaning to Contrarian Coaching. While the word “Contrarian” can be taken to mean “opposite”, “converse”, “against the tide”, ‘walking the path less taken” and many more such synonyms, it’s application to coaching is how we make the combined words “Contrarian Coaching” work, to mean high degree of engagement with clients and their success.

But, yes, there is a context to all of this:

There is this brilliant piece “Executive coach certification and selection: A contrarian’s viewpoint, July 2006” by David McCleary, in the Development and Learning in Organizations 20(4):10–11. Here is the abstract:

Purpose — This paper is written to increase awareness and focus on the choice of executive coaches. There is a growing trend of selecting coaches based solely on a certification. This methodology of coach selection could lead to disappointing and lackluster results.

Design/methodology/approach — This scope of the paper is executive coaching within organizations, with a specific focus on the potential prerequisite of a coaching certification. The paper is written from the author’s point of view. The author has interacted with and interviewed numerous coaches and leaders and extensive personal experience on the subject.

Findings — The results are that quality coaching is primarily about whom the coach is, not what techniques or certifications they hold.

The “self” of the coach is the instrument of change, not a bag of tricks accumulated during a “coaching college”.

Practical implications — Coaching certification for many is a defence against personal accountability and responsibility: the responsibility to select and hire quality coaches and the responsibility to be a quality coach. Orchestrating quality coaching programs is difficult and laborious work that cannot be minimized or made more efficient.

By certifying coaches we could be sterilizing otherwise potentially powerful relationships and denuding overall quality learning experiences (let alone creativity and further learning) on a grand scale.

Any attempt to make the choice of a coach more efficient will potentially reduce the quality of the future coaching experience. Perhaps coaching leaders to coach is a more valuable and meaningful intervention then merely coaching one person’s performance.

Originality/value — Quality coaching experiences consistently and significantly increase performance for many leaders. This paper is intended to help leaders and those that assist them in coach selection and coaching program orchestration increase the value and return on investment of coaching interventions.

(We are getting you the full text of the article soon from the author)

So, then, as we say, “we are contrarian coaches” This means:

You have to liberate yourself first (try, it’s a nice feeling) before coaching others.

We value the individual’s authenticity to connect with a coachee as a coach more than the certification they come with. Hence we call our process authentication leading to a contrarian coaching practitioner’s license, which helps both coaches and coachees lead a deserved life better.

In doing this, we absorb all streams, ideas, frameworks, models, tools, assignments that go into coaching and leadership theory and practice. This could be varied and many and can cover, among other things, emotional management, gratitude coaching, happiness coaching, transformational coaching, and many ore — essentially this splintering into atomic and sub-atomic levels has commoditised the meaning of coaching further so much so that it takes ages to explain a new comer to coaching, the meaning of coaching.

However, the most crucial and significant and contrarian difference: we don’t walk into a room saying that “I am a happiness coach’ or a “transformational therapist” or any of those million and one labels available. That’s counterproductive. Your clients need none of the above . Perhaps they are already happy and need to understand how to manage team distress, perhaps they already have a reasonably good amount of control over their mind and attitude (aka NLP), but they need to understand “how to find purpose”, or they know their purpose, but they wan’t to seek help in manifesting the same within the organisation. There could be these or infinite other possible combinations that play out and you can’t do anything about these if you are a “formal label” coach!

So, to all coaches, you are not that, I hope :)

Our coach authentication site (www.livesantorini.life), its learning and coach de-schooling modules are designed to make coaches competent and confident in a world which has super rationalised coaching, in the process losing the essence.

As coaches (if we care to be contrarian), we are aiming to be that super generalist with an open heart, mind and will with no dogmas, rituals, deep superstitions and such, who would walk into a room as a confidante and say “let’s start the journey of learning and unlearning, schooling and de-schooling, and let’s see where that takes us’

In doing so, you will of course utilise multiple forms of coaching interventions. You may not also label them (as your coachee then struggles with the labels and not its intent), but you know you have a goal to achieve — to bring a semblance of balance to your coachee’s life and work, which only a contrarian coach can do!

Hence there is a need to build both rigour and resilience in learning to be a coach, break the mould, not asking, for example, to understand happiness, but to understand “how happiness can be sabotaged?”. Not asking you to worry about Anxiety, but learning to accept that perhaps it’s a gift?

So, in essence I am asking coaches to be a a contrarian thinker and not a labeled “I know it all as I have hundreds of certifications” coach.

So please bear this in mind.

Question all that you read and learn, but don’t allow your questioning to consume you as you think differently as a “labelled expert or coach”. Believe in the process of de-labeling and you will see that you are more kind to yourself and set yourself on one of the most enriching journeys of your life. And once you do this, you are ready for your clients.

