You can take an Indian out of India but
you can’t take India out of an Indian
India is a
country of paradoxes. One of the oldest civilizations in the world yet
inhabited by the world’s youngest population. A country full of poverty but still
has the fastest growing population of neo rich. Though it has 50% of the
world’s illiterates, it has almost conquered the mighty United States of
America with its intellectual prowess and is striving hard to occupy its
rightful place in the world. It is said that in India for every 20 kilometres
the languages changes, the people change and so does the food habits. It is not
one country; rather it is many countries rolled into one mighty India.
India is a
place of great opportunities but one needs to tread carefully. Given below are
examples of companies, individuals and even places using Indian nativity and
ingenuity successfully.
1. Frugal engineering: India is the
country of the frugal engineering. Low cost products and ideas are a great hit.
Right from 5 rupees icecream, 50 rupees shirt, 250 rupees smart phone (Freedom
phone). India is the land of opportunities. But care should be exercised.
Indians are very shrewd and can very easily separate the grain from the chaff.
Nokia realized this to their horror. The company that was synonymous with cell
phones in India and the product that was the first phone for crores of Indians
had to bite the dust. Their crime - not being up to date and the inability to
offer the latest in the technology. And a belief that Indians always want only
the cheapest of the products.
2. Jugaad: Jugaad is the Indian way of managing things with
the least of the resources. It is the Indian way of thumping the world. In
India everything is a challenge and Indians have mastered the game of doing
things with minimum fuss and maximum result. Where else in the world would one
find “Indian Chinese food, Bread Bajji, Bread Upma”. Old rice is not thrown
away it becomes vadiyum. Or even better it is made into tasty curd rice that is
greatly relished. India can show the world the way to recycle and use things.
Jugaad the country vehicle used in Northern India is a marvel of Ingenuity. It
is a wonder that it moves at all! Very noisy and slow, it shows a face of India
that we all should admire. We will win, no matter what it takes to achieve the
goal.
3. Dharavi one of the biggest slums in the world continues to astound people. It is
only 500 acres in size but houses an astonishing 3 lakh people. It has people
cheek to jowl. But there is hope and aspirations. Dharavi’s total turnover is estimated
at a mind boggling 1 billion US dollars (Rupees 6,700 crores). Most of its residents
are very poor and are not well qualified. But they have one sterling quality that
modern MBA’s lack –fire in the belly. It is that quality that drives people
from Dharavi to succeed against all odds.
4. The willingness to stay and fight:
Coming from the bottom of the ranks has made Indians very street smart. They
are very adept at improvising and staying ahead of the competition. Indian food
has blossomed and has become even more popular after the entry of the MNC food
giants. Indian Vada Pav and Pav Bhaji are giving MacDonald and KFC a run for
their money and are winning the battle hands down.
Indians are
good at street level tactics. Pepsi realized this when it reentered India in
the late 80s. It realized that its production line was not operational. The
reason - the returnable glass bottles were not coming back to the bottling
plants. The perpetuator! Its agile and nimble competitor who quietly bought
Pepsi’s empty bottle off the street and smashed them into smithereens. By the
time Pepsi got new bottles the damage was done – the dream of a spectacular
reentry had turned sour.
A MNC shaving
Systems Company that rewrote the way men shave and present themselves had a
nasty surprise when they entered India. Their sales people discovered rusted blades
in many markets. It was the handiwork of its Indian competitor which bought their
blades and deliberately rusted them and reintroduced them into the market. Naturally
the customer would take the shiny Indian blade set rather than the rusted MNC
product. Truly amazing!
5. One rupee shampoo sachet was the brain child of C.K. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director
of CavinKare. CavinKare introduced Chic Shampoo in a sachet form for the first
time in 1982. It is one innovation all Indians
should be proud of. It was a master stroke. C.K.
Ranganathan realized that for most Indians a 100 ml bottle of shampoo
was simply not affordable. But the aspiration remained. That is where the Indian
brilliance came in. He introduced the same shampoo (not an inferior downgraded
product) at a price of 1 rupee. It was a win-win situation. The customer got
what he wanted and the manufacturers got the volumes and the market exploded.
It was the
best sampling technique and with the expanding incomes the sachet owners started
buying shampoo bottles. And sachets paved the way for convenience usage and
since then sachet usage has expanded to many other products like pickles,
toothpaste, jams, fairness creams, pan masala, hair oil, packaged water and
many others. Sachets are the inspiration for the very popular pre-paid recharge
mobile cards. India is one of the few countries in the world where pre-paid
cards out sell post paids by 10:1. This behaviour finds resonance across income
categories. Indians are very happy and comfortable with the hassle free convenience
that prepaids offer. The power of usage
or non-usage remains with the customer.
6. Aravind
Eye Hospitals, Madurai is an eye hospital chain founded by Dr.
Govindappa Venkataswamy. As of 2012, Aravind has treated nearly 32 million
patients and performed 4 million surgeries, the majority of them done at a very
low cost or completely free making it the world’s largest and most productive
eye-care facility. And the inspiration came from the speed and efficiency of
operations of the MacDonald chain. Aravind emulated the service efficiency of
MacDonald’s and adapted it to the eye care.
Aravind performs surgeries on a large scale
with treatment being free or heavily subsidized for the poor, cross subsidized
by the paying patients. Aravind established its own intraocular lens
manufacturing facility, Auro lab and blood bank to reduce costs. The cost of
the intraocular lens was brought down from Rs 12,000/- ($ 200) to Rs 300 ($ 5).
Great example of what fierce determination and a single minded purpose can
achieve.
So how do we develop the magic skill of Indian
nativity?
1. Keep your eyes and
ears open: Keeping eyes and ears open is very important. Oyo rooms was a brilliant
concept, arising out of a dire need – a need to have hassle free, comfortable, affordable
and reliable rooms for travellers.
2. India has a great
history, explore its texts and do research: Indian history is full of great products and services.
Indians had the know-how of making the Aeroplane (Pushpaka Vimana) much before
the Wright brothers. Our books and scriptures could be a treasure of wisdom and
knowledge.
3. Try to find out best
practices in rural India: In a country of illiterates there can be lots of wisdom and solutions in
the verbal domain. Recording and understanding the verbal knowledge could be
the first strep towards finding best practices long hidden from the formal
written domain.
4. Listen to
people’s problems, opportunities could be hiding behind: People usually have problems. Correct
understanding and analysis of the problem could be a great avenue for new
business opportunities.
5. Try to apply successful
western concepts to solve Indian problems: Aravind eye hospital is a brilliant example of taking
a successful assembly line concept and applying for a completely different
field. And the result - many Indians are getting the gift of eyesight.
6. Question the holy
cows: Questioning the holy cows should be practiced. Develop a healthy sense
of silent questioning and skepticism. Always question yourself “If I were in this
position, how would I solve it?”
7. Be willing to
experiment and do not be fixated by a single idea or concept: New discoveries and
new products will not be borne quickly. Be willing to seamlessly move from one
concept to another. Mixing and matching of various concepts is the need of the
hour.
8. Find a social relevance: In the world that
is slowly getting jaded with materialism and unlimited supply of products,
social relevance could find ready acceptance. The stupendous success of
Patanjali range of products is a live example of what cleverly thought and executed
nativity can achieve.
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