Why suddenly everybody is interested in delivering #Milk at ur doorstep?

Why suddenly everybody is interested in delivering #Milk at ur doorstep? There are plethora of milk apps (#milkbasket), #grocery #ecommerce players and #offline neighborhood retailers joining the milk-wagon! Why, so much fuss about a low margin, near commodity category like milk?

As indian consumers, we have grown up with #Amul as the only dominant voice in the category. A huge traditional distribution does the trick to make it reach our doorstep every morning. Whats the need to change ?

As a #consumer, its the Power to choose. The night before! When u install that app, because of a tech backed up supply chain, u can decide the night before, what u want to add to that milk? Eggs, Bread, Biscuits? Thats a common problem. U seem to run out of these daily needs and have to run to the kirana guy in the morning.

But what about #retailers? Because, they need a foot in the door. Its an opportunity to change ur #habit, and find a consumer who will buy higher margin categories. And its all stocked up near a big box or small shop near u.

And worldwide #investors dont reward so much on ur revenues so much as ur potential revenue thru active customer count. And India is the biggest populated fastest growing economy. And they have #money!

https://lnkd.in/fUPwvCV

Customers would have wanted a faster horse! - Henry Ford

#Convenience is the biggest attribute of future. Saving #time is the noblest thing to do for consumers. #Brands who marry #technology with #creativity to solve consumer problems with these 2 built in purposes (Convenience & lightening fast) will be the biggest brands of the future.

If you see history with recent successes, its there. Whether it is #Apple bringing Ipods and Iphones with huge convenience offerings or #Facebook with faster way to connect with people or #Google with its fastest search or #Amazon with its fastest delivery, broadest selection & value (Convenience). Its whats that happened. Creating convenience thru technology with creativity in exploring the unknown. 

Why ecommerce players are obsessive about number of clicks? Because they take consumer convenience as obsession to work at breakneck speed to make it happen. From multiple it became 'one click purchase' which in itself was a milestone. But just for a while. Today, consumers we are moving from many clicks to one click to zero clicks. Thats where #AI takes over! And thats what devices/apps like #Alexa or #GoogleHome or #Siri or #GoogleAssistant are doing. Taking convenience to the #ZEROCLICK saving time for the consumers to get what they want at lightening speed!

Why Tech companies are burning midnight oil to create smart appliances via Internet of Things (IOT) that will obey voice commands? Sounds bizarre. Taking customer convenience to an extreme. But that is the future. 3D printing was like a fairy's magic in childhood stories. But thats a reality. Why? To make consumer able to dream and create things basis his imagination. And #Imagination is human being's greatest asset for progress.

And did consumer ask for AI enabled products? Or smart bands? Or Smart cars? Did they dream about it? Did any consumer researches told that they have this need? I doubt it. Its the companies with obsession for consumer, that think about it, put in effort and take risks & create such #innovations. And rule #future.

As Henry Ford puts it fantastically well - “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Are you a Thermometer or Thermostat?

Are you a #Thermostat or a #Thermometer? I was so intrigued about this concept today, that it blew my mind.

A #thermometer matches with the temperature of the envoirnment. It is influenced by outside, if its hot outside, it will be hot (high temperature) and if cold it will be cool.

A #thermostat on the contrary is something that is driven from inside. Whatever may be envoirnment like (hot or cold), it will resist to give in and stick to what temperature it wants to hold on to (from inside).

In #life, whatever may be the #environment be (tough or easy), one should behave like a thermostat and be doing what it believes it should rather than giving in to the outside envoirnment or circumstances.

Be a #thermostat vs a #Thermometer.

#mind #leadership #drive #insideout #find #yourself

Sweet Smelling Newspaper Ad

Wow! When my son started reading today's TOI when i was starting my day with ET, i got intrigued by sweet smell. And realized that its the #Myntra #Ad about the #BeautyEdit event and that the page is smelling.

Such a small trick and uses another sense for a print ad - sense of #smell. And its a gimmick connected with the event's nature (Beauty category).

And then my mind starts racing - can it be extended? How about #perfume sprayers in the womens compartment in smelling #Delhimetros/#mumbailocals? Or, womens restrooms in Malls? Where-ever there is a mirror, it might be the place; lifts?

