Bye 2022. Hello 2023.
A new year. Another set of 365 days. Will this be any different to Indian businesses?
Life runs on hope. Without it, nobody will celebrate the dawn of another damn year. As someone said ‘Last year’s resolution was to lose twenty pounds, now only thirty more to go.’
Indian companies had a few hits and many misses in 2022. Here are some mistakes they made and will never learn from. Why am I being pessimistic, that too at the threshold of a new year. Coz, these were the same mistakes they have been making for a while now. Greek philosopher Santayana said, ‘he who doesn’t learn from his mistakes will be destined to commit them again.’ He should be smiling in his grave.
- There were start-ups galore in 2022 too. That’s the good news. The bad news is many of them, haven’t bothered to create a brand. They continue to sell like a commodity highlighting only the category benefit. What does Swiggy mean? Food delivery app, you say. Fair enough. What’s Zomato? Food delivery app, you say again. Unfair, isn’t it. What’s the difference between the two? Aren’t brands about differentiating themselves from the other?
- Staying with start-ups, many continue to find solutions where there are no problems. Take the q-commerce juggernaut. Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart et al promised 10-minute delivery. Customers didn’t ask for it, far less wanted it. The companies learned it the hard way. Now they don’t want to deliver in 10-minutes. But they want us to buy more. And want us to pay for it too. Fat chance. Suffice to say, q-commerce today means question mark commerce!
- Stick to your knitting, goes the old saying. Too old probably that businessmen have forgotten it. After establishing themselves in a category, they want to expand beyond their core competence. To an unrelated category. Who cares if one doesn’t know much about the new businesses they are venturing into. One can always close it. Losses be damned. Amazon launched food delivery. Just that the business didn’t deliver anything to Amazon. They closed it. Online fashion retailer Meesho moved into groceries. It turned a no show. So, that was killed too.
- Everyone and his uncle want to go online. Why not, what will all this faster 5G and smarter phones. But more than 85% of Indians still want the old-fashioned touch and feel of a store. No wonder the Indian online audience size has stayed put at 60 million for some time now. Omni channel is the in thing. Ask Unacademy. They are opening physical centres. They have damned the ‘Un’ in their name. Lenskart makes more money offline than they do online. Unsurprising for a lens company, their vision is better!
- Celebrities in ads get attention, yes. But only to themselves. And when they represent a brand in which they are domain-agnostic, the results are catastrophic. Tender Cuts, the meat retailer had Chef Damu extolling its virtues. Made sense. Customers trusted the brand’s claim since it was said by someone who knew the product more. The company replaced him with Prakash Raj, an actor whose only claim to category knowledge is acting in a scene shot in a kitchen. It’s been some time since the brand has been seen in media. Blunder Cuts, you say. hmmm.
- Business will continue to make money the old-fashioned way. When they earn it. No matter how antiquated and out-of-date it may sound, business with higher ethical standards stand the test of time. TVS and Tata are torch bearers. Lack of ethics is a short cut in the short run but a dead-end in the long term. Byju’s found out. Stories abound daily about their illegal, immoral and unethical practices. They may learn. Will they, before or after they die is the question.
There were a lot more mistakes. A lot more errors. What the hell, it’s a new year. The time for optimism. A period of sanguinity. The dawn of a new day. So, here’s wishing you a happy 2023. Let’s learn from the mistakes made last year.
And make new ones this year!