In Response to The Cover Story by Forbes
And the Response from Ashish Sinha HERE
And letter by Sachin Bansal CEO , Flipkart, to The Editor, Forbes, Indrajit Gupta and his response
Please read post script Thank You.
My immediate response
"A Customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work.He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is a part of it.
We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."
We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."
By Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
And the first quote I heard from my Late Dad at the age of 6
"When Custom comes through the door
Service goes out of the window "
and its result
"When personal responsibility goes out the window, problems come in through the front door"
It seems that the Click and Portal e-commerce market is hotting up with myntra, quickr, olx, naaptol, indiatimes, homeshop18 and jabong, and the market originator Flipkart all fighting for the same market.
In my case as I understand the market economics as well as the customer logic, the majority customer / buyer has NO BRAND LOYALTY, All he is looking at is Price and value for money, whoever gives it supported by an impeccable customer service will win the race. Brand is immaterial.
My examples ( PURELY WITH INDIAN MARKET IN VIEW)
1 SBI ATM v.s other bank ATM's.
2 Maruti service station v/s Tata Service Points
3 Nirma V/s HUL Surf Rin.
4 Ghadi V/s Nirma.
5 Amul V/s Nestle in Milk.
6 Amul v/s Marico
(Postman Groundnut Oil v/s Dhara double filtered groundnut oil you can't fool a Guju).
(Postman Groundnut Oil v/s Dhara double filtered groundnut oil you can't fool a Guju).
7 Amul V/s Kwality, Vadilal in Ice Cream
8 Amul v/s Cadbury's in chocolate
9 Flipkart v/s amazon/ Barnes & Noble in books
10 Naukri.com . v/s Monster.com
11 Rediff v/s Yahoo (Indian content).
12 espncricinfo v/s yahoo cricket.
13 Samsung Galaxy vs iPhone.
14 Android v/s iOs.
15 Micromax v/s karbon hcl etc in low cost tabs see THIS post of mine.
16 HCL v/s Sony/ Toshiba Desktops computers laptops
17 Samsung V/s Sony in LCD TV
18 Flipkart v/s myntra, quickr, olx, naaptol, indiatimes, homeshop18 and jabong.
There are better cars, but Maruti Sells, there is better technology, but HCL Sells, they offer value added services, But SBI is supreme in ATM's , Amul is my ideal example of customer service(though not interactive, but in keeping in mind the quality of goods that a customer wants) So dear Forbes, Flipkart stays in spite of myntra's and olx coming in, because IN SPITE OF NIRMA SURF STAYS, AMUL, NESTLE STAYS, MARUTI, TATA STAYS, ANDROID APPLE STAYS, APPLE MICROSOFT STAYS.
Market leader stays unless
it is unfashionable or too exorbitant
like Ford T
American cars have become fuel guzzlers
in comparison to Japanese & Korean cars
Forbes has actually given a big compliment to Flipkart
:)
My ideal response is that of Bill Gates, normally VC's make rotten decision, the most glaring ones involved Indian Promoters, Nortel Networks( Remember how Rekhi became rich Novell ) Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia ) You know VC's are highly egocentric people, They lack an eye for the idea+passion+enterprenual streak in promoter. They are just looking at 10x investment. If you look at data , only 1 out of 100 start ups succeed, so actually all VC's are GAMBLERS, Angel Investors are different, The logic That
In support of my case that VC's are not God and it is a lottery than intelligent investment are the following links.
Read if you so wish.
1 The Stupidest Business Decisions in History HERE
2 Venture Capital firm made $78 million on $250,000 investment in Instagram, still called failure
Read more: HERE
3 Why VC's really reject Start ups HERE
Here there is a Steve Jobs famous quip where he says " What have you done till now ? Except criticizing people ? "
Why I say Forbes article is a compliment
3 If Steve Jobs were starting out today, he would struggle to get funding, he's a marketer, not an engineer !
Read HERE READ specially what Bill Gates opined about Steve Jobs and Lord Sugars comment on engineers.
Read HERE READ specially what Bill Gates opined about Steve Jobs and Lord Sugars comment on engineers.
A Flipkart is too customer centric ( is a biggest compliment to a selling firm one can give)
B Flipkart is Too Delhi IIT / Jwalamukhi hostel is good no ? Infosys/ Facebook / Apple / Twitter
C Delhi centric,well I am happy that Flipkart is Delhi centric, as the best firms in India HCL, NIIT Aptech Moser Baer are Delhi Centric(Marketing geniuses) and Infosys, Wipro(Tech Centric) Bangalore Centric. Mumbai centric (Advt & Mktg PR centric) selling firms are good for the company, but bad for a customer #Venuspeak Majority of Mumbai Based Selling firms cheat/fleece customers, of course with their sweet sugar coated PR A&M
D After all any good enterprise becomes successful because customers accept the USP, not because the promote was a genius. Naukri.com inmobi bharat matrimony are examples.
E It is high time salmon papers tried to look at Start ups as Selling Points than Money making machines.
F 5 M's Reminding Forbes the order read HERE in detail Man Material Machine Minutes Money( Money is the bottom of pyramid) Man is at the top. Hence look if Promoter is fanatically passionate about his enterprise, if yes, rest is immaterial
G Look at the people from A & M Sales industry and look at their geographical / racial origin you will know what I mean :-)
These are my views , you may have yours.