#marketing #brand #core #ecommerce #activation #Myntra

Thinking Big and Bold - case of #Jio

This news caught my eye today in newspaper. And one thing resonated - '#Bold'. Whether the entire telecom industry is reeling under severe pressures post launch of Jio, its the boldness of Jio's DNA that has disrupted the industry.

And now, the 4G feature phone market globally is led by #JioPhone. And, Jio network is the #fastest-growing-network in the world. Yes, obviously there are questions on sustainablilty but i think this bold approach leads to multiple initiatives tying into a big force and consumer notices and supports you. I myself was sceptical about seriousness of Jio when they were rolling out free 4G data, but now there are lots of people around me using jio, not just discount mongers.

And it is like that for Ambanis for long, be it the CDMA phone ("kar lo duniya mutthi mein")they launched earlier or when Reliance entered retail or world's larget refinery in jamnagar and so on. The amazing ability to think #BIG and #BOLD, irrespective of industry or competition.

And not just ambanis, this is the DNA that runs thru driven people like that of #bezos of Amazon, #Musk of Tesla, #Branson of Virgin. Thinking Big and Bold is a common trait.

#leadership #bold #jio #jiophone #thinking-big

Book Review #3 in 2018 - The Tao of Coaching by Max Landsberg

Tao of Coaching is an easy read on a subject which is complex and deals with coaching of employees to improve thier performance. It deals with practices and frameworks to consistently improve things with consistent coaching, feedback and appraisals.

Now these statements and words ring a bell about poor practices, partiality, office politics and so on. However, thats where the book scores, as it deals with such subject with a simple story of a guy called Alex. The book discusses his journey from a new entrant in a company dealing with an ice-cream project to becoming one of the key executives in the company. Deftly written by ex-Mckinsey and a Stanford MBA, Max.

It diminishes lots of myths and notions about coaching thru easy chapters and one of my biggest learning is that feedback/coaching others does improve others lives but also improves yours. And that is the reason why of coaching - Give and Take. Why because developing your team members in turn gets you spend more time on yourself and developing your skill set while you delegate work!

Here are few gems from the book -

1. #Coaching by asking is more effective than coaching by telling. Ask questions to coachee to help him come up with his own solutions rather than handing him doctor's prescription by telling what to do.

2. When u ask for #feedback, give proper time, notice and make it easier for somebody to do you a favour. Coaches who dont take feedback loose out on self-correcting mechanism to further improve themselves.

3. Some myths - we coach to primarily help others. We focus on coachee while coaching. Coaching means feedback. It takes lot of time.  And its about work. Thats all incorrect!

4. Feedback is one of the coaching techniques where one should use AID format - Actions under focus to be discussed, Impact of these actions and Desired Outcome (how to do it better).

5. As some of u must have known, difference between a bad feedback and good one is that good feedback focuses on improvement areas vs blame, skills vs person and leaves person helped vs judged.

6. A coaching session can be structured well as #GROW - Goal, Reality, Options and Wrap up.  Ask  coachee what goals he has, to achieve better outcomes. Then ask about reality, what he has tried till now and his challenges. Discuss with him his options on countering and the best one to move on with. And wrap up with next steps and next review time.

7. Before coaching or managing a subordinate, one should apply #skill/#will matrix to decide on what kind of coaching technique to be applied. Its a 2 by 2 matrix across skill and will. High skill and low will means u need to excite the guy, low skill and high will means u need to guide him, low skill and low means u need to direct him while high skill and high will is what u need to arrive at so that u can delegate and get things done. This one is useful as ur team members will fit in different quadrants for u to apply different ways.

8. Assess motivation levels of ur coachees. At times the kind of motivation/demotivation loop they are in, can help u decide the course of action. 

9. For any goal to be achieved. Here is the recipie - 1. Write down the goal. Publicise it. Discuss it. Share with more people. 2. Apply #Waypower (power to figure out ways towards ur goal) 3. Apply #willpower (action to chosen path).

10. And the last one is - Goal are many types and one should focus on process goals rather than performance goals or Outcome goals. #Process goals (hit a harder serve), #Performance goals (hit more aces) and #Outcome goals (Win wimbledon). 

Great coaches focus on #process goals and practice it multiple times. Performance goals and outcome goals are way too less frequent to practise (winning a wimbledon).

