Challenging the assumptions
Always be happy, never be satisfied - Mark Mc Keon
Tata Indicom came out with a new idea – Pay Rs 999/= and
receive calls for two full years. Within two weeks Reliance India Mobile came
out – Why only two years? Pay Rs 999/= and receive calls for three years.
Another week passed, Airtel came out ‐ quickly followed by Hutch and BSNL – Why
only three years? Pay Rs 999/= and receive calls lifelong. That seems to be the
end of the war – two years, three years, lifelong and what is more than lifelong?
When left brain ends, right brain starts ‐ if you are in the race. When one
gate is closed, the next gate opens up. The next operator entered the race –
Why Rs 999/=? Just pay Rs 949/= and start receiving calls lifelong. Aircell
entered the race – Rs 888/= is more than enough to receive calls lifelong. And
the next battle has started, and will, of course end, but there is no end for
the war.
“Creativity is the
ultimate skill of mankind ‐ However, there is nothing called ultimate in
creativity.” The door that seemed to have been closed in one direction is now
open in the other direction.
We go on digging a well deeper and deeper and only when we
get stuck, leisurely we think of digging at another place. (Very few people are
clever enough to go to another place when they get no water, while others
continue with the digging till they get the rock.)
In a small village there were two shops in a street. The
first shopkeeper put a notice: “Cheapest shop in this street.” The second
shopkeeper came out, “Cheapest shop in this village.” First one: “Cheapest shop
in this district.” Second: “Cheapest shop in this state.” First: “Cheapest shop
in this country.” “Cheapest shop in this continent.” “Cheapest shop in the
world.” “Cheapest shop in the solar system.” “Cheapest shop in the milky way
galaxy.” “Cheapest shop in the universe.” The second shopkeeper was happy as
though he has won the race – there is nothing more than the universe. His
happiness was short lived. The first shop keeper came back to his first notice:
“Cheapest shop in this street.” The other shop in this street may be the
cheapest in this universe, but there are only two shops in this street and
among them mine is cheaper than the other. When you are in the race you have to
be running, because your competitors are all running. Without running, your
being in the track does not qualify you to be called you are in the race. You
are simply a spectator.
If you can find a way to change the rules of the game so
that it suits you rather than your competitors, that change can give you a
unique advantage.
“Creativity is the
ultimate skill of mankind ‐ However, there is nothing called ultimate in
creativity.” The door that seemed to have been closed in one direction is now
open in the other direction.
We go on digging a well deeper and deeper and only when we
get stuck, leisurely we think of digging at another place. (Very few people are
clever enough to go to another place when they get no water, while others
continue with the digging till they get the rock.)
In a small village there were two shops in a street. The
first shopkeeper put a notice: “Cheapest shop in this street.” The second
shopkeeper came out, “Cheapest shop in this village.” First one: “Cheapest shop
in this district.” Second: “Cheapest shop in this state.” First: “Cheapest shop
in this country.” “Cheapest shop in this continent.” “Cheapest shop in the
world.” “Cheapest shop in the solar system.” “Cheapest shop in the milky way
galaxy.” “Cheapest shop in the universe.” The second shopkeeper was happy as
though he has won the race – there is nothing more than the universe. His
happiness was short lived. The first shop keeper came back to his first notice:
“Cheapest shop in this street.” The other shop in this street may be the
cheapest in this universe, but there are only two shops in this street and
among them mine is cheaper than the other. When you are in the race you have to
be running, because your competitors are all running. Without running, your
being in the track does not qualify you to be called you are in the race. You
are simply a spectator.
If you can find a way to change the rules of the game so
that it suits you rather than your competitors, that change can give you a
unique advantage.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com broke the rules of the book
business by using the Internet rather than conventional distribution channels.
‘Taking a different
view’ is another strategy that will help us win the race.
Henry Ford took a different view to assembling motor cars.
Traditionally the car would be assembled in one place, with different workers
coming along to fit the engine, the gear box, the dashboard, the brakes and so
on. He asked, ‘What would happen if instead of the workers moving to the car,
the car moved to the workers?’ His radical idea was the car assembly line. It
enabled the standardised mass production of cars at a much lower overall cost.
Michael Dell was 18
when he founded his company in 1984. His goal was to take on the mighty IBM and
Compaq, who dominated the PC business. They had well‐established channels
through resellers who held stock and sold it to the customers. Because
computers were still seen complicated, the unwritten rules were that PCs came
in standard models supplied through resellers who provided the help and support
that customers needed. Dell deliberately broke these rules. He bypassed the
channels and sold direct to end‐users. He allowed users to specify their exact
configuration, including for example disk size and memory. The quality of the
product was good, so he did not need service engineers on site. Further more,
by building to order Dell was able to reduce the inventories – just four days
while competitors carried 75 to 100 days worth of sales in stock.
Captain G R Gopinath , the Managing Director of Air Deccan,
challenged this and came out with the no – frills concept of “low cost
aviation.”
All these are reflected in the saying of Edward de Bono,
nice
ReplyDelete