The challenges of sourcing

For all the contacts on linkedin sales navigator and the world wide web, for the real MSME world works, the required information, contacts, business names are not online.

This is the conclusion of the various aspects of sourcing I have had to do in the last 10 years of sourcing for custom made menswear.

From fabric swatches, workshops, tailors to tailoring materials to pattu vendors to embroidery workers. There are only 4 ways to gain sources:
1. Experienced people connecting you to known parties

2. Doing the hard physical search (searching a pin in a haystack)

3. The party comes to you for business due to reference / online presence

4. Creating chance coincidence at exhibitions (much like asking a stranger girl out once you spot one - the unsolicitated direct approach. One needs gonads of steel for this!)

Reality of the sourcing does not lie in the digital realm as these are all uneducated people who are not going to list on google or have a linkedin account. Even if they are educated, most have done the hard work and have decent business and do not have the patience to put in the efforts for the results.

Even if some of them do, there are innummerible number of qualities which are not certified by anyone and difficult to decifer.

Then, there are minimum order quantities and chance to give continuous business to the party while not reducing the existing parties' orders.

Why certain gaps that exist will continue to exist?

I came across an interesting study that says that kids cannot do stand up comedy, despite they wanting to be funny a lot and the reason for that is scientific.

It turns out that stand up comedy requires very high intellect and skills and nuances that children are not able to do at their level of development.

Why is this important?

Imagine a person seeing a gap in the market where only adults are doing stand up comedy and feels that a reality show with kids with stand up is missing in the market and gets working on this business, only to fail on this one critical technicality that no general person knows.

So much time and money would have gone wasted.

Sometimes, the gap seems obvious to be filled, but the gap can be due to one of 2 reasons: a technical / unexpected reason or there is lack of motivation/profit for the person to do it.

The power of Legal

I have come across 3 cases in my life where the power of legal has changed the game in a business and my positive perspective of it:

Case 1. 

Having worked in the financing of the airlines, I came across a very secret insight which very few people in the world know. The main cause of Indigo's success v/s its competition. 

To understand this, you need to understand one of the main reasons why the various airlines became bankrupt for the last 10-15 years in India.

In airline lingo, An AOG, or "Aircraft on Ground," is an aviation maintenance term for when a plane cannot fly due to a mechanical or technical problem. It is a critical situation for any airline, as it can be extremely costly and disruptive.

Go Air went bankrupt due to a supply shortage of engines from Pratt & Whitney, which were used in its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft. When the airline ceased operations in 2023, it had 26 aircraft operational, while the other 28 aircraft were grounded due to engine issues with Pratt & Whitney.

Kingfisher airlines - Reasons for Collapse: The collapse was due to a combination of factors, including a huge debt burden and losses, a high number of grounded aircraft due to maintenance issues, and a prolonged financial crisis.

IndiGo currently has a number of aircraft grounded, a number that peaked in mid-2024 at over 70 but has been gradually decreasing.

Spicejet also have a number of AOG almost all the time.

While all airlines have AOG, the reason for the AOG is necessary to know.

If tight finances is a reason for payment to engine supplier to resolve AOGs, then the airline will struggle because of its finances and not necessarily because of the supplier.

If the engine supplier is not having much replacements immediately despite the airline being ready to pay, the airlines suffers for no fault of its.

The secret of Indigo's success comes from the agreement Indigo got into with Airbus and the engine supplier when it first made a huge purchase with them. Possibly knowing the industry risk of AOGs due to engine problems and its impact on the business and its first CEO being a lawyer by profession (Aditya Ghosh), they got in a clause to the effect that the engine supplier is obligated to replace the faulted engine with 24-48 hrs or else the engine supplier would pay damages per day of AOG.

I believe this clause didn't exist with the other airlines' agreements and the engine supplier agreed to this demand  of Indigo as part of the negotiation of the big order Indigo placed.

So, while Indigo had any engine trouble, the engine supplier had to prioritise to replace its engine with ready ones (mostly in Singapore being a hub for Asia) while the other airlines waited for their turn.

As the supply is usually very strained, Indigo flights went up in a day or 2 while the others only kept mailing and calling the engine supplier for replacement and lost their revenues till they went up bankrupt.

This is the power of the right legal clause.

Case 2:
In Banking, money and assets can be transferred by 2 ways: 

A. Transferring money through banking channels

B. 'Assigning' the asset/ monies through legal agreement

The common people don’t know this way of transfer of assets. This is somewhat similar to a gift deed.

Case 3:

Movie: The Firm featuring Tom Cruise

A legal firm traps its own key lawyer and blackmails him to keep the illegal things they do a secret. 

Now the hero as an individual has to fight back against a big firm and bring it down.

And how does he bring down the firm? After multiple attempts fail to bring the firm down, he finds a small misstep the firm keeps doing which he observes. The firm illegally overbills its clients and is documented in its records.

Sometimes, the key to success lies is in the details others oversee / cant think of.

Each of these stories / cases has left a lasting bright impression on me on how legal can be a solution to problems which others in the world don't consider.

Asymmetricity

Case A: 

I have heard of Asymetric warfare multiple times. Mostly used in the context of Guerrilla warfare and drone warfare. 

