The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
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The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
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Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#2This story has an underlying theme shared by another story here on HN a few days ago about a mobile app that reached a million users in a year without any viral marketing (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4205571). And that underlying similarity is this - a relentless focus on customers can make up for low marketing spend.
Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#3I can unequivocally state that the conclusion you reach for many corporations or companies in India may be true. But not for these two. The first company is a family/friend owned company of the Karunannidhi empire, often called the first family of Tamil Nadu. The second is owned by a very famous and politically connected man in Tamil Nadu, and now in New Delhi.
In India, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Bajaj and these are among the many companies that are strictly profitable because of state capitalism, or as is more commonly known: Crony Capitalism. I am not going to write an entire political discourse here, and of course, just because they got the permits does not mean they would do extremely well; but it is a significant hurdle.
For a restaurant to operate in any city of any state in India, you need 180 licenses, with 105 of them renewed on a yearly basis. Do you know how many bribes that entails?
For an FM radio station to operate, as a public welfare concern, you MUST pay 65% of your operating profit BEFORE tax to the government for the 'privilege'.
These crony capitalists pay over some money to the politicians, but these extreme barriers to competitive entry in many fields allow them to rake in the profits. Rahul Bajaj is one: any traveler to India must have seen ubiquity in the autorickshaw. Ask the owners of Piaggio how quickly they were decimated when trying to introduce a bigger and better auto, by the so-called authorities, simply by having to get a bunch of licenses and also not being allowed to compete in key markets because of union rules.
The only area in India where you can run an honest company without having to fork over bribes incessantly is the internet.
Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
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Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
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Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#6I can unequivocally state that the conclusion you reach for many corporations or companies in India may be true. But not for these two. The first company is a family/friend owned company of the Karunannidhi empire, often called the first family of Tamil Nadu. The second is owned by a very famous and politically connected man in Tamil Nadu, and now in New Delhi. In India, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Bajaj and these are a…
@kshatrea : Very true. I cant agree on that more. The angle I was looking for was more on how one can achieve heavy success rate without the modern corporate structure or the contemporary methods of marketing.
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Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#7This story has an underlying theme shared by another story here on HN a few days ago about a mobile app that reached a million users in a year without any viral marketing ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4205571 ). And that underlying similarity is this - a relentless focus on customers can make up for low marketing spend.
@ raheemm : Very true, lots of businesses in south india do work on that basis. Word of mouth. No online presence, or social media presence, yet they gather millions of customers.
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Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#8> cleanliness, serving speed and courteous behavior.
The author's definition of courtesy is very different from mine. When I am dining out, here are my expectations:
1. Let me settle down. Do not shove the menu in my face as soon as I put my behind on the chair.
2. Do not hover around my table after you have handed me the menu. It's not rocket science to watch from a distance and see if I am ready to place an order.
3. Bring food in proper order. Do I need to tell you that you don't bring the soup, appetizer, main course and dessert all at once?
4. In between the meal, if you feel the need to interrupt me to ask "do you need something else", do not just barge in. Wait for a pause in conversation, and approach from where I can see you coming. If I am in midst of the conversation, and you teleport behind me, and all of a sudden I hear "do you need something else", that's bad customer service.
These aren't the things you can expect from Sarvana Bhavan. My experience is you get in, there is a huge crowd most of the times, you try to get the attention of a roaming wait staff to get a seat, the seating is too compact and all expectations of reasonable privacy are null and void, the wait staff will hand you the menu as soon as you sit down and many a times just wait there while you go through the menu. Most of the times, you get your appetizers and main course together(speedy service, eh). Once you are done with the meal, the check magically appears - the restaurant is eager to get rid of you.
Bottomline - visit if you are hungry and looking for someplace to stuff something in your face and get out, or you have heard a lot about the place and want to try it. Any other expectations won't be met.
Disclaimer: I was in Chennai for 4 years, and left about 5 years back. Things might have changed since I left, though I won't bet on it.
Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#9If india had complete structure then it would not recieve or indeed need aid from other countries. It would also be hard to bribe anybody as it would be very hard to hide said bribes.
That all said it gets down to the old issues - does it work then why change it. If you have a process that works then however unstructured it is nomatter how you define structure it stilll works. Could it work better, maybe, maybe not.
Also saying something is unstructured is a viewpoint maybe not shared by those in such a company. For them that would be the normal way of doing business so for some it may be unstructured and for others closer to home it is the culture.
If every country looked at a problem the same, it would be rather boring though peacful. One mans idea of structure is another mans idea of extra uneeded overheads and work.
Bottom line if there happy or in business fiscaly sound then nomatter how they work, if there happy then so be it.
Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India
#10> cleanliness, serving speed and courteous behavior. The author's definition of courtesy is very different from mine. When I am dining out, here are my expectations: 1. Let me settle down. Do not shove the menu in my face as soon as I put my behind on the chair. 2. Do not hover around my table after you have handed me the menu. It's not rocket science to watch from a distance and see if I am ready to place an order.…
The staff at the NYC location of Saravana Bhavan is also not particularly friendly or accommodating. The food is decent but the poor service has kept me from returning.