You will realise that your clients accept you because of who you are first and what you do, later. Of course, since who we are is contrarian, what we get accepted as is also contrarian (meaning better than the competition, thus creating a value-high competitive differentiator). There is no point in trying to understand you to make your first six figures USD as a coach and join multitude Facebook groups and programs that tell you how to do it. This is detestable, to say the least and goes against the grain of humility and coaching.

Now I decided to search for some grounding material in response to the questions :What is contrarian coaching? The above abstract is one such read, which was written in 2006. 14 years later, coaching has become one of the worse high-end kitty party of the mind and soul — leading to only transient outcomes.

Today coaches who emerge successful out of the Santorini De-school, are part of True Purpose Life Worldwide, the only firm, perhaps anywhere, where we work with the mindset of all employees on an ongoing basis, document those emotions, attitudes, beliefs and biases, and help remove barriers and blindspots to resolve challenges as well as achieve dreams and goals. No transient outputs, only continuous outcomes across a spectrum of life and work and living.

And there is much such material, if you decide to look for it with a contrarian eye.

Some reading for you (to be consumed at your own pace).

Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue ocean strategy is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to open up a new market space and create new demand. It is about creating and capturing uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant. It is based on the view that market boundaries and industry structure are not a given and can be reconstructed by the actions and beliefs of industry players.

More here: https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/what-is-blue-ocean-strategy/

Renée Mauborgne. Blue Ocean Strategy_ From theory to practice.pdf

Black Swan Theory

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory#:~:text=The%20black%20swan%20theory%20or,with%20the%20benefit%20of%20hindsight.

The black swan_ the impact of the highly improbable.pdf

I do hope I have been able to articulate the meaning of Contrarian. If not, that’s fantastic because it is what we create of it, you may have a different take!

Suffice to say, in a practical world, we have contrarian investing as well in addition to contrarian leadership and just like contrarian coaching, they follow a unique differentiated work model, and they have succeeded brilliantly.

So Coaching will too!

I have been practising anonymous coaching for more than two decades, with CEOs, boards, executives at all levels, parents, children, youth, communities in distress, globally. And this is the most pertinent truth: being anonymous. Always put the coachee under the spotlight anI have been practising anonymous coaching for more than two decades, with CEOs, boards, executives at all levels, parents, children, youth, communities in distress, globally. And this is the most pertinent truth: being anonymous. Always put the coachee under the spotlight and not the coach. Remaining below the radar undetected is the most honest virtue of a TruePurpose coach.

Another is non-prescriptive practice. You don't prescribe a particular methodology or intervention to your coachee, just because you are trained in this particular type of coaching. The reality and life will show you that your coachee rarely needs what you know as your skill as a coach. The significance of being non-prescriptive means that you are able to blend and fuse and subvert and adapt at the same time all the theories, tools, frameworks that you know or have learned or will learn as a coaching methodology. Only then you will be able to reach the heart, mind and soul of your clients and really help them without excuses or multiple session billing.

Today, as we expand this pedagogy of non-prescriptive, anonymous, skin-in-the-game "Deserved Life Coaching', we sit in awe of all our clients who have opened their hearts and minds to us without the fear of judgement or ill daignosis (as we don't practise it), and in the process achieved their work and life goals with poise, presence and panache.

Present in over 30 countries with a hand picked panel of Deserved Life Coaches from all countries and cultures, our dream was simple: elevate human potential everywhere.

If you want to be a Deserved Life Coach, learn the rigour of coaching, work on it as your deepest passion and desire, and earn a dignified living of purpose and meaning, write to me at unmesh.b@truepurpose.life in full confidence and my team and I shall be happy to share the process and methodology of empanelling you as a coach, your authentication and practitioners license investment and of course your return on investment.

Another is non-prescriptive practice. You don't prescribe a particular methodology or intervention to your coachee, just because you are trained in this particular type of coaching. The reality and life will show you that your coachee rarely needs what you know as your skill as a coach. The significance of being non-prescriptive means that you are able to blend and fuse and subvert and adapt at the same time all the theories, tools, frameworks that you know or have learned or will learn as a coaching methodology. Only then you will be able to reach the heart, mind and soul of your clients and really help them without excuses or multiple session billing.

Today, as we expand this pedagogy of non-prescriptive, anonymous, skin-in-the-game "Deserved Life Coaching', we sit in awe of all our clients who have opened their hearts and minds to us without the fear of judgement or ill daignosis (as we don't practise it), and in the process achieved their work and life goals with poise, presence and panache.

Present in over 30 countries with a hand picked panel of Deserved Life Coaches from all countries and cultures, our dream was simple: elevate human potential everywhere.

If you want to be a Deserved Life Coach, learn the rigour of coaching, work on it as your deepest passion and desire, and earn a dignified living of purpose and meaning, write to me at unmesh.b@truepurpose.life in full confidence and my team and I shall be happy to share the process and methodology of empanelling you as a coach, your authentication and practitioners license investment and of course your return on investment.

