The Trend of Being Big

January 12^th 2011: “Airbus SAS said Indian carrier IndiGo Airlines plans to buy 180 A320 single-aisle jets for $15 billion at list price, the largest order in aviation history.”

Scan through the news and you come across a spread of ‘big’ news from India. From her population to her plans to her numbers in terms of progress; ‘big’ is the new trend in this new phase of Indian economy. The most impressive part of it all is that it isn’t contained to private sectors; public sectors are also coming up with stirring ‘big’ news all the time.

November 27^th 2010: World’s Most Expensive Home

“Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has hosted a lavish house-warming for his new 27-storey residence, believed to be the world’s most expensive home”

January 25^th 2011: India’s Mobile Phone Users Grow to 729,57 Million:

“NEW DELHI: Telecom operators added a whopping 22.88 million mobile subscribers in November 2010, taking the total number of telephone users in the country to 764.76 million,  sectoral regulator TRAI today said.”

All of these bulletins have something stark in common; they link and bring out the fact that growth is happening in the Indian economy. The numbers seen in the domestic market are shooting up in recent times which shows the rise of the middle-class population of India; a strong sign of the economic growth ahead.

An interesting observation that I have seen in most Indian business models is that the selling aspect of Indian businesses is all about ‘high volume, low margins’. People want to feel that the money they have offered to be rotated in the economy is giving them returns to the maximum stretch. People want to feel good after a buy, not think that the business model is sound and strategic. A lot of failed business deals from International sellers have happened because of their failure to grasp this mindset. Coming from a working model which is all about markets which are equal in terms of welfare and income and where potential target groups are sometimes significantly smaller compared to India, this working model seems to be quite alien to them. The only mode of survival in India is to of course, adapt to her customs. Kellogg’s, McDonalds etc are examples of companies who have enjoyed success after changing their business models to suit Indian customer expectations. The moral of the story is simple enough; respect the Indian mentality and local business models and yours could be the next ‘big’ news being published in the papers.