Culture, Brand and Retail
I am Aarihant Aaryan! Welcome to the Iron Sharpen Iron newsletter,
I share my homework from my startup journey every week, learning about human behavior, and sometimes decoding industries and business models for fun.
I can’t control my curiosity :) )
Culture, brand and Retail are three different topics I’m going to share, there’s no correlation.
I have been spending a lot of time reading, experimenting and writing, I just shared a few of them on Twitter and got super hate for them
I don’t mind about it anyway, but it’s always fun to know what others are thinking and where they are with their thought process
Anyways let’s begin:
1. A great company starts from a great culture
The biggest problem for any entrepreneur in India is candidates not showing up to work after taking the offer letter,
but Kunal Shah founder of CRED, solved this problem wonderfully
When Kunal was building Freecharge, they were having a tough time as candidates used to take the offer letter but not show up
Then Kunal solved this uniquely by giving a Macbook to everyone with their offer letter and gave them their first salary as advance
If the candidate didn't want to join they could return the Macbook and money
Hence 99% of candidates joined, 0% of laptops were lost and no money was lost
Kunal thesis behind this was simple Most Indians are not used to being trusted first, if you as a company can create gestures that will make candidates feel trusted and safe, it will install a purpose in them
2. A Western name to build an Indian company
The easiest way to build a business in India is by giving a Western name to your brand.
Brands like Louis Phillipe, Peter England and Van Heusen are made in India but have Western names
They contribute to more than 85% of Aditya Birla's fashion revenue, for context, Aditya Birla's revenue last year was more than 12,000 crores
Well, this is because India has sepoy syndrome Sepoy syndrome means a belief that Indians have carried that Western products, ideas, and business models are inherently superior to Indian ones.
If you can create a brilliant product with a Western name, you will crack consumers' trust easily and build a great business.
3. The future of Retail isn’t the incumbent but the underdog
Dmart will fail in India because of Zepto, but how can a 2-year-old company Zepto affect a giant like Dmart?
Zepto was launched 2 years back, in FY 23 They clocked more than 2000 crores in revenue,
To put that into perspective Dmart took 9 to 10 years to reach the revenue mark of 2000 crores
The entire reason for this hyper-growth is quick commerce and consumers love it
Because of the experience Zepto is creating, they're able to steal the revenues of dmart and other players in the market.
Remember, a business doesn't die because of competition but their inefficiencies
Unless Dmart doesn't change its course and becomes efficient like Zepto, it will continue to be disrupted
People who say Dmart, zepto, blinkit, and reliance retail will co-exist don't understand the concept of wealth
Wealth is not a zero-sum game, but a disproportionate amount of wealth will go to people who make consumers burn less energy and create more efficiency
If you found this insightful, do drop a like and share it on social media, and tag me :)
A ❤️and share on LinkedIn / Twitter would mean a lot