And do visit:

purposeleaders.mn.co

And join the complimentary sections on leadership and coaching: read, write, comment, become part of the community.

And when you are ready: become a Deserved Life Coach!

By Unmesh Brahme

Virulence is a Sign of our Times, All Times

These are unprecedented times. But we have been there before.

Crisis of varied and multiple hues, pandemics, wars, geopolitical stress, all have been there since times immemorial. It is not that this has to be so, it is just that the human condition (both heart and mind) looks at the world and self with all lenses, except that of inclusive humanity.

We chase revenues and bottom lines, we think of sustainability just because it is a fad and if we don’t our reputation is at stake (whatever the pundits say about enlightened self interest).

For us, everything is individualistic, self and personal. Including the way we run our lives, governments and businesses. It is the quest for fame, power, applause, reputation and legacy that drives our life’s meaning. In the process, we create more confounding situations of irreversible grief and trauma, not knowing how to tackle them. And when these happen, our reaction is, well, “reactive”, since the time for proactive behaviour seems to have long gone.

React or Proact (if that is indeed the word, but you get it, right?)

The reason I say this is because our response to the Coronavirus pandemic is reactive — not that we have a choice and we don’t have to react. No two ways about it. The question is what happens when the crisis subsides (as I am sure it will since as a human race, we still have not lost our ingenious abilities to tackle the odds, howsoever “Everest-like” the challenges.

The BAU-LAU Virus

As time has shown us again and again, we will slip back into BAU and LAU — Business as Usual and Life as Usual. We will go back to being self-centred, pursue profits endlessly (not with purpose) and continue the self aggrandisement and showmanship (or show’person’ship), grand standing our way into awards, ceremonies, situations of excessive non-sustainable consumption, and continue to crave for ‘poor to be poor’, ‘have-nots to be have-nots’, since our success depends on their failure.

Well, the coronavirus, and the SARS virus before that, and the Ebola epidemic and the HIV-AIDS global threat, have won the match. They defeated our sense of overzealousness and unbridled ambition, escaping from species to species and finally making their way into their permanent home: us!

This is not a doomsday story. We can get over doomsday situations very well as human beings. It is just that the way we live, the way we manage our lives, all relates to how the environment (and viruses) respond to us.

Tribe Mentality

My concern is for our collective tribe mentality of a life devoid of purpose and meaning. We chase for happiness as if it is part of a shopping cart on an app. And when we don’t get it, we go to wars, destroy lives of others, impose trade barriers, invent creative ways to make money from the unsuspecting masses (through conditions apply).

We become victims to negative emotions: greed, jealousy, antipathy, anger, ego, abuse, violence and in doing so, continue to believe that this indeed is leadership in a “practical” world. All that is alternate becomes soft or mushy or non-practical. We refuse to see the connections amongst and between instances and episodes, between cause and effect, between now, present and future, and we invent new ways to hide our inefficiency, insensitivity, lack of empathy and compassion, disguising them through jargon, bureaucracy and subterfuge.

And we hope no virus shall escape and harm us.

Either We Escape into a New Reality we Co-create and Find Solace, or the Virus Does!

Viruses are escaping all the time and the war of survival of the fittest is based on rapid mutation, not gradual evolution or change management (as we humans see it). We need organisational mutation and not transformation. That’s the only way to reclaim our identity and restore a semblance of normalcy in everything we do or strive to do, be it businesses, governments, markets or politics.

For those of you who need more insight into the virulence of our teams, do see Contagion, the movie. Focus on the last scene towards the very end of the movie and you will see the connections.

And I have been told, the Malyalam movie “Virus” is also worth a see! Though I have not seen it, but intend to…

So Where is This All Heading to?

Everywhere and perhaps in a direction we don’t want to accept. This is a moving target and we do seem to have lost historically and currently the arsenal (I don’t mean the violent kind), to hit the bulls eye!

Do we have a choice?

We do, if we try and react by answering some of the basic questions proactively and put the solutions into practice:

• How can we run our lives with focus on and commitment to Purpose, People and Profits?
• How can the concept of inclusive humanity be the raison d’être of our lives?
• How can we focus on removing divides, building bridges and not pitting one community or country or religion against the other?
• Where do our sensibilities lie?
• With rapid advances in technology and digital proliferation, how do we remember that we are ambidextrous and our fingers are as important (or more important) than the binary play of 0 and 1?
• With Artificial Intelligence cancel out Natural Intelligence?

What about Emotional Intelligence?

How can we not allow negative emotions to rule the roost and counter them with the panoply of positive emotions? Is this utopia? Though let it be so, why not?

