Sometimes Copying is More Profitable Than Innovating

One Wise Man has said, "What is the use of reinventing the wheel, when it is already there?". It is true, sometimes.If you locate something - product or a service - which is a hot one and everybody wants it, there is no reason why you should not copy it. How many times have you thought that this is a good product, but still people don't buy it. You might have noticed some problems about it. May be it's location; may be it's service; may be it's presentation. Anything, which you think, if changed will bring in a great demand for the product. 

Go ahead and copy it. Sometimes, you need to learn from the First mover. First mover may have done many mistakes, which you will be able to correct. Being in the system, you may not know what are the problems. This things happens with everyone. That is why, Kamath hotel management has a unique model of carrying out surprise audits from Guests. When some external party looks at your systems, they can pinpoint any deficiencies, any lacuna that your system has. This same lacuna can be taken advantage of while copying. If you are copying a hit product, there are chances that it will be more profitable. 

In fact, I would go to the extent of saying that when you start up, don't go for innovation immediately. While successful innovation might bring in huge amount of success, the chances or the probabilities of successful innovation are quite low. Hence, I would suggest that you should go for a copy cat model at the start of your company or a business. Once, you have settled and there is a good cash flow, you can then think about the innovation model. 

Working Space

We start in the morning and go to office. We remain in office/factory/workspace for almost the whole day before returning home in the evening. If you really think, you spend more than 8 to 10 hours per day in your office. And all that time is your productive time. The time in which you work. You create. You multiply. The whole time that you are at your workplace, you are normally working and seldom get time to take a nap or rather the power nap like the Virus. Oh! It is our Viru Sahastrabuddhe from 3 Idiots. 

And when you consider your home against that. Suppose you start to your work at around 8.30 in the morning and return back by 7 pm. From 7 pm till 8.30 am, you watch TV, you sleep, you go to some shops, you walk around. I am just trying to point out that in the less than 12 hours that we are at home, normally you sleep for major time. I will not say anything about home here, but I must say that if the workspace is in your control, you must keep it so that it is the most comfortable for you. Whatever you have, the arrangements, the table, the chair, etc., everything must be what you comfortable with. Afterall, it is here where you generate a business. 

It must also be said here, though in lighter vein, that the people where you work should also have a very good frequency with you. Because if they do not have the right frequency, how will your working time go? You have to face that person for majority of your work time. If the frequency is not right, imagine what happens to your mood. And this mood actually then sets the tone on how your work. 

Think About It !

Motivate Yourself After Failure

Whenever someone has tried to do something, failure has been there. It took more than 10000 experiments to perfect the bulb. Had Thomas Edison not motivated himself after each failure to make the commercially possible bulb, we might not have seen the light of the Bulb. Similarly, it took many efforts to invent each and everything that we see it easily today. The manufacturing techniques that we see are made possible after many trials and after each trial the team had to get up and see that they discovered another way to make things possible. 

These failures sometimes are so big that it puts everything out of the track. Imagine something in which you have poured your heart being destroyed. It is painful. However, it takes an immense amount of courage to bounce back. The most important thing in the process is to accept. Accept that something can go wrong; something has gone wrong. Once your mind has accepted this, it should come to the terms and understand that this is not the end of the Road. There is a world beyond the thing you were doing and you need to do something else. Whatever you do, you need to take it positively. While success teaches us how to do things, failure teaches how not to do things. We should learn our lessons from failures too. It is time to move on. Once bitten twice shy - This is the mode in which the world operates. Once our tongue burns due to hot milk, we blow the buttermilk too. (I know this is a very bad translation, but I hope you take the point home). 

It may take some time to feel confident about yourself, but you need to meet different mentors, different successful people and read books. Your life must not be made of failures only, you might have done some good things too. You need to go into your past to dig out the good things you did, the successes you met. This will increase your confidence. And confidence is only the main thing that you need. Once you have confidence, you can do anything in the world. 

Payment Service For First Time Customers

Business are no longer local. For a whole-seller or a manufacturer, it was previously the physical visits that were necessary to sell their products across different places. You have to move physically or you have to advertise so that your customer notices you and orders you. Not anymore. Internet age started in India somewhere in the last decade of the last century. But it really picked up pace in this age of Mobile. First it were net cafes and then it was mobile where people surfed the internet. Then came the 3G which really moved people from internet cafes to the mobile. And the real game changer was the Jio launching 4G. It catapulted India to a big user base of internet. 

While there were e-commerce companies in the first decade of this century which pulled funds electronically from individuals or retail customers, it is not slowly coming into B2B too. The internet age has started a string of companies which list different businesses on their website - free or paid. The front-runners in them are the Indiamart and the Tradeindia. They focus mainly on Manufacturers. There is another one called as the JustDial. This is also a business listing service but it's focus is rather on shops and traders. They have a good database for each cities and their people have scanned the city to list many shops. They also have different categories. So, if a business wants to look for a distributor, they can look at the JustDial. If distributors want to look for a manufacturer, they can look at Indiamart and Tradeindia. 

