You Can Learn Corporate Lessons From Street

Table of Contents You Can Learn Corporate Lessons From Street

It is important to learn corporate skills and develop ideas to run an organisation successfully if you are in a leadership role or an aspirant to achieve that level. More importantly for your own success which is applicable at all levels of hierarchy. We learn many things at educational institutes, by training as well as through modern blogs like this for versatile thoughts. However, all these processes have a certain limit of learning, but you can learn unlimited and abundant throughout your life from the street sellers, subject to you having that knack and not treating them as small. And these are not some low-level thoughts of poor people. They actually run India. I feel you can realise the meaning of my this comment when you shall complete reading this article without skipping any part.

Salaried people usually do not use their brains at extreme levels because their gain and loss are limited. It is a fact that we realise or not. Their income is too some extent assured for today and tomorrow. However, people who run their small businesses have a huge risk of being penniless as well as a huge opportunity to multiply their income. First come out of this thought that you and I, who are in white-collar jobs are intelligent. Intellect is equally distributed at all levels of people. We are just fortunate to have been born in a well-to-do family and the majority of them are not, except entrepreneur-minded people.

I am not going to bore you telling the Mumbai Dabbawalla story. Which itself is one of the greatest learning for even Six Sigma experts. How they comply with Six Sigma and better even without a laptop or even without using a piece of paper and pencil. Their unique process orientation amazed the world.  However, also it is a serious learning matter how such a billion-dollar business can be evaporated overnight, which can be dissected in some other article.

I am telling you what I experienced keeping my eyes and ears open when I go the local markets and learnt many corporate lessons from there. As well as the innovation made by the so-called common man with less education. All of the case studies, I can not include here as I want to complete the article within a certain word limit. However, use it as an eye-opener and I am sure that you can explore many, by your observation power.

Engagement:

Long back, we few colleagues together were going to a nearby tea stall after office hours. I noticed that the owner of the tea stall every day was decorating his shop with some flowers. One day I asked, why do you waste money to decorate your shop daily. It does not help you to attract customers as your customers are localised, come daily, and they see two things, cleanliness and taste of the tea you serve.

Instead of replying the owner returns with a reverse question, ‘Sir, did you notice that every day everybody demands money from you, morning to evening? In the morning the milkman demands money, then the newspaper delivery boy. Need to pay money to driver when you stary for office. Indeed, you do not pay daily but the expense is virtually accounted daily basis. Then the petrol pump. The lunch suppliers. Then, when you go to my shop something. When you go back, it may be your wife, your daughter and your son at night for their fees or pocket expenses. Your electric bill, house rent, taxes, attire, haircut, donations, worship, chemist shop, doctors… you need to pay to everyone from the labour room to the burning ghat in your life. But have you ever thought about who gives your money? Only one, your office. Same for me. This little shop gives me money. So I love this shop and do not mind putting some extra effort out of my love’.

What a great lesson of engagement. We spend days to train same to our employees but this single example is bigger than that and touches our hearts.

Topline- Bottom line:

This happened in Puri. Puri is a small town famous for the Jagannath temple as well as one of the best sea beaches in India with abandoned massive waves. Puri is unique for one more reason, handloom dress materials known as ‘Katki-Print’.

I and my wife were enjoying the evening shopping on the street which runs alongside the beautiful beach. My wife bought a piece of suite from a street side small shop and paid to the shopkeeper with a one thousand rupee note. The shop owner returned the change with a smile. I, as per my habit joked with him, ‘Bhaisab, you made a good profit as she is not a hard negotiator’. The owner stared at me and replied with a bigger smile, ‘Sirji, profit bech ne se nehi aata hai. Profit kharid ne se aata hai (profit does not come from selling. It comes from buying)’.

I did not realise it then as I had just stepped into the professional world as an engineer. However, later when I started leading business and negotiating for buying, warehousing, inventory management as well as selling, I realised that the ultimate lesson I learned not from my college but from the street seller. Because the market decides the selling price in a competitive market, so one has less liberty to make a better margin by increasing the selling price. So the only option is to keep a better margin by buying at the best price.

