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Making waves in 2010

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Grey Entrepreneurship

A greater ‘hole in the wall’ you cannot imagine. A small fading sign on the top saying “Cellphoon reapars” barely visible through the street vendors crowding the Juhu Market in Mumbai. On my way to buy a new Blackberry, my innate sense of adventure (foolishness) made me stop my car and investigate. A shop not more than 6 feet by 6 feet. Grimy and uncleaned.

‘Can you fix a blackberry ?”
‘ Of course , show me”
” How old are you”
‘Sixteen’

Bullshit. He was no more than 10. Not handing my precious blackberry to a 10 year old in unwashed and torn T shirt and pyjama’s ! At least if I buy a new one, they would extract the data for me. Something I have been meaning to do for a year now.

‘What’s wrong with it ?”
‘Well, the roller track ball does not respond. It’s kind of stuck and I cannot operate it”

He grabs it from my hand and looks at it
“You should wash your hands. Many customers have same problem. Roller ball get greasy and dirty, then no working’
Look who was telling me to wash my hands. He probably has not bathed for 10 days, I leaned out to snatch my useless blackberry back.
” you come back in one hour and I fix it’
I am not leaving all my precious data in this unwashed kid’s hands for an hour. No way.
“who will fix it ?”
‘Big brother’
‘ How big is ‘big brother?’
‘big …. umm ..thirty’
Then suddenly big brother walks in. 30 ??? He is no more than 19.
‘What problem ?’ He says grabbing the phone from my greasy hand into his greasier hand. Obviously not trained in etiquette by an upmarket retail store manager.
‘Normal blackberry problem. I replace with original part now. You must wash your hand before you use this’
What is this about me washing my hands suddenly ?? 19 year old big brother rummages through a dubious drawer full of junk and fishes out a spare roller ball packed in cheap cellophane wrapper. Original part ? I doubt it.
But by now I am in the lap of the real India and there is no escape as he fishes out a couple of screwdrivers and sets about opening my Blackberry.
“How long will this take ?”
” Six minutes ”
This I have to see. After spending the whole morning trying to find a Blackberry service centre and getting vague answers about sending the phone in for an assessment that might take a week, I settle down next to his grubby cramped work space. At least I am going to be able to watch all my stored data vanish into virtual space. People crowd around to see what’s happening. I am not breathing easy anyway. I tell myself this is an adventure and literally have to stop myself grabbing my precious blackberry back and making a quick escape.
But in exactly six minutes this kid handed my blackberry back. He had changed the part and cleaned and serviced the the whole phone. Taken it apart, and put it together. As I turned the phone on there was a horrific 2 minutes where the phone would not come on. I looked at him with such hostility that he stepped back.
‘you have more than thousand phone numbers ?”
‘yes’.
‘backed up ?’
‘no’
‘Must back up. I do it for you. Never open phone before backing up’
‘You tell me that now ?’
But then the phone came on and my data was still there. Everyone watching laughed and clapped. This was becoming a show. A six minute show.
I asked him how much.
‘ 500 rupees’ He ventured uncertainly . People around watched in glee expecting a negotiation. Thats $ 10 dollars as against the Rs 30,000 ($ 600) I was a about to spend on a new blackberry or a couple of weeks without my phone. I looked suitably shocked at his ‘high price ‘ but calmly paid him. Much to the disapointment of the expectant crowd.
‘do you have an Iphone ? Even the new ‘4′ one ?
‘no, why”
‘I break the code for you and load any ‘app’ or film you want. I give you 10 film on your memory stick on this one, and change every week for small fee’
I went home having discovered the true entreprenuership that lies at what we call the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Some may call it piracy, which of course it is, but what can you say about a two uneducated and untrained brothers aged 10 and 19 that set up a ‘hole in the wall’ shop and can fix any technology that the greatest technologists in the world can throw at them.
I smiled at the future of our country. If only we could learn to harness this potential.
‘Please wash your hands before use’ were his last words to me. Now I am feeling seriously unclean.

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Who Rocks India?

Is it really rocking ?
Last week two journalists asked me what seemed like two unrelated questions. One, from a leading business channel queried “Where do you think the next billion customers will come from” And a few days later came the second poser “Can India really sustain its BRIC promise”. Both questions were dealt with independently over two separate interviews .
In retrospect however, they seemed strangely connected at the hip.
Firstly, the next billion customers may not come from India, but, India will create the next billion customers: But who will create them? TATA’s ever widening global footprint? The burgeoning ambitions of Mr. Sunil Mittal? These are undeniably proud achievements. But also few and far between. So where is the sustainable story for Goldman Sachs analysts?
Consider this: A commerce ministry report of 2008 declared that of the FDI going out of the country in the previous year, 41% came from the SME sector (in services). In the more capital hungry manufacturing sector this number was still an astonishing 26%.
In 2005, a basmati exporter called LT overseas (better known as the owners of brand DAAWAT) acquired an American firm via an LBO! Last year Aurobindo Pharma bought a US manufacturing unit, in Dayton for USD 25 million close on the heels of another acquisition of Milpharm in UK. The story of India’s uncelebrated value creators continues unabated, but mostly below the big headlines. The stepchildren of Dr Manmohan Singh’s original magnum opus are breaking new barriers.
And what about the BRIC promise of disruptive growth? The IBEF newsletter says that we will grow at 9% this quarter. Don’t tell the big boys this: Nokia’s market share fell 11.8% over last year, Infy recast its growth target to 13%(down from the heady 30s) and the mighty HUL lost volumes and market share in the first half of a recovery year. But here’s the curious thing: in the handsets business, the small boys (Spice, Micromax and Maxx) grew substantially over last year. In FMCG the Calcutta based Emami announced a 29% growth in sales and a 79% surge in earnings. Cavinkare and Jyoti labs are not lagging.
According to an Assocham report the SME sector contributed 40% of all job creation post recession, after having lost 25% of their employee base to redundancy. This sector employs 59.7 million and produces over 8000 distinct products, contributing over 40% to India’s export value.
Little wonder that today the biggest names in banking, Information technology, manufacturing, design and structuring products and services specifically aimed at this segment. Note the advertising campaigns from State Bank of India, Microsoft, Google and Dell speaking directly and exclusively to the Entrepreneur.
India’s growth is in steady and safe hands; not subject to any big gambles or tricky levers!

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EQUiTORIAL: The Good vs. The Convenient