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The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

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Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#11

Post by mayukh »

idiot900 wrote: post #10
irahul wrote: post #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.…

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.

And you are not the target customer (neither am I). They know who their repeat customer is and serve that segment well.

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#12

Post by ashwin_krish »

irahul wrote: post #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.…

Well, sometimes what matters is not how good you are on an absolute scale, rather how better are you than the rest. Also, I agree courteous is more of a subjective point. Hence I did not expand on it much.

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#13

Post by ashwin_krish »

idiot900 wrote: post #10
irahul wrote: post #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.…

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.

I must try out the NYC branch sometime!

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#14

Post by ashwin_krish »

mayukh wrote: post #11
idiot900 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And you are not the target customer (neither am I). They know who their repeat customer is and serve that segment well.

Very well said. They customers they serve are retained and expanded. The idea of restaurants in India is very different from the ones in US or rest of the world. Hence, there may be quite a disparity in the idealogy and system of business.

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#15

Post by guard-of-terra »

Any country have quite a few supermarket and fast food chains. And they never seem to be the topic on hacker news. I think it ought to be that way unless the businesses in question do something extraordinarily innovative.

Or else, we're headed towards calling some random car wash a start-up.

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#16

Post by imjk »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #15

Any country have quite a few supermarket and fast food chains. And they never seem to be the topic on hacker news. I think it ought to be that way unless the businesses in question do something extraordinarily innovative. Or else, we're headed towards calling some random car wash a start-up.

If there's an important lesson from that car wash/fast food chain/whatever that can be applied to start-ups, then I'd encourage posting about it here.

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#18

Post by guard-of-terra »

imjk wrote: post #16
guard-of-terra wrote: post #15

Any country have quite a few supermarket and fast food chains. And they never seem to be the topic on hacker news. I think it ought to be that way unless the businesses in question do something extraordinarily innovative. Or else, we're headed towards calling some random car wash a start-up.

If there's an important lesson from that car wash/fast food chain/whatever that can be applied to start-ups, then I'd encourage posting about it here.

I miss on the important lessons. Those two chains grew because they cared about their customers above all else, we are told. But what about thousands of chains all over the world that grow despite having no special focus on the customer? Save marketing pitches.

What makes these two chains stand out? Do they, really? How would one prove their success isn't random or fueled by some other factor?

Re: The unstructured billion rupees firms of India

#20

Post by aniket_ray »

kshatrea wrote: post #3

I 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…

I completely agree.

Just to add to your last statement about internet companies being relatively bribe free, I've heard pieces (rumours) from well places influential people in the government that this is changing fast too.

Allegedly, the recent court cases against Google and Facebook asking them to block content was an attempt to get them to fork over some money.

Also, the recent banning of websites of companies like dailymotion and vimeo was our not so clean judicial system at work.

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