Imagine a typical month for your rockstar salesman: Let’s assume on average he covers 80% of his journey plan of 45 stores daily and 60% of his calls are productive (visits where he gets orders). So that’s 45 shops daily x 80% covered x 60% productive x 26 days in a month = ~ 560…
I remember wading through the legendary Andy Grove’s book “Only the Paranoid Survive” where he talks about strategic inflection points for organizations. Having seen a little bit of the real world, I see how tech plays an absolutely important role in creating these moments that can present businesses with strategic inflection points. Do you remember…
It was the year 2012 and Musthafa PC, CEO of the then-fledgling ID Fresh Foods, a manufacturer of ready-to-cook fresh food product like idli-dosa batter, had a big business problem on his hands. The ambitious young CEO had charted out an aggressive growth plan for his small company, but he found his plans blocked by…
“Welcome to the Sales Tournament at <Your company’s name> Stadium! It’s a bright, sunny Monday morning and Team Kolkata look all set to increase their lead from last week’s phenomenal sales score. Oh, but it looks like Team Chennai are closing in on them with 20 orders already captured from around the city! Coming in…
Late last year, Amazon India rolled out Amazon Business, it’s B2B marketplace with over 100 million products. Soon after, Walmart announced the opening of its first fulfillment center to serve kirana stores. In March this year, Metro Cash and Carry announced that it was starting doorstep delivery for kirana store owners. Why are these top…
Do you remember ever having mangoes in winter or kesar doodh in summer or receiving boxes of soan papdi (which, of course, we promptly re-gift) anytime other than Diwali? It’s not that these aren’t available at other times of the year, it’s just that the average Indian isn’t tuned to buying it at any other…
The name of the company featured in this case study has been witheld to protect client confidentiality. While some minor details have been changed to protect the client’s identity, all the outcomes and numbers in this article are accurate. A couple of years ago one of India’s most respected consumer goods companies set itself aggressive,…
Are you considering automating your retail supply network? Before you even start looking around for a solution, ask yourself and your team the following questions: What do you want to achieve from automating your retail sales network? What is your number one problem? What are your top priorities/goals? What features should you shop for? What…
In the past few months, we have had news of several prominent (heavily funded) companies shutting down operations. Stayzilla, Taskbob, Just Buy Live, and Tolexo are some that I can list off the top of my head. What went wrong with them? Lots, going by reports in the media. Failure to raise funds beyond a…
To state the obvious: Kirana stores are here to stay. These small, frugal mom-and-pop stores have successfully withstood headwinds from modern retail, e-retail, and the aftermath of GST and demonetization. The last two regulatory whammies had kiranas experiencing a 20-40% drop in sales temporarily , but they quickly bounced back and continue to be the…