In life and work, we rarely focus on our gifts (we all are gifted to shine!) And hence we don’t focus on purpose. Purpose is not charity. It is actually totally the opposite — it means there is no need to do charity…both as an individual or as an organisation. Corporate Social Responsibility by businesses and Welfare Schemes by government are nothing but the same — self-aggrandisement and narcissism, devoid of purpose.

So are the many other actions of businesses, prime amongst them being the inability to drive profits and purpose together. I have seen many a corporate statements of purpose, mission, vision and values. These are the best examples of advertising creativity and language proficiency, not of intent and meaning or practice. Most of these statements have no action associated with it and many of the measurement parameters are driven by the virus of easy money. The Lure of the Lucre is a more potent virus than any Coronavirus!

We need a Coronagraph

So we need a Coronagraph — the ability to see the blindspots of the sun using an instrument or device or innovation or solution that allows us to practise all the “nice and goody” things I have been talking about in this piece, as applied to our lives. One does not have to wait for the solar eclipse to see what surrounds the sun…

The End of Living…

Many years ago, in a small indigenous population somewhere, in response to the increasingly violent attacks by the colonisers, a village elder made a statement,”this is the end of living and the beginning of survival”.

Should our response and reaction to the Coronavirus Pandemic base itself on Living or Surviving?

You take the call…

(this is an evolving work. Ideas, thoughts, comments are adaptable and will change as we all need to in response to emerging scenarios — at least those we can comprehend)

And now the last hope: I hope purpose does not get as commoditised as everything else has…or it will be the new virus we may never be able to contain!

http://about.me/unmesh

Coronavius (COVID-19): How Should We React / Proact? was originally published in Coronagraph on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I have been having sleepless nights for the past few nights, and hence I need to put my thoughts to rest and sleep well.

So here goes…

Since childhood, few things have fascinated me as much as airplanes, trains and hotels. My travelling career takes me to more hotels and across many flights than I would have ever imagined. Less of train journeys though, something which I hope to correct soon. So this narrative is about hotels.

I stay in over 100 properties worldwide every year and my core calls upon my very inner self, or even vice versa, to make observations on the true essence of hospitality, and this often brings me in a very subjective and direct conflict with hoteliers and their tribe and their unfounded firm belief in transactional hospitality, the glorious brand language on their website, not withstanding. Subjective because in such cases unbridled objectivity and standard operating procedures, don’t help.

So, without mincing any words, this piece and the ones that will follow, on Hotelesque (my brand of finding hotels with purpose and if not, instilling a sense of purpose in them), will be about all that goes right and all that goes wrong and finding meaningful solutions.

It is good to note here that I do not accept the standard hotel line that, “may we request you to treat this as a temporary aberration and not representative of the high standards we maintain, etc.’ simply because this is a pre-formatted behaviour to say something without meaning it…and mostly helps hotels to say sorry so that the consumer does not escalate the matter.

There is another way in which hotels try to provide explanation for errant behaviour. They offer you an upgrade or a freebie or a free coffee or a free muffin under the guise of service recovery. This works for most BOGO guests whose sole aim is life is to be impressed by buy one and get one free or get everything free or get pampered endlessly for service error.

Though discerning guests (and I see myself as one tiny member of this small tribe) would detest such false platitudes. It is a further moot point to note that hotels loose nothing by giving guests a free stay, in fact their F&B and other activity revenues in fact would increase with every free stay they provide. And believe me that with the differential rates that hotels charge (sometimes ridiculously as high as USD 1000 per night), there is enough and more money going around. With every bottle of single malt, as an further example, which is say pticed at USD 60 in the general market, hotels draw in a cool USD 6000 per bottle they serve since the unit servings are priced that high. As guests we don’t realise this since our focus is limited to the USD 20 to 30 odd bucks we pay for every serving. The bigger revenue picture is elsewhere.

These and many more reasons (that I shall write about soon and substantially)make me cringe at the false hospitality that is demonstrated by hotels. And Fairmont Jaipur did just this and more. It is an opulent stone edifice without heart and soul, making money for its owners as a real estate unit than a hotel with most of the revenues drawn from large format weddings and overcrowded banquets.

The important part is Fairmont Jaipur does not even realise its blindspots. My detailed feedback (follows below) was met with all the traits I have mentioned above: offer of free stay, better service during next stay, etc. After checking out and more than a week having passed by, there is no further communication from the hotel. Though they gave us a parrot curio as a departure gift, perhaps because we were conned into becoming one…as guests we accept and parrot whatever the hotel says without offering a word in dissent. Though, since we did dissent, perhaps the parrot can now fly away…

At the outset, I am happy to state that Fairmont Jaipur extended courtesy to us and provided with reservation. Though the hotel was going full, they could manage and manage well. Though everything else was a downslide, what with the hotel management strutting around without noticing, sensing or empathising…perhaps they could add an ostrich curio as a gift in addition to the parrot!