A must read for anybody dealing with people - employees, colleagues, kids..

Do share ur comments if u like my chosen gems...or if this review makes you think about reading the book.

This is my 3rd book of 2018. Resolution is to finish 12 this yr.

Nitin 

Online meets Offline in world's hottest market - India

We are witnessing what is offline and online convergence in India. #Online players are forging partnerships with #offline and vice versa.

News of #Amazon soon picking up stake in #Future-retail gets the #Bezos led company a foothold in indian grocery and mass fashion (#BigBazaar, #Hypercity & #FBB). It has already tied up earlier with mid premium fashion retailer #Shoppersstop. It already runs numerous programs like "i have space" to convert huge number of offline grocers to work as delivery points of pick n drop facility to consumers.

On the other hand #Walmart a global offline leader bought #Flipkart to capture indian online space. It already has its cash and carry offline format which can lead to partnerships with lot of offline small businesses. It will further forge more partnerships in India.

While a player like Future group in itself, sensing Walmart' entry via flipkart; has intensified its '#Everyday-low-price' campaign. Its a proposition which Walmart originated with globally and Future group is wanting to create its ownership on the position in India.

This market is going to see fantastic omnichannel efforts going forward. A #kindle selling in a bigbazaar to fast grocery from Flipkart err #Walkart!! Stay tuned.

Category Creation - Path to phenomenal success

#Category #creation has recently caught my attention. And i am surprised how the companies which can be counted in world's top 20 have created new categories more often than not -

Be it #technology which is an easy brewing ground for innovation, #Apple from Macs to ipods to ipads to iphones, have done that many times. #Google, #Facebook, #Uber, #Airbnb are such techno examples where they created new categories. Taken away human imagination to a new level and changed the behaviour of consumer with better solutions/benefits than they could have thought.

Be it #retail, #Amazon has again replaced distances with thier one click shopping and fastest deliveries. And new categories like #Alexa, #Echo, #Kindle etc, things we never thought should exist!

How? Common aspects are - 1.Working on a new paradigm of #consumer-#benefit and problem solving. 2. Making it #fast enough connect with #ecosystem that competition cant ape quickly.

Read on this #HBR article talking about coffee example of #Starbucks and #Keurig where despite coffee consumption going down, sales on coffee consumption grew exponentially...by creating new category for coffee consumption! Read it here - https://hbr.org/2011/09/why-category-creation-is-the-u

#marketing #innovation #disruption

2018 Book Review #2 - The Subtle art of not giving a F*ck

Just finished this incredible book on self awareness and personal development. I will not call it a self help guide, its rather a counter-intuitive approach to living a good life. And here is it why - its not a book telling you all the time to be positive even if you are in deep shit. Its more practical and tells you to accept that you are f*cked up and need to change things and how. This book is thus not a sweet read but full of slang words that work magic as if you are talking to yourself.

I stumbled upon this book via reading a blog post by this celebrated blogger, Mark Manson, which really provoked my thinking. And yes, the title enticed me too.

Now, here is on the book- if you have read through Napoleon Hill, Joseph Murphy, Norman Vincent Peale and so on, you will find this book a refreshing breeze of fresh air. Here are quick bits from the book which are nothing but real gems -

1. Not giving a f*ck doesnt mean being indifferent; it means being comfortable with being different- It means to accept the issues of life, not run from them and then see what you can do about them. Do what u can do, and when u can't do much about rest (not in ur control), accept and stop giving f*ck about it.

2. To not give a f*ck about adversity, u must first give a f*ck about sth more important. (When in this limited time, u dont find sth meaningful to chase or solve, ur mind will wander and just give f*ck about the weather, or neighbours or why u were born like this..

3. Whether u realize it or not, u r always choosing sth to give a f*ck about. (Whether u have not chosen to get born in a developing country, to not to be poor or born short, but u r always choosing to react to it in a kiddish manner, to cry or to wail on why this happened to me; u r choosing ur response and hence choosing to give a f*ck abt pointless stuff).

4. I loved this part - Happiness is about solving problems. You solve 1 problem, u feel happy, and then u solve a bigger problem to make u more happy...its an upward spiral of happiness coupled with complex problems. Happiness is thus an activity rather a feeling. Its a constant work in progress. If thats so simple thrn why most of us arent happy? Because we f*ck things up in either Denial or Being a victim. And when u do either of the two u r either running away or not owning problems so that u can solve them.

