According to Kishore Biyani, the technology disruptors who live in
flats in Bangalore are not
nearly disruptive enough and are not thinking as big as they should be. Of
course, Kishore Biyani should know what it means to be a disruptor as he
himself was one a few years ago when he reshaped retail and branding in India.
As the owner of the Future Group which owns the hugely popular retail chain Big
Bazaar, Mr. Biyani remade retail in India giving it a facelift and making a
once drab profession into one associated with slickness and glamour.
Even the name of the parent company Future Group indicates a fresh
youthful tone. The name of the retail chain Big Bazaar is also a play on words
from two different cultures, the Indian word “Bazaar” implies a market with a
wide variety of different products for sale and “Big” indicates abundance. The
two words together conjure up visions of a market with nearly anything you can
think of all under one roof. “Big” is suggestive of a modern setting for the
“Bazaar” which brings to the mind of an average Indian a raucous place with
tremendous activity and where everything is for sale and perhaps can be haggled
and bought at a bargain. The name for the store is pure genius and pure Biyani.
However, the retail genius also feels that today’s entrepreneurs
are not doing enough to create the kind of value which they have the potential
to. According to Kishore Biyani, most startups don’t have a viable business
model that adds value, hence many youngsters who live in swanky new
projects in Bangalore are not truly innovating; they are merely copying
from what already exists overseas. The esteemed businessman believes that
nearly ninety percent of startups are mediocre at best and are not likely to
lead to transformative change which the country needs. Young people, Mr.
Biyani believes should push
themselves and attempt to be the next big global disruptor rather than
duplicate what already exists among disruptors in Europe, China or America.
Simply making buying and selling easier is unlikely to lead to vastly greater
wealth along with an increase in the numbers and values of luxury
apartments in Bangalore, even
if the city has tens dozens of such successful startups. According to the
gentleman, new technologies likely to have as great an impact as have
electricity, telephones, automobiles, and the internet are what is needed, not
online marketplaces which Mr. Biyani believes may be losing propositions in the
long run and are certainly losing propositions in the medium to short term.
To grasp what Mr. Kishore
Biyani is implying means to consider reinventing and reconsidering nearly
everything around us. Technologies such as electricity and automobiles were low
hanging fruits which were not too difficult to invent but had a huge global
economic impact. And to consider a new technology or industry with as great an
impact as such technologies had, only goes to show the audacity and vision of
the man.
Perhaps builders in Bangalore may
consider 3D printed affordable housing
in Bangalore; already a
3D printed structure was built in Dubai within the last one year. Yet for a top builder in Bangalore to consider such
an endeavor and to go through with implementing it requires great fortitude not
to mention technical prowess. However, it would be a great disappointment if real estate developers in Bangalore only begin to construct 3D printed
buildings after they have become passé in the developed world. The vision put
forth by Mr. Biyani suggesting we need to invent a completely new technology is
daring, perhaps one or two startups in Bangalore will set the ball rolling
sometime soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment