Creative Business Thoughts

Is Village a Business GoldMine?

2006-03-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

Sundar's family is involved in agriculture for long time. His village is like any other ordinary indian village with water/electricity scarcity duing summer and excessive water logging during monsoon/winter season.

Sundar wants to think and grow big. He wanted to start a shop in the city. His business idea is simple. He wants to sell household utensils throuth tie-ups with small scale manufacturers of those utensils. Small scale manufaturers always need some kind of marketing in order to reach people with their products. Sundar's idea is to become interface between small scale manufacturers and customers.

He talked to a manufacturer near his village who is making small to mid size stainless steel cups for storing spices, oil etc... He striked a deal with the manufacturer that he will take the products door-to-door for sales in the city. In return, they agreed for a commission percentage.

Sundar doesn't strike the deal immediately. He talked to many small scale manufacturers near his village and arrived at the manufacturer's choice by considering product quality, cost and commission percentage. His target customers are simple average households who need low cost
products.

Sundar's day starts with waking up early at 4.00 A.M. He did very good home work before starting this business by collecting statistics on locations of his target households in the city. He used to select a location from the target pool every morning. Then, he used to calculate on how effectively he can reach the location with respect to less travel cost. Since all his target locations are in the city, he used to prefer taking Government Bus transport service which starts from 5.15 A.M in the morning.

Sundar started door-to-door selling of the products in his target locations and slowly he received good response from the people. Now it is the time to start a shop in the city and more tie-ups with diversified small scale manufacturers. Sundar rented a space in an industrial area consisting of mid size industries in the city near to the railway statioin. His idea is to attract middle class workers working in the industries and also the rail commuters.

Sundar started displaying various kind of steel products in his shop which attracted more people due to its quality and low price. Sundar's business started giving profit!

Now, Sundar wants to move up in a big way. He needs more space now as more and more small scale manufacturers showed interest in selling their products through Sundar. Sundar can't afford to more space within a city as it will cost him more. He identified an emerging part of the city (through research and statistics ofcourse!) which will gain market value in 5-8 years and purchased 10000 sq.ft of land there.

Sundar wanted to construct the building for his shop. He knows that hiring construction workers from the city will be too costly. He talked to an agent in his village who used to arrange construction workers from the village. The agent agreed to complete the construction in short span of time without compromise in quality in less time.

Sundar's shop got ready within 8 months. Sundar started operations from his new built shop.

Many consumer durables firm started showing interest in selling their products through 'Sundar's Shop'. His shop earned enough brand identity to attract people. Now, Sundar is in need of helpers who can look after the customers, do billing and other set of activities.

Again, he contacted an agent in his village. Through him he hired 50 persons from his village. Sundar provided accomodation with food for those 50 persons adjacent to his shop premises. He had this thought before constructing his shop and so built enough accomodation provisions in his land. Since the helpers are from village, their needs are very minimal and so they are highly satisfied with the facilities provided by Sundar.

Now, Sundar's Shop is one of the famous shop in the city providing all kinds of consumer durables having high quality and atleast 30% cost less than the similar products available through his competitors!

Can you identify the value addtion by the Village in Sundar's business? Else, identify the word Village in this article. Each time you find one, you see the Opportunity it provided to Sundar!

Mathematics of Business

2006-03-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

We have all kinds of businesses running in today's environment. Some of them are chemical, scientific, technology, manufacturing apart from service industry.

Do we have any business related to mathematics? Google is one example, but how many businesses really trap the power of mathematics.

From the school days, mathematics is being thought as theoretical without any application point of view. In India, mostly children are being groomed to become a scientist, doctor (medicine) or engineer (all kinds). Have anybody asked their children to have an ambition of becoming a doctorate in mathematics? Mostly mathematics is considered as a last option!

I can say mathematics is a queen of all subjects. It is very elegant and you can solve a problem like writing a poem. How many of us enjoyed Fermat's theorem and Probability?

In IT terms, mathematics is always like "horizontal" business unit supporting "verticals" like chemical, retail, engineering business units.

Can't we make this horizontal business unit as vertical? We can! To start with, parents need to encourage their children to take up mathematics related subjects. Also, curriculum must include more application side of mathematics.

More and more research publications should be published related to mathematical applications and all of them must include a business idea related to the research! As part of college internship, mathematics students must be asked to execute a business idea from those research publications. Funding should be encouraged for those projects.

This article may look like another mathematical theorem! Apart from that, I hope it also contains the application side of the theorem!

Sudha, The Home Maker

2006-03-07T22:26:00.000-08:00

Sudha has a Post Graduate degree in Commerce. She is a class topper also. So, are you thinking that Sudha is working for a MNC or NBFC?

Wrong!

Sudha is a house wife looking after her two children for the past 10 years. After marriage, Sudha had to shift to a city as her husband is working there. Sudha's husband is working in a clothing factory as accountant. Since Sudha hailed from a village, she is not at all comfortable with city's working culture. That is the main reason not opting for a job in the City initially. She is an efficient home maker and she is very fond of cooking!

Slowly, Sudha's family start feeling the pinch of money shortage. Once their children start growing, expenses increased. Sudha decided to go for a job but now added to her 'City' fear, her lack of experience in Commerce field really made her uncomfortable.

Oneday, one of her relative visited her home. Sudha made a delicious food for her relative. The relative praised her a lot for her food. Sudha told her relative about her necessity to look for a job.

Her relative waited for a minute and asked Sudha: "Are you very specific about the type of job?"

"Not at all, I want to add some money to the pool to cater sudden expenses", replied Sudha.

"You are a very good cook; One of my friend, who is working for a heavy metal company, is not at all happy with his company's canteen food. He is in a position to recommend for a new caterer. Are you interested in supplying food for the company?", asked the relative.

