We're not competing with every travel planning site out there. I can only point out differentiators with those that are offering anything similar (i.e. an expert network). Asking a ketchup maker how they're different from mustard is kind of pointless.
The reason they stand out most is their consistency over the decade. The consistency they have as they expand. India is a lot different scenario than the rest of the world. Tackling innovation alone won't get you far. There are so many factors starting from purchase of license, regular bribing the police, rogues etc etc. Besides, this is a story of an uneducated person raising this big a company. Gathering customers without use of a computer or internet. I believe this is an important lesson for all startups for this reason. It shows going beating the usual, taking the untrodden path can take you miles.
Most of those points stand for other fast food or supermarket chains as well. And the cases of single place becoming a chain usually feature owner without a formal business education.
Hey senthil, I think you are missing out an important point here. It is not abt two successful companies, it is about how they got successful and their success is an outlier,by not following the usual path. And how the current so called corporate structure need not necessarily guaranty success. It is abt how, sans marketing, they have managed to gather million customer base.
Well, the point I was trying to make was how a small retail chain can get successful to an extent that make any one awestruck. Innovation need not be the revolutionary or apple kinda innovation. Even a small innovation can make million user base. Besides, i agree, they are not start ups per se. The definition of startup itself is a bit loose so going along that line won't get us far. The important thing is to be successful. Innovation is a way to success. If you need to be innovative for achieving million user base, so be it. Else, even the out of the world innovation can be shunned by the customers. The blog points out that serving customers are far more important than spending loads on marketing etc.
Very well said. They customers they serve are retained and expanded. The idea of restaurants in India is very different from the ones in US or rest of the world. Hence, there may be quite a disparity in the idealogy and system of business.
Well, sometimes what matters is not how good you are on an absolute scale, rather how better are you than the rest. Also, I agree courteous is more of a subjective point. Hence I did not expand on it much.
@ raheemm : Very true, lots of businesses in south india do work on that basis. Word of mouth. No online presence, or social media presence, yet they gather millions of customers.
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