Planning:

Just a year before I went to Lajpat Nagar market, a very popular one in Delhi, the capital of India. My wife went to a parlour where she used to go and requested me to wait for an hour. I took a seat on the bench of the small park in the middle of the market. And started observing surroundings, as I always find it interesting to watch people, their behaviour and everything around. A hawker came and sat beside me, probably he was a bit tired from standing for hours selling the materials for Holi (colours, caps, one-use dresses etc). I started talking to him, ‘Only few days left to celebrate Holi. What you would do after that.’  He replied with a laugh, ‘We are lucky that we have thirty-forty festivals in twelve months. At least 10 /12 big festivals. So no issue, I shall pick products for the next one once Holi is over’. I asked, ‘From where do you get all these products? Do you go to different sources to buy those?’. ‘No sir’, he pointed his finger to a building opposite to main road and ten said ‘Sir, behind this building there is one more building where some people make all these products’. ‘All these products’ the phrase stuck in my mind.

When he left, I saw I have still 45 minutes in my hand before my wife came out of the parlour. I walked into the house. I have seen 10/15 people working in the ground floor making various sizes and shapes of Indian flags and souvenirs etc. I realised that they are preparing for Independence Day celebration sales which is just few months away and a big one for street sellers. Also, some of them were making some other products related to the typical Hindu ritual Shivratri.  I met the owner of the shop. He offered me a cup of tea, probably my eyes were speaking with appreciating words. And during the conversation what he told me was amazing. He showed me a calendar which is two months ahead of the actual date and marked with all kinds of minor and major festivals. Altogether around 10 major and 20 minor events including local mela, conference, election etc. In one breath he told me, ‘After Holi we start making products for Shivaratri, then souvenirs and articles for Independence Day, Then Rakhi, then Navaratri, Eid, Durga puja, Diwali, Xmas, and again Republic Day, mostly the same articles of Independence Day’. He added that this year he got an additional big event which is just over, G20 where he did a good business. In this case, he made many expensive souvenirs for foreign delegates as well as for local people. He pointed his finger to a room next to where we were sitting. ‘There is a bigger room where many workers are working producing the souvenirs of minor events, regular products and also batches, flags for political parties”.

I was surprised to see the quality of the guy who handles everything single-handedly, leads the team, makes innovative designs using a separate team, sources the raw materials in time, decides competitive prices, makes appropriate inventory, and delivers finished products month after month on time, every time with no mistakes. What great planning, process orientation, innovation and fulfilment in a single hand. That too without the iPhone, Apple computer and expensive business and accounting software.

Intellect and Innovation

Intellect and an innovative mind are inborn and not a skill which can be trained like several functional skills. If a person has a creative and innovative mind; it applies everywhere, be it in his professional or personal life. As well as it does not depend on position.  Does not come out of qualification but in DNA. Innovation is applied in every layer of the hierarchy. A good painter surely does creative work in his workplace. A creative writer is equally creative in his work even if he/she is in engineering or a doctor. As it is not a skill, people who are not creative remain like that and vice versa. However, some learning helps one to apply it.  Creativity also has different levels for different people. So better use and lesser use may come through learning. It helps to solve many problems or find easy solutions of challenges not only in professional life but in personal life too.

This is a real-life story I read somewhere and touched my heart, some of you might have heard it. No issue good things need to be repeated as some others can enjoy or get help.

An army jawan was posted in Srinagar when Srinagar was under red alert. Internet and mobile services were suspended for weeks. Army camps were under attack frequently.

A jawan was withdrawing money every day from an ATM. It came to the notice of their vigilance and suspected that he might have some connection with terrorists. How a Jawan can withdraw money every day. What is his source or requirement for so much cash?  As such they first checked with the respective bank and found that he drew only a hundred rupees daily. Then they interrogated the guy. His reply was, ‘Sir, I married three months before. As the mobile and internet services are suspended in Srinagar, I can not call my wife. She is always live in a panic hearing bad news on television and newspaper. So, I found a way out. I linked my bank account with her mobile. So, when every day I draw a hundred rupees, she gets a confirmation sms and gets assured that I am still alive.”

What an intellect and innovation!  Hats off! This story raised my goosebumps….don’t you?

How small or big is the unorganised sector?

These so-called smmall business owners are common men. Mostly without any higher education, can’t speak English, and sometimes no other language other than their native language.  This is the proof that intellect and engagement are the ultimate for success though good education can be a tailwind as far as it does not make a person arrogant or snobbish.