Why is this asymetric? 

Because low cost things and tactics can overcome high cost professional things and tactics.

The cost and the results make the investments asymmetric.

Case B: 

Private equity takes asymmetric bets knowing very well that only 1 or 2 companies in the portfolio gives outsized returns and makes far more money than the losses incurred in the other companies.

Case 3:

A 10 X thinking involves taking calculated risks where the upside far outweighs the downside.

10x thinkers know not every bet pays off, but one great one can change everything.

Case 4:
Usually, for a company out of all the products, there would usually be 1 or 2 product categories that gives disproportionate profits or are asymmetric.

The pattern across things is that Asymmetric investments yield outsized returns.

It takes a lot of research, knowledge to identify asymetric opportunities.

In conclusion, asymmetric thinking is a way of thinking or provides a framework to think.

Why some people always make money?

I have come across a few entrepreneurs who always make money in each of their ventures. They are serial entrepreneurs and or multi-tasking entrepreneurs. They may have had failures, but it is less.

It took many years to understand the reason - There are a specific set of knowledge and skills required to make money. If we have that, we make money.

As someone I heard put it nicely, give a Rubik's cube to all the people. Only the person knowing how to solve will solve it. The rest of the people irrespective of any amount of time, will not be able to solve it.

Unfortunately, these skills and knowledge are not thought commercially at one place. Very few places teach that in parts.

Business of Transgenders in India

During college days, I used to wonder the source of income for the transgenders as and when I came across them in the road. To be clear, they were much better dressed than beggers even when they used to harrass people for money at traffic junctions, railways, etc.

So what's their secret to their far better living standards than many working class people like watchmen, clerks, auto drivers, etc.?

It turns out harrassment on the road is only one of their small source of income. One of the larger sources of income for them is harrassment/exhortion of shop store businesses and taking baksheesh on festivals also. 

The group is close knit and also very organised to support each other when required to create scenes/ dramas at places. They have clear demarcation of shops, roads and areas where they have their shops which provide their source of income.

With some transgender people becoming even MLA in India, I hope they take up more normal jobs in the society and get themselves acquainted to other people in the society in a better way so that people/ kids are not scared of them. The more they join the society in meaningful ways, the more people would be acceptable of them, removing the stigma attached to them.

Opportunist

If you want to be successful, "You must want the opportunities to come to you all the time!"

Ideas that work

From storage space, household plant rental, at home dog grooming, drycleaning and doorstep car cleaning, sheesha delivery at home, at-home spa service (Delhi/NCR); dporstep post pickup & doorstep autorickshaw service (Pune); virtual personal assistant, packaged ready-to-cook food, midnight delivery and Laundry (Mumbai); Shoe laundry, at home haircuts/salon services and midnight delivery (Bangalore).
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-06-03/news/31985596_1_iit-kharagpur-grocery-shopping-idea-entrepreneurs

Goof ups

In 2011, Blackberry services outage down for 3 days, UBS illegal trades and Billion $ losses, S&P mistakenly downgrades France, NATO bombing Pakistan's guard-posts and Indian govt. accepting a USD 9 billion export error.

Previously, irresponsible statements "We do Gods work" by Goldman Sach's CEO Lloyd Blankfein, 

"Its not our fault" by Tony Hayward, then BP CEO.

The frequency of the goof ups are increasing and the scale of it is getting bigger and bigger.

It is for someone to find out why. Could it because of increasing pressures of the jobs & faster deadlines to produce results without having enough quality checks? I believe so. Also, the touhgher environment thanks to the slowdown and recession is causing the extra pressure on growth and profitablity.

Compared to this, is any goof up we do in our daily work really that bad? Everyone screws up. As far as NASA's philosophy is supposed to go, the reason for any screw up is not any person, but the fault of the system. If there are enough checks and balances, screw ups should never happen, atleast of the kind mentioned above. It is time systems are given importance, and not just the profits. It is time systems are held responsible for irresponsibility and not the people on whom ridiculous expectations are held!