Coming to the detailed feedback and insights, it is very important to note that Fairmont Jaipur calls its guests as royals and there is supposed to be that finer touch to everything, a sense of elegant luxury and panache and what have you! The feedback below needs to be considered in the light of this framework.

Airport transfers were OK. No cold towels or cold water in the vehicle. Hastily dumped mineral water in the door compartment of the car, hot as hell in response to the high temperatures in Jaipur. We were made to walk for 10 minutes in searing heat, maddening crowds to the parking lot and to the vehicle.

Arrival was replete with chaos. We were at Fairmont Jaipur for the recently concluded Raymond MTV Music Fest, so clearly the hotel was a cacophony and crowded, to say the least. We were welcomed with most obnoxious and unwanted high decibel drum sounds, as if the hotel was going to war with arriving guests, a string instrument musician accompanied us from the main entrance to the reception lobby, thoughtlessly playing something which neither he or we could fathom in terms of musical quotient, Kalbhelia dancers listlessly danced in the courtyard, and hotel staff hurriedly and tensely milled about, acting busy but doing nothing constructive. We and baggage were received unceremoniously, thus. Baggage was tagged with the most unscrupulous handwriting I had ever seen (doctor’s handwriting is better!). No wonder our luggage reached the room very much delayed than expected. Staff would not know where to deliver!

Check in was hurried. The front desk was strewn with people doing nothing and papers flying about carelessly. Prior to check in, we were welcomed with a parrot talk about 'how the hotel gives memories and how our smiles will become beguiled smiles, etc.’ This was again repeated to me when I mentioned I did not understand the first effort. Little did Fairmont Jaipur realise that the word 'beguile' means 'charming or enchanting in a deceptive way’. The word 'deceptive' is the operative word here. The hotel management should see the movie The Beguiled https://g.co/kgs/i94Xww, to really appreciate the meaning of the word!

The room was indeed fancy but had no heart to it. Mimicking the old Jaipur havelis and palaces, some areas were so dark that nothing could be seen. We took two days to find out the position of bathroom light switches, and it indeed did feel like royalty of yesteryears, taking shower in the dark with little dim light making its presence felt from other parts of the bathroom lighting!

The room has the most extraordinary position and functionalities of light switches. Bottom line: they don’t work. The do not disturb switch is that worse culprit, turn it on or off, the room is always on DND. This is a good excuse for housekeeping to not clean the room. Or feign defensive ignorance. The door knob has an alternative privacy sign placard, but no 'make up room’ card. So the hotel leaves the decision to disturb guests or not, or clean room or not, on the vagaries of a dysfunctional DND switch. Result: our room was not cleaned as the hotel defensively screams that the room was on DND. All they needed to do was switch their mindsets, put themselves in the customer shoes, demonstrate empathy and of course get the room checked for quality control issues.

The restaurants and bar are a fine mess! This is not a compliment…read the word 'mess' as ‘ state of being dirty or untidy; a person or thing that is dirty or untidy' and not as mess = say a hostel mess that serves food. So no fine dining here, either!

Nobody welcomed us to the restaurant, nobody guided us to the tables, no one ever looked at us, though there were very few guests. On calling attention, we were lead to a table and then ignored. Until someone had the sense to serve us. Chef Ajinkya though puts on a good show and the quality of Rajasthani cuisine was excellent. However the staff service and attention to detail is hopeless, useless and begging repair.

You find the above menace also lurking at the bar. The staff is confused, spirit bottles kept open, shabbily donning the centre table, and serving at best is demonic. No hospitality here..

No knowledge of wines or spirits. The hotel seems to be faking it till they make it…works sometimes, does not work always. One of the most disastrous experiences was the Singleton single malt served as part of the music fest. It was either spurious or spiked. I am a single malt afficionado. I know taste when I take the first sip! Singleton is my favourite on Singapore Airlines flights and in airport lounges. This clearly was not Singleton. Though it was sad to know that guests were singled out to savour the spurious!

Overall, Fairmont Jaipur is a stony property with no sense of hospitality etiquette. No soul, no empathy, no heart. It’s predominantly careless staff are happy to serve without passion or purpose. Greedy revenues are omnipotent, serving volumes of guests instead of discrening guests is the motto. There is no pride, no honor, no logic, no meaning. It’s a hopeless enteprise built on gullible or shall I say, beguiled guests!

So is anything at all good? Yes the Rose 31 tolieteries and to some extent, the spa. Though Rose 31 is found in most Fairmonts. So not necessarily a Fairmont Jaipur differentiator!