5. To be happy, we ask 'what i want to enjoy?' rather than 'what pain can i sustain?' The path to happiness is all about process and is full of struggles. But the problem is that we only want the result or the reward and believe that makes us happy, but rather its the action or struggle that makes us happy regardless of the result. Our struggles determine our successes.

6. Believe that u r not special. Period. Thats quite contrary to belief spread by so many books and movies like matrix! Life is full of mundane things and u need to accept this and work in the process. Its like a diet regimen that u need to eat boring veggies. But once u accept that u need to eat veggies to be fit or more healthy; u become more alive. Accept u r not 'the one' and its fine. And once u believe that u r ordinary, u can work on the process and can actually drive better results rather than living always with the false knowledge of being special and getting frustrated with no results.

7. Life and happiness are dependent on what value u choose to measure success or performance out of life. U can choose good or bad values. The key difference is bad values are reliant on external events while good ones are achieved internally.

Self improvement is about choosing better values to give a f*ck about. Because when u choose better values, u solve better problems and better problems get u better life! The 5 keys values as Mark mentions in the book are - 1 Responsibility 2 Uncertainty 3 Failure 4 Rejection 5 Contemplation of own morality.  And he describes his interpretation around them very well in the book.

8. Choice makes a difference. The difference between a problem being painful or powerful is a sense that u chose it and hence u r responsible for it. When we choose ur problems we feel we are empowered to work and solve it, but when we feel its been thrust on you and u dont have a control on it, u feel victimized and miserable. Thus always choose. But real question is about what we r choosing to give a f*ck about? What values? What metrics? Are these good ones?

9. Everything starts with action. Even if u havent made any plans about it, and u can choose to stay put and wait...dont. Just So something. Why? Because action leads to inspiration to futher motivation to further action.

10. This one is my personal favorite out o this book - Life is like a game of poker. in poker, people will get different cards, good or bad. But still people with bad cards will continue to play as they know its not just the set of cards that decide the result, but how one chooses to take risks with those cards.

Similarily, in life we get different situations but the game of life's ultimate result is dependent on how u choose to respond to these situations and keep making best choices to move forward. The people with the best cards or situations arent necessaily the ones who win or succeed eventually.

Its a must read for people dealing with the pursuit of happyness.

Retailing - Offline > Online (Part 2)

As explained in the first article, the premise here is that retailing basics dont change whether its online store or an offline store. In last article, 5 Key Areas of retail were described - Consumer Experience, People, Product, Topline & Bottomline. In this article, i would exhibit the linkages to online retailing, discuss key drivers & key actions/strategies enabling them.

1.Product/Service - For any business to succeed, the product/service which you are selling, has to be desirable for customers, offers a good quality experience on usage & adds to a consumer's life. However, before a consumer can experience the product post purchase, her attention has to be intercepted by your product/service for it to get sold.

This is where Visual Merchandising plays a role in offline retailing. From the window of the store talking about that 'stitchless shirt' which intrigues your mind & tickles you to enter the store; to attractive display of product with wonderful VM talking about the story behind say the ' no stitching' or 'anti-radiation mobile pocket' etc. You pickup the product & then interact with the customer associate & give it a shot. Boom. The sale is over.

However in online retailing, there is no intriguing window/VM to have product talk you into buying it? That gets replaced by the 'User Interface & Navigation' of the site enabling fastest discovery of such products. The window is the 'Home Page banner' wooing you to buy that stitchless shirt! VM is replaced by the 'quality of pictures/videos' shot in the studio with beautiful models to make you comfortable while making the buying decision.

Another barrier in online app/website is that you cant define a layout of the store to fix the category navigation the way it happens in offline retailing - putting the destination categories at the back of store & impulse next to cash counter, highlighting seasonal stories at the first fixture & basics at the back. In online retailing, its dependent on how the consumer uses the provided filters to lead to 'product discovery'. However, with #BIGDATA analytics, app should be able to provide varying UIs basis what a purchases. My home page banner on say an Amazon should vary from say yours; leading to bring in that personalized product discovery! Thats more power to online retailing if done well.