Funny business quotes

• Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor. John Ciardi
• The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. Lilly Tomlin
• Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining. Old West quote
• When you assume, you make an “ass” out of “u” and “me.”
• The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. Roy L. Smith
• Eagles soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
• Every employee rises to the level of his own incompetence. The Peter Principle
• Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Cyril Northcote Parkinson/Parkinson’s Law.
• The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts.
• A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. David Brinkley
• A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.
• She should go far. The sooner she starts, the better.
• The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of its behind. Joseph Stilwell
• Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders. Sloan Wilson
• The wheels are turning, but the hamsters are all dead.
• Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.
• I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw
• If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you’ll get change.
• There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it? Kin Hubbard
• If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?
• There’s an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. Peter Drucker
• By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. Robert Frost
• Accomplishing the impossible means only the boss will add it to your regular duties. Doug Larson
• Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill
• A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it. William Feather
• The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you. Bette Midler
• Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. TS Eliot
• If you would like to know the value of money, try to borrow some. Benjamin Franklin
• Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. George Burns
• If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges.
• If you don’t know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues initials on them and pass them along. When in doubt, route. Malcolm S. Forbes quotes
• It is better to spend money like there’s no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there’s no money. PJ O’Rourke
• Never invest in anything that eats or needs repairing. Billy Rose
• It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse. Adlai Stevenson
• If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. WC Fields
• Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
• If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style. Quentin Crisp
• Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid altogether.
• A clean desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.
• All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. Mark Twain
• If at first you don’t succeed, try management.
• Indecision is the key to flexibility.
• If at first you don’t succeed, take the tax loss. Kirk Kirkpatrick
• Aim low, reach your goals, and avoid disappointment. Scott Adams/Dilbert
• Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes. Lewis Grizzard
• The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one. Oscar Wilde
• In the early days all I hoped was to make a living out of what I did best. But, since there’s no real market for masturbation I had to fall back on my bass playing abilities. Les Claypool
• Do not underestimate your abilities. That is your boss’s job.
• Right now, this is a job. If I advance any higher, this would be my career. And if this were my career, I’d have to throw myself in front of a train. Jim Halpert/The Office
• Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure. Earl Wilson
• Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte
• There’s nothing so improves the mood of the Party as the imminent execution of a senior colleague. Alan Clark
• A consultant is someone who takes the watch off your wrist and tells you the time.
• An expert is someone called in at the last minute to share the blame.
• Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.
• For maximum attention, nothing beats a good mistake.
• One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell
• http://www.businesspundit.com/100-funny-business-quotes/

Organised systemic cheating

You can call it cheating or disrespect purposeful ignorance, but certainly not innocent. A lot of big companies say a lot of big stuff but when it comes to practice, they are trying to shortchange you and certainly not what they promise. Recent experiences of Nokia, Tata Indicom, pizza shops and hotels prove this.

My new mobile from Nokia went dead in two weeks and I gave it to their service center at Mumbai. After a week they tell me that the mobile which was repaired in Delhi has come back and it is still dead. So they will send it back to Delhi. The next week they promptly tell me to come and pick up my handset. After waiting for half hr in the line, I see them inserting the battery into a phone whose colour is different from the one I had given. Now I have asked for the same couloured repplacement or I am not taking delivery. Are they doing door delivery service or rather their disservice? I am still paying for my time and money spent travelling to their service center and waiting in line, not to mention the time spent to configure the new phone.

Tata Photon plus is even more slower in service. They cancelled a post-paid to prepaid connection change as they wanted an address proof. They have the address proof in the post paid and yet wanted another one for prepaid. After a month and threatening them to take them to consumer court, the issues have been resolved (for the time being).

This is something I fail to understand. Why do companies prefer to have an old incorrect address rather than have a new address where the customer is verified when they operate an all India network and distribution facilities?

Another instance where the dongle (any usb internet access device) sellers cheat is that they sell you the dongle and wont refund the money for the dongle when we close the connection. My friend tells me that he read some TRAI regulation that they should reimburse the money when the device is returned back, but the low down company people will only say, taking back is not part of company policy.

Some hotels and many a Pizza shops are a great set of cheaters. They charge service charge on their bills of as high as 10% of the bill. Some bigger cheats put this 10% on the amount after tax (which means they are charging service tax of 10% on the tax amount too). Scam of the first order. Only governments can charge charges on the tax. Fortunately, someone I distantly know has approached the high court and the pizza company has been ordered to change their system and not charge service charge on the tax amount.

Another Marketing gimmick

When you wish someone prosperity, isn't it for a lifetime? It doesnt seem so for marketers as usual. Five years ago, a common man in the city was unaware of an auspicious day called Akshaya Tritiya. Maybe people seeing star calenders knew about it and did whatever they did on those days. But suddenly, this day has become so conspicuous, unignorable and synonymous to buy gold on this auspicious day for prosperity with every jeweller advertising it. So I ask again: Does the prosperity the gold (supposedly) brings expire in one year and new gold have to be bought every year?

Crap Marketing

You should know when you are in an Indian five-star hotel when you don't find any usuable water (water tap/mini hand shower) anywhere near the commode. Instead, they keep only toilet papers there. What angers me the most is that they have a lot of Indian customers and still make us feel awkward when we are in the most vulnerable situations on Earth...

Are they purposely send out a message that they dont want Indians by trying to irritate us or are they retards?

P.S: The first lesson in marketing is always "understand your customer needs".... Ya right! 

I bet if you ask them what they studied, they would say "that marketing crap". 

Fractional living

The concept of sharing in going beyond siblings and family members...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1266644/How-live-like-millionaire--spending-fortune.html

Is this what we are actually ending up with?

My friend said something he had heard his friend asking: "Are we really working our a**es off to have a higher hard disk capacity, faster processors and download speeds with more high definition resolution so that someone out there can watch more high quality porn in newer devices? "

Well, I don't think he was much off the mark when you consider the numbers below...

http://www.businesspundit.com/the-numbers-behind-pornography/

15 good podcasts

http://www.businesspundit.com/15-podcasts-that-will-make-you-richer/

The economist's awards for 2008

This list is not for the best, but for the worst of those in the business of business and were caught swimming naked when the tide went out. Hence, the "The swimming naked awards".
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12796770