IndianMaze

I was travelling in two different trains last week, each journey lasting about 5 hours but that is where the similarity ends. First was in the Executive coach of Shatabdi patronised by so called elite and the next one was in a secong class coach of an express train patronised by so called middle class. Shatabdi covered nearly 300 kms in the 5 hours whereas the express train covered nearly 100kms in the same time. The Indian consumer in Shatabdi was self indulgent - books, magazines, ipods, music on mobile, laptops and and occassional phone call or conversation within the family or work group. Her world was confined to self and inanimate objects. The Indian consumer in Express train was seeking similar knowledge and enjoying as much but with a big difference - it was all done in a community way. Source of music was a CD player/radio and the songs played were the choice of all and sundry in the compartment. Newspapers were split into 2-3 parts and shared. First time visitors shared appre...

Entrepreneurship is the new buzzword amongst Indian literati. However, the truth is that Indian Entrepreneurship has had a very long history and has always been flourishing. The only difference now is that this is turning into corporatisation and scaling up with external financing. There was a great 3 hour conversation I had with a 30 something entrepreneur who is into his 3rd business model. His acumen in keeping it low cost as well as taking risks has been phenomenal. As I have said earlier, Indians are one of the greatest value seekers and therefore, entrepreneurs also need to deliver extra value. This gentleman told me - he was 21 when he started - Gold interested him so he got in jewellery retailing in a large (1m+ city) - got fed up with customers spending a lot of time before buying and that even with aconversion rate of about 1.5% (mind you he rattled these statistics) - he started a new business after disposing off his assets in the shop being a supplier to shops in the same t...