From a formal dining to a privately held house party, the cacophony is incomplete without the much heated discussion about the disarmed & constraining unicorn e-commerce businesses in India today.
Disappointing or concerning, jabbering or learning, the word is loud & clear, currently the biggies are in a big muddle. Consequentially, what becomes evident is a wall of wrong decisions, off-the mark metrics, over-disbursements, talent mismanagement and overvaluations et al.
Suddenly the energy one used to derive from the context of start-up biggies has transformed into a stigma. The prospect are blurred to realize that India’s digital story would have been incomplete, without these pioneers not plunging into the not-so- discerning & infrastructurally poor start-up set up. Being from the industry, am aware that passing the blame of steep degrowth, depleting funds and over-staffing is easy but taking the responsibility is difficult.
From employment offers to consumption stories to technology acceptance, the Indian start up space gathered so much glitz not just nationally but also internationally, in a very short span of time. Yet today’s trouble is a manifestation of the abrupt me-too’s and un-planned capital feeding in these businesses. The ability of these start-ups to alter the shape by extending or retracting is a phenomenon to observe much in future.
At the same time, companies likely to fall prey to similar state of affairs should potentially learn & focus on keeping the damage to minimum, keeping it relatively less public and pledging to be profitable to build a path of measurability & sustainability both. It’s only time for some serious valuations, profitability metrics and a better approached expansion plan & capital analytics, as I call it.
Highlighting a few positives that the giant e-commerce players like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon among others have imparted to the industry:
A start ups show everywhere in the country : Few years back when no one could think of leaving their plush jobs, today you visit Café Coffee Day, Star-bucks or a small chai vendor, you would get to hear the whispering of ideas, concept traction and how to ‘keep it lean’ conversations all around.
Give Employment mind shift: The number of inductions that happened in these companies was way higher than any industry over such a short time. Today the vision that a college pass outs has, is to offer jobs instead of taking one, that mindset itself is a huge boom to the India’s growth story.
Creating a cut throat technology arena: Technology can work wonders for a business as well as society & its advancement in today’s times is incredible. Thanks to the ability of these big ventures to define, develop and deploy these at the right time. From app developments to payment wallets to live tracking are few of the examples.
A supportive start up eco-system: Unlike corporates where everyone is at cut throat competition against each other, the scenario has now changed from a cut throat competition in the corporate world to cross-collaboration scenario between start-ups. Seeking support is no longer that difficult & is easily available well within the eco-system.
New age advertising & social media marketing: The urge to engage with the customer and ‘hear them first’ was a power we observed post digitalization. A fairer customer redressal and the ability to form communities within the universe became possible with existence of so many online businesses. A boosted Start up 2.0 is here to stay. The magnificent eco-system today comprising of new-age start-ups, the technology, social initiatives, the women “homepreneurs” among others is what will contribute to the grandeur tomorrow.
The journey, in the true sense has just begun. Drawing tons of inspiration and standing united can make the dream of making India a super power come true. Let us together continue to drive innovation & value by empowering the existing & budding start-ups, to help it go down in history, only a lot rationally.
( Opinion piece by Eiti Singhal – Maketer, Ex Snapdeal, Speaker & a start-up consultant)
Source: BW Disrupt
