In a recent interview with CNBC TV18 global leadership summit, Managing Director of Bajaj Auto, Rajiv Bajaj gave some valuable advice to all the start-ups and growing businesses.
He said 90 to 95% of all new businesses, products and services fails, which is quite a lethal statistics, fail primarily because most of those products and services were brought out to serve a market and not to create a market!
He added when you say, give your customer what he wants that’s only half the answer the other half is give the customer what he wants and what nobody apparently can or does give him!
By this Rajivmeant that today very less start-ups make or produce something which has not been produce by anyone else yet. The thought of doing something which nobody else is doing and hoping to get succeed is just scary thought for all the start-ups so they tend to follow the herd, instead of innovating something new.
He said that people (customers) do not tend to buy better but different, and how do you make different and not better, this is a very key to your success.
Role of a leader:
According to Rajiv Bajaj, the job of a leader is to keep finding the future in the existing activities of the company. He added that a leader is to keep everybody aligned to a higher purpose.
The biggest difference between established brand and many start-up today is while the former build strategy brand and technology, the latter are more like upstartsburning the same things.
Start-ups vs Established mainstream
Rajiv Bansal “There are three terminologies which I use. Startup; then there is a word which I like to call most of them, which is upstart. Then us, the winners or the champions”
He told that those business who enters a market without a strategy are “upstarts” who end up burning everything – from their brand and technology to products.
Upstarts are those who don’t have a build-strategy instead they have a burn strategy. They burn technology- their batteries. They burn brands by reducing price every month. They burn products in their factory, in the trucks, at the dealerships, on the road.
He continued, startups are those who have built a strategy. They build technology, brands, products, and consumer experiences. They build employee satisfaction, and they build not just a strong topline but also a strong bottom-line.
Rajiv Bajaj gave a very interesting answer when asked about who is going to win the battle – the startups or the established players? when it comes to embracing technology.
“They burn employee relationships with 50 per cent attrition. They burn consumer relationships with poor service. This is a burn strategy. So this is upstart versus startup,”Rajiv answered.
5 values of wisdom pointed out by Rajiv Bajaj for start-ups:
- Read widely and with maximum curiosity.
- Keep reality first and theory last.
- Leave money and status out.
- Manage your identity.
- Commitment.
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