@Venuspeak
My Other Related Posts
How to report on Financial FIRMS HERE
Why Standards of S&P are so Poor HERE
Are we Really BANKRUPT as per Fitch & Moody ? HERE
It is evident, that I am a Contrarian, and derive sadistic pleasure at repudiating Snooty windbags.
Please ponder, there were no WM D's found in Iran
American attitude towards Terrorism is also biased.
We live in a world which is highly polarised world , where media and financial agencies are controlled by Western forces.
It is high time, BRICS countries took out a leaf from BCCI ( Board of Control of Cricket in India) book and changed the rules of the game to more inclusive and just.
My posts are plain speak , to enlighten the Indian "Aam Janta" public at LARGE, to read media news between the lines.
Amen
Postscript
Some close relatives whose books are frequently and successfully sold on Flipkart
Bhalchandra Goswami "Prakhar" Father in Law HERE ON PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE , SOME OF THE BEST AVAILABLE BOOKS ALONG WITH THOSE OF Subhash C Kashyap, and also on Constitution of India.
Poetry Sonnets of Silence by Ajay Menon nephew HERE
Post Script : Peter Griffin has written a blog (read with 19 comments till now) titled " 10 lessons on #journalism from Twitter HERE , where the lesson no 4, and also the biggest comment by Peter, refers to probably this blog and my related tweets. Thanks for the back handed compliment Peter, I take your reaction positively as a BIG COMPLIMENT, being a simple Banker, and a Simble ordinary mortal individual. My blog post having such immense impact as against the might of Forbes and Homeshop18 gives me immense happiness. My this post is at no 5 in all time views.:) .
Thank You Forbes, had you not done this story, my blog wont be that popular, yes, I am being sensational, for free publicity at no cost.
@Venuspeak
Posted as a reaction for Udit / Abhishek / Rakesh Malhotra's detailed comment on the Forbes Editors blog,
ReplyDeletehttp://forbesindia.com/blog/editors-blog/flipkart-ceo-responds-to-our-cover-story/#comment-5454
As it is waiting for Moderation THERE, I have an option to post it here no :)
Wow ,
now this has gone to the Memorandum of Association, probably, this is deep research, better than the article itself. Take note, who is laughing all the way to the Bank. Its Flipkart folks. Without even buying a column centimeter of advertisement space, or a Google Ads banner/ square banner placed :-)
It is just a coincidence, that I have to mention, have written a blog post comparing Micromax Funbook, Karbonn Smart Tab and HCL XE low cost Android ICS Tablets.
AND DO YOU KNOW , which Google Ads I normally find there ? Indiatimes, Naaptol, Jabong, Myntra and Homeshop 18. Never Flipkart. Why can that be?
Draw your own conclusions.
I have presented my case
This is a case like that DNA @Swamy39 " Virat Hindu " Story ! Pure sensationalism
Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/editors-blog/flipkart-ceo-responds-to-our-cover-story/#ixzz1ywK8c2AR
and
http://www.quora.com/Flipkart/What-can-be-interpreted-from-forbes-article-about-possible-fall-of-flipkart
Am a Banker, I am a commentator on Product life-cycle, and ethical value systems, and Neither I am an IIT'ian nor a a blind consumer. Brand is something I abhor in real life. I have not only commented here, but also gone ahead and written a blog post. Please read this and see the varied topics that I cover http://youthentertainmentnetwork.blogspot.in/2012/06/forbes-flipkart-and-customer-service-vc.html Alas!! But Yes, my pet passion is Media Bashing, especially the Gaffes, when MSM mentions someone as Abu Jindal then Jundal all in 12 hours , Gives 10 different versions of the same news "How Sakshi met Dhoni " again in 24 hours, says that " An employer of an NRI has to deduct Service tax @ 10.36% " :-) . These journalists are dim witted nincompoops. There combined IQ is less than 100 . If an ordinary citizen, investor, or entrepreneur, starts basing their decisions, on half baked ideas , dished by them, then they may as well say goodbye to their hard earned money. What I am trying to highlight here, is A magazine has to sell, for which they have to print something, and sensationalism sells. Finally, any magazine, Rating agency like S&P, Fitch Moody or IMF ECB cries wolf, after the wolf has gobbled its prey. We need such people who shout wolf, before the wolf attacks. An entrepreneur is such person and not a journalist. The rest and sundry are all there , because they have to make a living. My comments might be harsh, but all good medicines like Metacin and Bitter Gourd, are better than Crocin and Sondesh. Be aware, every successful genius, inventor and entrepreneur was derided and made fun off by stakeholders. For every successful startup, there are 900 failed ones. The Most vital part of a startup, is not the employee chain, but the visionary. Unless and until the promoter / incubator is not right, persistent, has perseverance, then that enterprise, would collapse sooner or later. And what makes or breaks a company is the consumer, as long as he is satisfied, all impurities are inconsequential. Product, Price, Process, Place, Promotion, this order will follow. Brick and Mortar, or Click and Portal. Please show some scant respect, to those who have taken time to respond, Neither is flipkart, my uncles firm, nor am I an investor. A customer yes, and a satisfied one. Amen Good night. Dear Forbes guys, my reactions are in line with the thread. Nothing personal here, it is viewpoint for a viewpoint. Peace out
ReplyDeleteRead more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/editors-blog/flipkart-ceo-responds-to-our-cover-story/#ixzz1ywNAXKWo