The chat room: End bandh culture and Brand Bengaluru can still be saved
The Cauvery protest that literally singed the city with mobs setting fire to buses and other vehicles has taken a toll on Brand Bengaluru. Its image of being a conducive and business-friendly city has taken a beating. The apex industry body, Assocham, voiced the obvious when it recently observed that the violence over sharing of Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu had severely dented Bengaluru’s image as the Silicon Valley of India, home to almost all the Fortune 500 companies, says Harish Bijoor to Joyeeta Chakravorty.
Calling September 12, Black Monday, Harish Bijoor, Chief Executive Officer of brand and business strategy firm Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, believes it may take a while for the city to recover from the battering it has received, but it can be done. "It was a Black Monday for Bengaluru and if the city was a stock we would have hit our 52 week low that Monday," says Bijoor, an expert in branding and brand strategies.
"This city came to the fore just 25 years ago, coinciding with liberalisation in India, which started in 1991. Ever since then IT and ITeS (BPO) companies, bio-tech, retail and now hi-tech industries have made Bengaluru their home. The business contribution the city makes to the annual software exports of India is significant. And that to an extent is Brand Bengaluru," he notes.
So can the government undo the damage caused to the city? "Yes, it can undo what has happened. It should convince the top business houses that no offender will get away and should pursue every one of them. It should not be that difficult in this day and age of smartphone cameras and CCTV recordings. There is enough evidence about the havoc and the miscreants. The government should show concern and go after the offenders and tell people that it means business when it comes to their safety and property," he advises.
His other suggestion is to compensate the people who have suffered losses in the violence. "Get out there and compensate anybody with any kind of physical loss. Thirty five buses have been burnt and there needs to be compensation. Also, a blanket guarantee must be given to all businesses alike that Black Monday will not be repeated ever again," he stresses.
As for Assocham putting Bengaluru’s loss in monetary terms at around Rs 25,000 crore, Bijoor says it is not as important as the impact of the violence on the city’s reputation. "I am not really concerned about the monetary loss as it is a notional number. What’s more important is the image loss of the city, which is at the forefront of it all. The value of that is priceless. Brand is a thought and it is a powerful thought in the minds of people overseas and in India. On Monday this powerful thought was shaken and stirred. It did not jolt Bengalureans as much as it jolted the minds of those who don't live in the city, because outsiders will make more of it. Hence steps need to be taken to assuage that fear in the minds of people soon," he sums up.
