Don’ts that we Do

Don’ts that we Do

In India, like any other place in the world, a Non IT start up at small to medium scale happens because the promoter actually knows to do something. Period. IT start up happens in two forms. One the start up entrepreneur actually knows to do something. A successful Navision resource takes up Microsoft Dynamics Partnership and starts running. Two, the startup entrepreneur thinks he has a bright idea that mitigates an existing pain point or opens up new vistas. I can’t really think of any other reason to get into startup eco-system. Desperation and straw clutching, perhaps. Beyond this I can’t really think of a reason why a small enterprise is born.

Having started the business, what next? By definition, Entrepreneur knows to do what it was born for, or knows to further his idea. What about Marketing? Marketing is actually too big a term for this operation. Business Development (as in ‘Adding next ten clients or customers’) is more like it. It is here, I think we do what we are not supposed to do.

  • Create a Website – Normally a bad photo copy of a bad website
    • No regard to Imagery. If you are a computer company, you need to show the face of a western female with a laptop in front of her. Better if she is an Aryan. If you are a BPO make sure to add an earphone and a microphone in front of the mouth! In all cases there has to be a balding gentleman in suit standing in front of a white board explaining strategies! Can thoughtlessness and stereotype be explained in a better fashion?
    • We have to masquerade customer expectations such as people quality and product quality by product differentiation and value proposition.
    • A look at the website of Navision/Axapta implementers’ websites can be a great case study. If you remove the names and logos you cannot distinguish one site from another.
  • A small business entrepreneur thinks he does not have time for marketing and hence the attempt is piecemeal and is basically a copy of what the industry does with no regard to the specifics of a particular company.
  • A tri-fold brochure or an A4 back to back flyer with no meaningful information in this information age.
  • A listing in every available internet business directories or phonebooks. Here again if we cut the names and telephone numbers every listing will look the same.

You might be wondering, when business is done this way most of the time what exactly is the problem with it. Basically this approach is dishonest. When we copy what others do and if we are not exactly that, we are not downright honest. The only advantage a small business has over the giants is its capacity to display absolute integrity, This important aspect that needs to be leveraged to the maximum is given a go-bye. It is hard to create trust factor with this approach. That’s my point.

No Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.