Do you have any idea which businesses contribute most to our country’s GDP.   It is not Reliance or Adani.  Not Tata, Bajaj or infosys. It is the unorganised sector which contributes to approximately 57% of Indian GDP. However, what is more important than GDP is employment creation as everyone in the country needs to earn to live. Any idea how much the unorganised sector contributes to job creation? It is zooming 93% where rest 7% is contributed by our big conglomerates like TATA, Reliance, Adani, Bajaj and a dozen global top software giants. And all this 93% of employment is created by small businesses. They are an unorganised sector by definition but as a company, business or individual they are most organised. Their processes are extremely organised and proven, as you have seen in the above examples.

What about our Business Tycoons?

However unfortunately our business tycoons, like Reliance, Adani and dozens are trying to hit them below the belt taking advantage of no protection-shield for them created by any of our governments.  Those tycoons can destroy the small businesses by strategic undercut pricing to kick the small competitors out of the market and then will loot us with the monopoly. They should invest in businesses where initial capital investment is high, as such small businessmen can not do so. That will be a real help for the country instead they destroy the eco-system of the retail business environment in India. Our States and central government should stop them from doing it. Billionaires should shift their focus from ‘kirana ka dukan’ (street side shops) to big manufacturing industries like, cars, machinery and export quality garments. Should invest to develop our own twitter (x), and Linkedin kind of apps as well as big data servers. You shall be surprised to know that US has a monopoly on data servers as such our all data including our defence, space, ministry etc all hosted in US servers. Yes, there are lows on data protection but who cares about the laws in abnormal situations? For example, US overnight stop transaction of Russian currency globally as all the payment transfer technology companies are US-based. They can apply anything to any country that they repeatedly demonstrated to show their power. Here I am not blaming US but our own tycoons that they should do some real contribution to our motherland and not for their own growth only.

Anyway, you may find my focus is shifting to micro and macro economy from sales & marketing skills, but really not. The above discussion is not far away from the blog theme. It was required because a sales and marketing professional should see the bigger picture beyond their core skills but let us make our minds light with two hilarious stories.

Two Hilarious Stories

I am telling you two beautiful begger’s stories (not my own creation but I learnt somewhere). 1^st one was very popular at the beginning of this century when the internet, Hotmail became popular as well as ‘.com’ bubble on its full-blown stage. I changed those a little to make them contemporary.

Story 1

On a busy city road three beggars used to sit on the pavement. They have an agreement that they should not compete with each other. Some of the officegoers were throwing some coins at them. One day, one bagger put up a placard with PayTm QR code and he started getting good money. The second beggar then thought about what unique he could do. The next day he put a placard with www.beggar.com. Business owners started rushing to him to give their advertisements on his website and he started earning much more than the first beggar.  Now the third beggar was in trouble. The two beggars took the two nice options, then what was left for him. Deep thinking and innovation worked. The next day the third begger put a placard www.begger.beg .  Next day Bill Gets came with a million dollars to buy the ‘.beg ‘ concept.

Story 2

In a small village market, a beggar became very popular. The reason is his madness. When someone gives him one rupee he accepts. If someone gives ten rupees or a hundred rupee note, he throws it to the giver and also starts scolding the donner. Many people were gathering every day to see the fun and try it. People from distant places started coming. They were giving 10/100 notes and the beggar as usual was scolding them. Then when they were giving one rupee the beggar was silently keeping that in his bag.

A highly educated wise man thought he should teach the beggar the value of ten or hundred rupee notes, the beggar might think these are a piece of paper and metal coin is only valuable. So, one day after the market was closed and the beggar about to leave, he went to him and wanted to talk.

Begger agreed and the wise man asked, ‘Do you understand the value of money? ‘

Begger replied, ‘I can answer if you give me hundred rupees.’

The wise man was surprised and handed one hundred rupee note to the beggar.

Then he asked again, ‘Do you know the value of this hundred rupee note.’

Beggar put the note in his bag, smiled and said, ‘Of course. Who does not know it?.’

‘Then why you do not take ten or hundred rupees’, he asked.

The bagger said, ‘I can reply to you as you already paid for my answer but with one condition. You can not tell this to anyone.’

The wise man accepted the condition.

The beggar replied, ‘The moment I accept the ten or hundred rupee note, neither anyone will give me the same anymore nor so many people come to give one rupee coin to see the fun. My unique image will be destroyed. I created my unique brand and the brand value helping me to earn much more than any other beggar can even think.’

The wise man started thinking who is more educated and intelligent? He or the beggar!!

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