Fairmont Jaipur would do well to look for inspiration within its own ranks. For instance, Fairmont Mount Kenya to an exceeding extent and Fairmont Norfolk Nairobi, Fairmont Jakarta to some extent, do the justice…

(this piece will have an update soon with images and revisions, as this one is written on my mobile on the move.)

Flyesque is all about authentic leadership in the aviation sector. As a world weary traveller for over 25 years, clocking over 200 plus days annually in travel in recent times, I am blessed to be able to draw on observations and insights on aviation people behaviour. This publication comprises of my candid thoughts, experience as a real person, shared without any ornamental language but with enough humour, pain and satire, to transmit messages to the industry, who today are in a unique position of daily price changes to suit their revenue management goals sans customer empathy, compassion and sensitivity.

I thought what better than my recent experience with Air Vistara, to launch this publication. More experiences to come soon…

Email send to Air Vistara on 18 August 2019

Leslie Thng
CEO
Air Vistara
India

Dear Mr Thng,

Good evening.

You have not heard from me in many months for the simple reason that I mostly travel overseas and domestic travel has been marginal, limited to Indigo.

I also took a conscious decision not to fly Vistara. For the price that Vistara charges to benefit from the demise of Jet Airways is predatory and offensively opportunistic — the business class product does not even come close to matching this price. With old seats, badly hinged tray tables, which have hurt and injured my hand many times, non-functioning leg rests, decline in cuisine standards, it is humanly unfair to even consider Vistara Business Class. I do, of course fly globally, on business cabins and there too Singapore Airlines fails as much, if not more, keeping in stride with Vistara — together leading to disastrous consumer experience. Service levels and empathy on both UK and SQ are humiliating and declining every day.

This email concerns Vistara UK 960 from Mumbai to Delhi on 17 August 2019 with my wife and I as travelers. Here are the observations:

1. As usual, aerobridge crowding and boarding process lax, lethargic and useless to say the least. There was a 10 minutes gap between wheel chair/business class passengers boarding and other Premium Economy/Economy passengers boarding. There was no particular reason — just that the staff was incapable, ill trained, ill confident and lazy, insensitive and unconcerned. The flight left 10–15 minutes late. In a post flight feedback conversation with Captain Vijay and First Officer Tanuj, they admitted as much that this is the case always at Mumbai airport. This should concern Vistara management more than arbitrarily increasing prices for the sake of mere revenue management at the expense of customer sensitivity.

2. Crew welcome on board non-existent. Confused and lost crew. More talk and false pretense smiles, rather than service.

3. We were seated on 4E and 4F. On 4D was seated a very nice person, aged, senior citizen and obviously in pain. He had loss of motor control, his hands were shaking and he also had memory and vision problems. He needed to use the wash room often. Aren’t your staff trained to be sensitive to such passengers who are in genuine need of help. Where do your inclusion and diversity principles disappear?

This gentleman was not helped at all by crew — when he asked to use the wash room, he was told he was in queue. What could have been different is for crew to prioritise this passenger and ask other passengers to wait. This man was weak with his muscles and motor control and he could have very well urinated on the seat — poor soul whose pain your crew could not understand. His hands were shaking as he was eating his food — he spilled food owing to no fault of his — and my wife and I were observing all of this, seated adjacent to him, all through the flight and trying to help as best as we could. In such cases, it is the dignity and self-respect of such passengers which should be upheld by crew. Your crew did not do so — they demonstrated utter neglect and carelessness.

3. When on board cuisine service commenced, the crew took an inordinately long time to serve row 3 and lo behold — another 10 minutes to serve row 4, where we were seated. This is by far the longest I have seen in my many years of flying. And more significantly, the crew were not even aware they were being irresponsible and uncaring.

4. The cuisine was as bad as ever — so less said the better.

5. My wife and I were asleep after a tiring travel and we were woken up persistently, rudely and insistently, just to retrieve the food menus, which could have been done later too. On asking the crew for explanation for this behavior, a hurried explanation was provided that we were being woken up to inquire if we wanted coffee after the turbulence subsides!

This is utter manipulation and ruthlessness and coming from crew who are as young as you deploy on Vistara, I wonder what they will become in years to come — perhaps the most insensitive human beings on this planet. Please note that the food service was delayed because of crew insincerity and the hot beverage service could have been well completed before the turbulence. So much for efficiency!

6. Multiple on board advertisements applauding Vistara accolades kept the crew occupied and the passengers subject to unnecessary sound pollution. If you are so proud of what you do, stop announcing and start delivering consistently.

7. Turbulence time safety messages were cut short, played half way and stopped and not completed in a coherent and concise manner.

