The Tipping Point

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about how little things make a big difference. I used to wonder how the book became a best seller. Don't we all know this. Common truth. Mundane bland statement. Restating the obvious isn't literature.

Let me share my little experience. It all began when our Palio had just gotta go. Our first. It brought new born Nitika home from the hospital, drove us through streets of Bangalore, accompanied us to Nasik, Pune, Mysore, Ooty and in and about the city of Mumbai. Faithful and dependable Palio. But the circle of life catches up and it had to go. Unlike the good old family car Fiat of yore, which lasted for close to twenty years, this Fiat had  managed just eight. So much for Indian liberalisation and American consumerism. We had moved away from the Fabian socialist ideologies of the loyalist sixties.

Now, the decision had to be made for buying a new car. Thanks to Dr. Manmohan Singh, India post 1991 has being seeing a barrage of new entrants in the car market. Toyotas, Hondas, Mercedes Benzes, Volkswagon, Skodas, Fords, GMs apart from Maruti, Mahindras and Tatas, have been vying for the Indian consumer attention. Never mind the roads, these beauties can be spotted racing along highways and city roads. We obligingly fall into this consumer segment.

After test driving the myriad cars, we narrowed down to three points of choice - Honda Civic, Vokswagon Jetta and Toyota Corolla Altis. It is said, many of the complex problems faced by decision makers involve multiple conflicting objectives. The Civic had the sporty look and a cool interior. The Jetta was superb driving experience. German mean machine - what pick up, what efficiency and very sleek and comfortable interior. The Corolla Altis had great looks, great efficiency and Toyota's trademark super efficient service back up. Then, there was the price - all the three were in the same price band. So there it was - Jetta, Civic or Altis...Altis, Civic or Jetta... The decision was taking our weekends. Discussion, internet searches, asking friends and family for advice; we were leaving no stone unturned for gathering more information. We are MBAs with keen minds and follow Harvard Business Review, Forbes magazine and CNBC on a regular basis. We are also engineers and therefore analytical reasoning should come easy. One CNBC expert on cars recommended -"people who thought with the heart bought the Civic, those thinking from the mind bought the Altis or the Jetta."..Civic, Jetta or Altis...the question remained unanswered...

Raiffa and Keeney, gurus from Harvard Business School on Decision Making postulate that a confused decision maker, who wishes to make a reasonable and responsible choice among alternatives, can systematically probe his true feelings in order to make those critically important, vexing trade-offs between incommensurable objectives.

Finally, eureka moment appeared- the decision was made. And the winner was THE ALTIS!

And the tipping point was two bags of Rs. 10 Lays American sour cream and onion chips! Toyota scored where Honda and Volkswagon failed! Two weeks after the decision, I can still hear the faint echoes of "Papa, we want the chips car, pleaaassseee! and a silver one".

We have finally bought the "chips car". As mature parents and reasonable adults we donot give in to all the whims and fancies of our kids. We put our foot down. The colour of the car is to be that of sour cream...

Mr. Gladwell, you win!