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The U Michigan management academic, C. K. Prahalad (with an Indian science administrator, Mashelkar) had written an article about innovating for the Indian econ

by shas3 12y ago

The U Michigan management academic, C. K. Prahalad (with an Indian science administrator, Mashelkar) had written an article about innovating for the Indian economy in the Harvard Business Review. The summary of their article is that Indian companies tend to figure out a way of innovating around these constraints [1]. They present a few case studies, notably in the mobile telephony and pharma sectors. The companies face pretty much the same problems that you talk about: poor infrastructure, etc. Certainly these can be insurmountable challenges. However, if the market exists, there is incentive to figuring out ways around this. The paper is worth reading to understand how Indian companies innovate. Regarding non-standard addressing systems, etc. Anecdote: in my experience, courier systems are a little different in India than it is in the US. As I remember from my time there (lived there till 2007), the courier system is de-centralized. Local companies with a reasonably good knowledge of the neighborhood, etc. do the 'last-mile' delivery. The rest is usually managed by nationwide companies, including DHL, etc. [1] C. K. Prahalad, R. A. Mashelkar, "Innovation's Holy Grail," Harvard Business Review, Jul 2010. http://repository.ias.ac.in/63026/1/25_aut.pdf http://repository.ias.ac.in/63026/1/25_aut.pdf

tn13 12y ago
This is unquestionably true. Indians succeed by innovating around an oppressive and obscenely slow and dysfunctional government. However the question I raised was whether Flipkart has come up with a financially profitable and scalable innovation. They might have; because clearly I do not have access to the kind of information that the investors must have had but looking at the public domain it appears that flipkart does not have that innovation. Their CEO is also admitting it in public: "We have 22 million registered users, and almost similar number of customers. The way we look at it, when this figure reaches 100 million, we'll be in a position to think of profitability. When we have delivered products to one in three homes in India, we'll get to that point." - S Bansal
- known 12y ago
  India follows the "Sheep Herd" mentality. The whole country's economy is based on people getting into "Profitable" domains mostly following the success of a pioneer in the field. The most recent example of this ideology is the "Business Process Outsourcing" industry. New BPO units are propping up here and there at a dime a dozen leading to a quality deterioration in the final deliverable. This process will continue till a saturation level is reached and then they will wait till another "Killer" domain picks up momentum. Till then India will be in a so called "Calm Period" where nothing great and major takes place.

by shas3 12y ago

tn13 12y ago

This is unquestionably true. Indians succeed by innovating around an oppressive and obscenely slow and dysfunctional government. However the question I raised was whether Flipkart has come up with a financially profitable and scalable innovation. They might have; because clearly I do not have access to the kind of information that the investors must have had but looking at the public domain it appears that flipkart does not have that innovation. Their CEO is also admitting it in public: "We have 22 million registered users, and almost similar number of customers. The way we look at it, when this figure reaches 100 million, we'll be in a position to think of profitability. When we have delivered products to one in three homes in India, we'll get to that point." - S Bansal

known 12y ago
India follows the "Sheep Herd" mentality. The whole country's economy is based on people getting into "Profitable" domains mostly following the success of a pioneer in the field. The most recent example of this ideology is the "Business Process Outsourcing" industry. New BPO units are propping up here and there at a dime a dozen leading to a quality deterioration in the final deliverable. This process will continue till a saturation level is reached and then they will wait till another "Killer" domain picks up momentum. Till then India will be in a so called "Calm Period" where nothing great and major takes place.