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Servant Maids And Stupid Businessmen!

Two contrasting incidents crossed my path last week. One was a simple chat and the other a lengthy conversation that turned into an argument.

The first involved my servant maid who recently had a daughter, said she has decided to stop breeding further for now. ‘Don’t you want a boy’, I asked her. She smiled, ‘Anna, I can support just one right now and would rather give her the best I can’.

The second incident happened at a chamber of commerce meeting where I had to give a speech to young businessmen. Post my speech, one of them asked, ‘I find it difficult to sell my brands since I don’t offer the entire range of food products and wish to add a few more to offer a complete bouquet. How should I do it?’

‘You shouldn’t,’ I said. ‘Didn’t you say you are struggling already? Why more?’.

 ‘As a food company, I need to offer the entire range, like Nestle does.’

‘But Nestle didn’t s tart with a dozen brands. They launched one, built it and then developed the second and so on and so forth.’

‘I don’t have the time to wait that long.’

‘Are you planning to die, anytime soon,’ I wanted to ask but instead said, ‘Rome was  not built in a day.’

‘Then why do companies like ITC, HUL have multiple brands? I wish to be like them.’

‘Sure, you should. But if you want to be like them, you need to start where they did and you need to do what they did to get here; not aim straightaway to be where they are now.’

‘I don’t follow you.’

‘You say you want to be Superstar Rajnikanth. That’s great. We could all do with a few more superstars. But the secret lies in doing what Rajinikanth did to become a superstar. Not doing what he does now. Buying a posh house in Poes Garden coz he lives there and driving a BMW coz he drives one isn’t going to make you a superstar.’

‘It’s easy for speakers like you to say, but as a businessman I know that having a range of products work.’

‘I wasn’t born a speaker. I was a marketer for many years before I decided to sell my experience to people like you. Not to put too fine a point on it, I built brands one at a time. I practiced once what I am preaching now.’

‘Customers want a range. They don’t want to go to different companies to buy different brands.’

‘Yes, that’s why they go to a supermarket where they can find all what they want in one place.’

‘What’s wrong in launching multiple brands at the same time?’

‘Nothing wrong, if you are ok not being able to focus on any one of them at a time. And see them decline and die all at once. Remember, even a wardrobe is built one dress at a time.’

Long story short, this argument went to a point where I decided the best way to make the businessman understand was to let him do what he wants and learn the lesson the hard way. His mind was as made up as newly-laid concrete. Even worse, there were a couple of others in the audience who jumped to his defence and said businesses grow only when they have multiple brands, all at the same time.

I couldn’t help think of my common servant maid and her even more common sense focusing on one baby at a time!

Next time, a business group invites me to speak, I am wondering if I should my servant maid!