2.People - In offline retailing, the omnipresent 'human touch' is what at times makes you discover a new category or brand you would never buy. Thats the power of human interaction. It delivers variable and personalized and live-dynamic delivery of knowledge & product experience. Thats why good brands invest in training their sales people. A product/Brands gets alive in the way creator has conceptualized only when a person gives that product presentation making the story complete. That, 'Joe' in your favourite high street store calls you when your desired product arrives, wishes you on your birthday & invites you to the store, helps you get benefited by the steal deals, customizes your clothes as per your taste/measurements, and once in a while lets you have your ego massaged; is something! Something, that a fixed computer screen cant match!

In online retailing, this important bit gets replaced by the Product Presentation(Picture/Video, Copy, size chart, reviews, ratings, etc). Now, basis all this information, one can take the decision; and as these factors are incomplete vs a human presentation; thats why ecommerce companies offer liberal return policy & faster delivery mechanisms trying to make up for this void & making is easier for consumer to shop. However, with advanced AI & bots; this is getting better to give that human touch to ecommerce.

3.Customer Experience - If the consumer walks into your store & gets presented by the sales person; but doesn't get serviced properly or the store experience is not good given sloppy display or no cooling or rude behavior; everything goes for a toss. A bad consumer experience is like a camphor catching fire; it burns & burns the entire neighborhood of customers. Thus, offline art of retaining is all about consumer experience, the capital factor.

In offline, the experience is elongated. From website experience to the product delivery. The app wasnt loading or the filters were going wonky or the payment gateway wasnt working; all kills the experience. But so does late delivery of goods or rude behavior of delivery boy or wrong delivery of product in the box. Online retailing has its own challenges to ensure a great consumer experience. Most of the ecommerce players have been able to fix the technology side; however most of the issues crop up on the logistics/warehousing errors.

4.Top-line - As discussed in Part 1, Topline being the objective No 2; there needs to be clear understanding on drivers of topline & relationship in between to revenue. As in offline, online retail has similar relationship -

Offline Sales = Footfalls (No of Customers * Freq) X Conversion X Basket Size X Average Sales Value

Online Sales = No of hits (No of unique visitors * visits) X Conversion (Sales Transactions/visits) X Cart items X Average Sales Value

Now the drivers in online piece, are obviously -

A. No of hits or Traffic to the site driven by lead generation out of various campaigns (SEO, SMM, ATL, BTL etc);

B. Conversion on the site driven by 1. Ease of product discovery & transaction on website (User Interface & Steps to transaction completion) 2. Product Presentation (Pics/vids/info/reviews/Pricing) enabling users to make a buying decision 3. Transaction completion net of returns (Lot of transactions get cancelled post conversion/post delivery due to poor acceptance or impulse) which needs to be controlled with better product quality checks/ product presentation & efficiency in logistics & delivery.

C. Basket Size on the eCommerce website can be boosted by running campaigns of cross promotion (shop across shirts & trousers & get extra discount), shipping free (order > Rs 1000 get shipping free) and so on. Cart can also be boosted with recommendations showing users who bought A also bought this book. Basically giving a benefit (discount, freebie) on increased basket.

D. Average Sales Value is the last factor on the topline; which is driven by premium assortment, branded merchandise, better quality and so on. Sell more suits and blazers than shirts & your average sales value sky rockets! How can a website influence you to up-trade your ASP? Using recommendations tickling the ego (Consumers choosing an apple iphone have bought apple branded accessories only); highlighting high priced products basis shopping history; or plain and simple 'personalized pricing' within an app (Same hotel room to Mr X is $1000 while Mr Y is $1200).

5. Bottom-line - Obviously, this is the No 1 objective for which businesses exist. One needs to drive all revenue factors up and all costs factors down without dropping consumer experience, product quality & people standards in offline retail. Same factors apply here in online retail - One needs to boost margins by arm-twisting vendors, ask minimum guarantees, increase #private #labels, boost traffic at lowest cash burn, drop costs of logistics & warehousing, and reduce discounts and so on. Make unit economics work!

I think the basics remain the same; be it online or offline; its the passion that drives the business ahead to serve consumers! I hope this 2 part article; was a good read. If yes, please drop in your valuable comments & lets strike a conversation around retailing - Offline or Online!

For going to part 1 of this article, please click here.