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The Rise and Fall of Sedans in India

The Indian Car Market is quite volatile. Customer demands keep on changing and the manufacturers that have coped up with these changing demands have survived. Original Story by Prashant Sachdev Unlike the 80s and early 90s, which were primarily dominated by two car makers (and two primary car models), customers have multiple options to choose from. During the last 30 years, the Auto Industry has changed a lot - with many players exiting the Indian Market (HM, Daewoo, GM and Ford) and others struggling (Honda). The Rise During the 20th Century, two car makers, namely Hindustan Motors and Maruti Udyog Ltd. dominated the Indian Roads. Hindustan Motors ruled the market through it’s revolutionary sedan Ambassador. Maruti Udyog (which started as a joint venture between Maruti Udyog Ltd. & Suzuki Motor Corporation) gained popularity from it’s Maruti 800 hatchback. Later, Maruti also launched the Maruti 1000 to compete in the Sedan Segment (which was an older version of the Maruti Est...

Windows Phone - The Best Smartphone OS that Failed to Survive

My first smartphone was a Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone OS. I am using Android devices now, but I still miss my Windows Phone. Original Story by Prashant Sachdev Nokia Lumia 925 running Windows Phone 8 Anyone who has used a Windows Phone in the last decade would remember how fast and fluid the OS was. Moreover, it was one of the most secure operating systems back then. Even with all this, Microsoft's ambitious smartphone OS failed to Google's less secure and laggy Android and Apple's expensive iPhones with iOS. The Birth of Smartphones The launch of the iPhone in 2007 took the smartphone industry by storm. It was the first mobile phone that did not rely on physical buttons and had an on screen touch keyboard. Back then, Windows Phone had not been born - Rather, Microsoft was offering Windows Mobile OS that was not a touch screen friendly OS and was mainly built for business customers. At that time, the then Microsoft CEO - Steve Ballmer laughed at the idea and said that a ...

Is cash burning really creating Loyal Customers?

Truth? or is it a myth? Original Story by Prashant Sachdev With the entry of e-commerce channel in India, the concept of burning cash to increase market share came into picture. Over the period of time, more industries such as telecom have indulged into this practice. Let us consider two of the most impactful cash burning events in the recent history: Big Billion Day Sale I remember the day when Flipkart had first launched their Big Billion Day Sale in 2014. Many products such as smartphones, accessories etc. were sold at Rs. 1! At that time, most people thought that flipkart was foolish to sell products at such huge losses. With such negative EBITDA in almost all categories, how could a company survive, even in the short term! The only explanation for doing so was to entice customers in the short term and habituate them into using the then new service. They did succeed in doing the above. However, over the period of time, new players such as Amazon, Snapdeal etc. were born in India. N...

Learning and Unlearning

A lot of Jargons are being made up today in order to define something very simple. I came across one such Jargon - "Unlearning". Let us dive deep and understand what the term really means... Original Story by Prashant Sachdev Learning is a continuous process. It starts on the day we are born. Most people link learning to education. However, our subconscious mind is too inquisitive to stop learning at the age of 25. As a matter of fact, your subconscious mind is currently trying to judge the author of this article amongst a thousand other things. No matter how much we learn, the subconscious/conscious mind would try to restrict new knowledge that contradicts any knowledge we currently possess. This new knowledge may or may not be valuable. It's like the Schrödinger's Cat! You'll only know the current state of the Cat if you open the box! Unlearning Unlearning has been referred to as discarding of false information/toxic information etc. by many people. However, in ...

Managing Teams – One easy looking task, most leaders fail at!

With the growth of business and economy, a larger quantity of Human Resource is required in any organization. This increase demands supervision and training through a leader. But most leaders fail in managing their teams. Why does this happen? Original Story by Prashant Sachdev What are the qualities of a good leader? I’m sure that your management institute taught you that. Let’s recap: 1. Integrity 2. Confidence 3. Inspire Others 4. Commitment and Passion 5. Good Communicator 6. Decision Making Capabilities 7. Accountability 8. Delegation and Empowerment 9. Creativity and Innovation 10. Empathy 11. Resilience 12. Emotional Intelligence 13. Humility 14. Transparency 15. Vision and Purpose You can find this list by just searching the following keywords “Qualities of a good leader” on Google. However, if the list is available publicly, then why do leaders miss out on one or the other quality? Why are most leaders unable to perform well? In most organizations, the middl...

Rent! - The Biggest Flaw of the Retail Industry in India?

The increasing rent for commercial spaces is becoming a major challenge for companies to get a positive ROI for their Retail Stores. Original Story by Prashant Sachdev Recently, an old friend of mine started his own restaurant in New Delhi. He chose an amazing catchment for the same which is helping him to get a decent footfall and most of the items offered by him are having a good profit margin as well. But even after doing that, the contribution margins are still very low. Surprised? Guess who the culprit is? You guessed it right! It is the high rent cost that he is bearing which is becoming a major challenge for him day by day. Most retail chain companies in India opt for large commercial spaces in highly populated areas, preferably malls or shopping centers. Such properties do get them a good footfall with the least amount of BTL (Below the Line) advertising, but sooner or later, they realize that the bigger issue for them is not the fo...