8. The icing on the cake is yet to come and here goes:

9. On landing, crew forgot that the senior citizen gentleman seated besides us needed wheelchair. They were lost in foot loose fancy of their own, I am not sure doing what? My wife and I on seats 4E and 4F (middle and window), waited till all the passengers had deplaned, so that we don’t have to disturb our fellow passenger on seat 4D (aisle). After all passengers had deplaned (except us and the 4D gentleman), since we were still waiting for someone to come and fetch the senior citizen (who by this time had lost patience asking everyone for his wheelchair, including fellow passengers), much to our surprise, the next flight crew entered the flight, crowding the business class cabin along with the crew of UK 960 and to my and my wife’s disbelief, they were busy taking photographs on their phones.

10. It is only when all this absurd theatre was over, that a crew came behind to Premium Economy cabin, saw us and said “sorry we left you behind” in the most callous, unassuming and matter of fact manner. The gentleman at 4D shakingly got up, was held by crew as if he was a piece of lifeless baggage, moved aside to our disbelief and we were asked to deplane. We don’t know what happened to the gentleman and if he got his wheelchair.

11. However, the drama is not over. As we prepared to deplane, our exit was blocked in the business class cabin by all crew of the new flight, all crew of the current flight UK 960, cleaners and arbitrary people whom I did not know who they were.

12. I finally had no choice but to say to all of them that they should be de-rostered, sent back to training and put back on the flight only after confirmation that such behaviour will not be practised again. This was a total and absurd mockery. How can crew enter the flight like this and what right do they have to behave in this millennial lumpen mongering way?

There you go, Mr Thng, this is Vistara for you. Nothing has changed since the time I stopped flying the airline. In fact things have gotten worse.

The presence, mindfulness, patience, perseverance, customer centricity, sensitivity, empathy that an airline crew and staff should demonstrate was thrown away to the wind, became a dustbin matter and the entire experience was a travesty, mockery and inhumane behaviour from Vistara.

As you go international, do you intend to transfer this image of India and Indian crew to the world?

If at all, there is an in flight emergency, do you expect Vistara crew to be responsible and care for the safety and security of passengers, when their basic mindset and values are compromised?

I don’t know and perhaps will never know, since your customer service, nodal and appellate authorities are equally immune to any customer empathy and so also seems the entire Vistara management.

With limited choice in the Indian skies, flying Vistara now can only be a constrained matter and not a preferred choice.

Thank you.

Sincere regards,
Unmesh Brahme

Today, while talking to an interesting enterprise that is creating an aggregator and online marketplace for conscious fashion, the discussion veered to the Achilles Heel point — what is the real meaning of sustainability and how does it transcend over time?

I have been working, or so I thought in the sustainability, corporate responsibility (CSR) and community philanthropy spaces for over two decades and I realise a lot is amiss. For one, after every decade or so (give or take a few years), the more things change the more they remain the same. I gave up being part of the active sustainability and CSR world and would rather create and participate in a thoroughly anti-thesis group which could be called Sustainability Anonymous or CSR Anonymous, very much like Alcoholics Anonymous. And as part of this group, I would say, “I am sorry. Forgive me, I have been a sustainability addict, but I have been sober now (in my case a little over 3 years). And I would like to stay sober.” Unfortunately, when I say this, no one applauds as they would a recovering alcoholic and neither do I get a word of sensitive advice. I may certainly get pelted by sustainability practitioners…

In the global marketplace that is CSR and sustainability, we feed on poverty and people’s vulnerabilities, hoping to find a solution to the perils in society and environment through our own personal development and growth, as we try more and more to understand the system. Even today, sustainability is interpreted as everything environmental (in terms of infrastructure, power, energy efficiency, so on and so forth) and CSR is social (which is the same as donor agencies giving funds to NGOs, only to be replaced by corporations doing the same). The two have not met, since the times immemorial when this conflict use to take the shape and form of indigenous people’s activities not aligning at all with forest conservation (wildlife protection lobby) — they still don’t albeit a few isolated cases in community forestry and wildlife conservation. Though here too, the overall plight of the indigenous communities — their health, education et al status — has not changed.

So what is the point? They definition of sustainability — and how it transcends across time — this is what we started with? Well, it sucks the same way every time across time. There is huge circus out there with all of us (though less of me now, since I have become sober) huddle over our martinis and sparkling wine and beer, wondering about the plight of refugees or the state of environment or “still wondering why is Syria happening?” When in fact, we are responsible for inaction as our blindspots by virtue of belonging to the sustainability space and movement, only help us perpetuate a system of bureaucracy, no systemic change and a perilously non self-effacing sense of self-achievement, praise and fame.

Our projects, processes, due diligence place a limit on our creativity and imagination, innovation and leadership to make the world a better place. We have created a huge welfare and diplomacy machinery, events and conferences, that miss the point by glamorising social and environment issues and not taking the tiny steps required to bring about visible, enduring impact. (more about the use of the word “impact” later, in another piece). I mean, how long should it take for all girls in Indian schools to have access to toilets and safe sanitation and reproductive healthcare practices? Certainly 70 years of freedom should do it! Or not? For how should we keep of hearing of Africa as an “underdeveloped continent” needing assistance and forgiving debt burden, for instance, when that debt burden in fact should be psychologically, historically and morally that of all of us in the global philanthropy, welfare, CSR machinery.

