Skip to main content

Bad business in crowded markets

Some business models that work very well in the US would be an absolute disaster in countries like India with almost every city, town or village approaching megalopolis proportions... 1. Dry cleaning (used to also be called Martinising and let us not get into that here) - I mean why would anyone in India dry clean? Once you travel on a local train in Mumbai you are lucky to come out with all your limbs intact - you are not worrying about your clothing being dry or clean anymore 2. Car wash facilities - again another vain attempt to showcase your assets here in the US where everyone is in a car so there is plenty of time to admire the other person's vehicle at the next traffic light. But in Mumbai where you run the risk of non human intervention with your vehicle that can cause all kinds of goop to attach to your asset you are not going to spend more money to keep cleaning it. 3. Jimmy Choo shoes - This contraption is a deceptively ingeneous way to allow dumb Americans to part with their cash. As to the question of allowing dumb Indians to part with it - have you seen the sidewalks of Mumbai lately? Or more importantly have you seen 'a sidewalk' anywhere in India? Perhaps that may not prevent the truly dumb to subscribe to a few pairs anyway? 4. Credit cards - America runs on credit. India runs on cash (or threats). Conversely the one business model that is 100% successful in India and cannot be replicated in the US is that of the local mandir or temple. I just cannot imagine a Hanuman in the middle of Times Square taking unauthorized space from the TKTS booth. Not that it cannot be done but there are just not enough subscribers.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
2 comments
Read more

Peru, South America - Week well spent

Growing up in India the only Peru I knew of was a tropical fruit (Guava for those whose lingua is English).   Not until high school did I discover that it was also a country in the South American continent. So it was this early April week that we decided to hit up Peru - the land of the once glorious Inca people that lived 500 years ago.  Today Peru is the third largest country on that continent with a diverse geography that stretches from the drier Pacific coast plains to the high mountains of the Andes and the Amazon river valley to its east. Our trip was primarily a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the last remaining, lost (now found and documented), large scale, mostly undamaged, city of the Inca nobility, called Machu Picchu (MP).  The Inca were great architects and builders.  MP is a UNESCO world heritage site affording it high visibility to the tourism trade and therefore crowded year round.  Our timing was not quite high season allowing us...
1 comment
Read more

You are important to us

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...
Post a Comment
Read more