Though this considerably eases the finding part, the other part still remains a problem. Trust. The manufacturer needs to be liberal to supply goods on credit or the trader should trust  the manufacturer to pay in advance. Only then a deal or a business can happen. This space has now been addressed by Indiamart through their service. Businesses can now list prices or their products on Indiamart and traders can buy them. If they want to negotiate or discuss with supplier, they can call them. After that, the businesses can actually generate a proforma invoice with goods details and send a link as sms or email to the trader so that the payment can be done online. The payment is through Indiamart and this service is only for a paid customer of Indiamart (I guess). So, the manufacturer is genuine and trader can trust the manufacturer. This can really be a Gamechanger. 

Have You Got The Big Picture

One who takes time out to see the Big Picture will be the one who will get it. Because he has already decided what he wants. In that Big picture, he has visualized and found the mojo of his life. That mojo will drive him towards that Big Picture. Instead of going to office daily and doing the day to day activities, it is better off to visualize the Big Picture and then work towards it. The Big Picture is like a Dream. Someone has truly said that Dreams are not what we see during sleep, rather Dreams are that which won't let you sleep. Once you have seen the Dream, it is only in your hands to run after it. You have to work the details. You have to see if the Dream in indeed possible. What are the steps that need to be done? Is there a team needed? What type of team is needed? What type of resources are needed? 

What are the parallel activities that can be carried out. Many of you might know about Mukesh Ambani. He is the Chief of Reliance Group. When he was young and his Father the Great Dhirubhai was setting up a factory, Mukesh was called to work for the Factory. The project completion speed of Reliance group are second to none. While setting up the project, many companies do not allocate appropriate resources and they do not complete the project on time. The time lost is never considered as a loss because it does not come into accounting. But the time lost should be considered as an Opportunity cost. Say Reliance & 'OTHER' company start a similar project at the same time. The estimated completion date of the project is one year. What Reliance does is that it identifies all the steps that could be done in parallel and sequence. Then it allocates all the resources required, often more, and completes the project in 9 months. The factory starts production in the 10th month and is already catering to the customers. The 'OTHER' meanwhile is allocating its resources as and when they get it. The result being that the project is late by 3 months. That three months is never bothering to the company. But in those six months, Reliance has already got the upper hand and has garnered enough market share. Secondly, it has started earning in these six months and already paid back on its capital. These opportunity costs matter. 

Similarly, to advance towards the Big Picture of yours, you should allocate all the resources properly at a very early stage. 

What To Do When Nothing To Do?

Things happen very fast. Time flies by at break neck speed. We plan our time, our meetings so as to align them to our goals. But once in a while it happens that some meeting is cancelled or there is power failure or might be some other reason (reason is not important), & you have time - free time. This time is unscheduled and it takes you by surprise. You are not used to spending time free; whenever you find you have some, you plan entertainment or play, etc. And so when it comes at unexpected free time on unexpected occasion, you suddenly get bored and are unprepared to do anything. You fumble upon and take out your telephone and go past the contact list to see if you want to call anybody. You just roam around, may be! 

Whenever such time comes, you can do a couple of things actually. You can actually go through your schedule again and see if you want to add anything. Or if there are certain things which can be pre-poned or can be completed now instead of waiting for the scheduled time. You can also look at organizing your bag/cupboard/table. Many a times it happens that you just stuff your bag or cupboard with something thinking that someday you will sort it out. And you don't find time. This free time is the perfect time. Take out your bag and clean it. Throw out the things that you want. You might also have kept some articles or some movie to be read/watched in free time. Do that. This is the free time that you got. 

It is also time to review your time table or goal list to see if they are relevant or they need a change. Things need to be updated with passing time. May be this is the time to do that. May be this is the time to redefine your goals. Redefine your steps towards the goal.  Go and find stuff like that and utilize your free time. You will be free of the guilt that you did not utilize your time properly.

Story Of Sinhagad!

Sinhagad! This is a famous fort in Pune, Maharashtra. It has a story attached to it and the story has a great lesson. The fort was called Kondana. Previously with Adilshah, this fort was taken by Shivaji Maharaj only to be given to Mughals over a treaty. It was at this time that Shivaji wanted to win back the Kondana Fort. He called his friend and a fighter Tanaji Malusare and entrusted him with the task. Tanaji postponed his son's marriage date to get the control of Kondana. The famous words of Tanaji 'Aadi Lagin Kondanyache mag aamchya raybache'. He climbed the stiff cliff of Kondana using the Ghorpads (big lizards) and got on Kondana from back side along with his brother and his few troops. There was no other way to reach on Kondana. 

There ensued a fight between the Mughal Sardar Udaybhan and Tanaji Malusare and after fighting bitterly, Tanaji was killed. Seeing their leader die, all the Maratha troops started to go back from where they came. It is here that the main turning point of the story lies. Tanaji's brother spotted that the Maratha troops were going back. He immediately ordered cutting of all the ropes using which they came on top of the Fort. There was no way out for the Maratha troops. They thought they are going to die any way. They turned and fought back. And they just did not fight to live, but they fought to win. And they defeated the mighty Mughals. On learning the news, Shivaji Maharaj was deeply grieved and could not help but utter words, 'Gad aala pun Sinha gela'. He renamed the Kondana after Tanaji Malusare as 'Sinhagad'. 

There is a great lesson in the story. If you have other options, you will simply quit and chose the easier option. But if your all options are cut then you do all the possible things because you simply are aware that all other options are cut. Business is similar. If you have options, you would just run around. Quit and seek the easy way.