I, if at all I can make the daring, would like to argue for a more human approach to sustainability and CSR, where simple, fundamental, basic change should not take light years. Those with no access to what we have is precisely the reason for inequality and wiping that out is nothing but a case of having a purpose mindset, developing empathy and compassion and a firm resolve not to tolerate sorrow and suffering. Sadly this is lacking today, so welcome to Sustainability Anonymous and this is the only definition I can give you for now, though it may “suck” for some and work for others.

I spent many years in the advertising business. The years spent and experiences gained lead me to think differently about how we should understand and define brands and the entire reasoning on which brand science is built. Most brand making is a one-way street with ideas, thoughts and the creative processes, howsoever innovative, memorable, insightful, skirting the issue of how just is the brand, how socially relevant it is (apart from the need it fulfills.) Does it uphold the true spirit of human rights, dignity and sustainable living?

Interpretations not withstanding, the intent of brand creation is to generate differentiation that aids in consumer recall and preference, resulting in a sale. This is the standard definition, at least in most cases. What this means is brand creation should first and foremost fuel sale and the essence of the brand is a quality that aids this process. Nothing wrong in this thinking as a standalone, for long-propagated textbook theory. However, a different view merits consideration.

Is Soap Sustainable?

Brands clearly through their omnipresence across print, digital, outdoor and other media push consumers to buy and for brand owners to profit. Brands rarely are connected to the company philosophy or reasoning around values, sustainability, inclusion or ethics. I am yet to see the interaction of these themes into the brand key or ethos, since the application has to be made at the product level and at the level of communication that the brand espouses towards its customers. I often think if companies have ever thought of making their “soap sustainable” instead of mere talk around corporate sustainability. It’s a moot point to note that while the two are intrinsically connected, in practice, they rarely meet. While a business may talk about its efforts in corporate social responsibility, they are unable to connect them to the product brand. Allow me to give some examples.

Are we purpose consumers?

Post consumer waste, the result of consuming a brand, has no cognizant destination — meaning we don’t know what happens to the wrappers, packaging, other material that goes into making the brand available in an attractive manner to consumers. Except for believing that there is an unorganised, victimised recycling industry out there (with its attendant issues of child labor, poor working conditions, occupation hazards) and in some cases the municipal corporations and other government departments somehow manage to succeed in proper waster management — the landfills and multiple waste trucks heading to unknown destinations, not withstanding. There is no disclosure on the packaging, neither do we know the societal and environmental impact, including climate change, that the products have created, through the supply / sourcing chain. We consume products — aka brands — blindly not thinking of the impact of consumption on society. The brand thus is not a purpose brand and neither are we purpose consumers.

Mocking the Poor

Brands market similar aspirational needs to consumers everywhere — be they rich or poor, oppressed or happy. Which means a high net worth individual and a poor person in a remote rural village living hand-to-mouth existence are subject to the same communication to buy the brand. The only difference — the former has the money, the latter does not. The former does not mind disposable income spent on brands, the latter (poor) feels disposed since the advertising is so powerful and the need creation so omnipotent that there is no choice but to buy the brand — the have-nots are compelled to buy aerated drinks as against investment in drinking water, organic local food versus processed foods — the list is endless — and the casualty is living a life of dignity. Brands thus are responsible for not only violating basic human rights to a peaceful existence, but also creating a one-sided brand belief system based on mere creative thought that is not linked to values or human ethos. The mindfulness with which brands interact with the have-nots does not exist.

I had a theory or a framework, which I proved during my advertising days. It said, put simply, that brands should create purchasing power and social investment before selling to the customers (especially those in the middle to lower income classes). My proof rested on working with, to give an example, an oil company, whose lubricant brand worked with farmers to restore water regimen such that agriculture could take place for tractors to run and lubricants to be used — thus creating both a purpose and license to sell.

What is a Purpose Brand?

First and foremost, it is not a brand created by rock music, happiness depicting urban elitist models or cookie promoting housewives or even milk consuming children. These imageries only serve to propel few of the many to lead the life of the haves, a struggle they may live through for decades, before one of the tribe emerges successful, only to launch into the habits and traits of the haves, repeating the cycle. We thus are in a situation of ‘one have and her/his brand(s)’, been spectated upon by thousands have-nots, for whom the world of brands is a mirage.

A purpose brand is a brand created and marketed such that it’s very existence, sales, communication and marketing is pegged to creating purchasing power before selling to it. Inclusion and access to all before selling to all.