After a minute of silence, Sudha replied confidently "Yes, I can. After all, I am having 10 years of experience in cooking!"

Her relative laughed and said : "Jokes apart, What you had said is 100% correct. Whatever be the field, if you have more experience, your confidence will zoom up"

Sudha started supplying food for the metal company at nominal rate. Initially she started serving only afternoon meals. On receiving great appreciations from employees, the company asked her to supply for morning and evening times.

Now, she is a confident entrepreneur employing some 25 persons and catering to 50 customers. She is the primary bread winner for her family! Her husband had quit his low paying job and he is now taking care of marketing and accounting for their venture!

Identify your skills, whatever it may be! You can be an entrepreneur!

Decisions define your business curve

2006-03-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

Krish has a family property of 4800 sqft of land in a busy area of the city. Krish's grandfather got that property long time back and it's value is really zooming up now as the area is much developed with all the facilities. It is very very tough to get a piece of land in that area now.

Krish wants to grow the property. He wants to add more value into it. He received different advices from his near and dear. Most of them asked him to hand over the property to construction builders, as the market value of that land is very high. Some of them asked him to start a business of his own there. Better idea!

What business can he start in that area? Ideas are poured on him from advertising to retail. Krish is very much confused now!

One Sunday evening, Krish went to see his land as he usually does. He has made some precautions for his land so that nobody is spoiling it. The area was very busy. Due to the presence of various kind of shops, big and small, people used to throng that area during weekends to buy things.

All kind of businesses like clothing, footwear, restaurants, all sorts of retail are setup in that area. This created more choices for people to select their things in a cost effective manner in addition to good quality.

Krish was amused to see that much crowd in that place! He heard a hush in one place where two persons fought with each other. Both have cars and they are fighting for parking space. One can think of how difficult will it be to park a car in such busy area.

Suddenly an idea sparked in Krish's mind: "If I start a shop here, I need to compete with all existing businesses. Why can't I select a business which has less competition?"

He happily returned home with all business plans to execute. Can you guess what he is going to do with his land?

"A Multi-Level Parking Lot".

eCommerce Credit

2006-03-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Caesey is an active user of ecommerce sites. He used to buy lot of gadgets, books and anything related to electronics. He found the ecommerce sites to be more cost effective where he can get best products, thanks to the sellers competition.

Caesey is in India for a vacation. Yesterday, he went to an internet browsing center in Bangalore to look for a digital camera in his favourite ecommerce site. He is surprised to see a product which met all his expectations and also at unbelievable cost. He wanted to fetch that product immediately, as definitely there would be enough competition to buy that camera.

When Caesey prepared to enter his credit card number, he realized suddenly that it is already expired a day before. He got his new credit card 2 weeks back but forgot to take that card in his wallet.

Caesey is very disappointed. As expected, the product sold out within an hour!

Caesey thought: "How nice it would be, if the ecommerce site provides me with a temproary credit to block that product. After all, I am a regular user of the site!!!"

Won't it be a win-win situation for both ecommerce service prodiver and Caesey?

Improving Customer relationships

2006-03-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

Rahul went to a doctor for consultation. He wanted to get treatment for his back pain problem.

"Doctor, yesterday when i bent down, I got a minor pain in my back-hip region. Initially, the pain was minimal and later on it aggravated. I could not sleep during last night. I could not even sit also", said Rahul.

After checking Rahul, doctor said "It might be a problem with your disc. Get these scans". Doctor prescribed some scan reports.

Rahul was frightened. Is it really that much serious? He completely lost his sleep that night due to pain as well as doctor's remarks.

Next day, Rahul went to another doctor for a second opinion.

"Doctor, day before yesterday when i bent down, I got a minor pain in my back-hip region", said Rahul.

After checking Rahul, doctor asked "Did you get this before?".

"I got similar pain two months back when I suddenly stand-up from my chair", Rahul said.

"What profession are you in?" asked doctor.

"I am a construction architect, drawing building design diagrams mostly in computer", said Rahul.

"In a day, what will be your drawing hours?" asked doctor.

"It may be for around 6 hours." said Rahul.

"Then it could be some postural problems. Try not to bend too much for a week. I will prescribe some medicines. Try them for a week. It will be fine. Come back to me after a week for checkup", said the doctor.

Rahul is very delighted. "Doctor, is it not related to disc?"

Doctor smiled. "How did you arrive at this conclusion? Sometimes assumption itself is a big disease!".

Rahul thanked doctor and went home without any worries. He tried medicines and after two days he felt the improvement. After a week he went to the doctor again. Doctor referred him to an Orthopeadic specialist. The Ortho specialist told him about the correct postures while working, sleeping etc...

Rahul is a very satisfied customer and he referred many of his friends to the doctor.

Did you notice the consulting approach of the second doctor? It means a lot in the business!

New Business thoughts

2004-07-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

Today, money alone can't bring better customer services. Who can say that money and customer services are directly proportional?

Customer services can be improved only by healthy competition. Why can't we create such competition to improve the services?

The platform is set. Identify the services which need improvement. Inject competition between those service providers. Reap the benefit!

Tool available: INTERNET. Any thoughts?

Business Failures

2004-07-06T01:39:00.000-07:00

In this increasing world of entrepreneurship, success and failure are common outcomes.

A consulting company incorporated by an MBA from a top management school filed bankruptcy in its fourth year.

A small retail shop, selling household utensils, formed by a villager in a booming area of a city grows 100 times within 3 years of setup. Currently he is owning 10 outlets catering to different markets in the same area of the city; no need to say about the market value of the owned land. He did volume business!

What went wrong and where?