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.
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
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