The Exchanges

Q Since people are inherently competitive, Don't you think on the 90th day, whoever raises money at the highest valuation in that peer group will feel like a winner?

A I think, uh, Fortunately or unfortunately, that's the way people are viewing it. Anybody who's raising money at a higher value is getting judged. Being a unicorn is a status symbol. Yeah. Raising money at a certain value gets you certain kind of success metrics as the world views it. But I think what you are building, one should get joy in that. Because every business will have its own trajectory, have its own shape. Some people might like a certain business. But selling a concept is about storytelling. Somebody might be a better storyteller. He can raise better money. But somebody might be a introvert, a shy person, may not be able to raise money, but maybe he's doing business, maybe much, much better than the other person.

AI assessment note: “Fortunately or unfortunately, that's the way people are viewing it.”

Q has fallen off in the last two months. I don't know how accurate these numbers are, but Amazon India grew by just about five percent this year. Flipkart seven, eight percent based on higher end electronics and premiumization, which seems to be growing. But everything seems to be slowing down. Uh, and I was trying to figure out, is that it? Like festivals? Is there some festivals and interest rate?

A I always believe there are multiple reasons for anything to happen. Like five elements make the planet. I think there are multiple elements which creates the market or makes the market go lower. So there are multiple. I think interest rate is one of the things. Festival calendar is another thing. Thirdly, there is a, there was a little bit of a fatigue also, because after COVID, the consumption came about, and then the fatigue factor also set in. I personally believe the inflation has played, the, I think we are getting formalized as an economy, and formal economy is more expensive than an informal economy. I think that's playing around a little bit. For the first time, the formalization is quite complete now. Yeah. And that is, that means 18% extra. And I think that's a big, that's a big, big thing.

AI assessment note: “I think interest rate is one of the things. Festival calendar is another thing.”

Q Kishore, would you like to go with the insights, like some of them from what we are discussing?

A I think we, when we, we started understanding the new age consumers who are digital first consumers, and we looked at their color of pursuit, the new lifestyles, and we found something very interesting. We found a group of a lot of women coming together and getting into, especially in restaurants, you can see them, bunch of them together, not the evening time, not in morning time, you used to see them. I think it's happening because of a lot of free time and, And people want to go out and experience a lot of new things. And, uh, I think, and getting that freedom to go out, then there is a chemical know it all. Like we were mentioning his child wants to read everything behind. So there are a lot of consumers now who wants to live, read everything that's written on the back of the pack. And they're very conscious about the ingredients getting used. Another community we are looking at is gated communities, people who live in The gated apartments. Yeah, you must be the Belandoor community, I don't know.

AI assessment note: “we started understanding the new age consumers who are digital first consumers”

Q So is that the future instead of marketing on newspaper, TV?

A I think the way we look at it, because being a part of the old economy, the We believe that whenever a dominant media or communication method changes, everything changes around it. So when, when there was a newspaper, then the radio, then the television, television commoditized, built brands. Now that's a social media and social interaction. And I think mobile phone, uh, makes you very individualistic because now at, at any, every home, everybody has a different breakfast. Everybody has a different meal. Earlier the family used to sit together and had one kind of meal. Things have changed, and we have become very individualistic because of everybody has a personal phone. So things are changing around it. So every person has a personal preference of an influencer. You need so many people now. To get influenced, somebody will get influenced by something, somebody will get influenced by something. Earlier it was mass advertising. I remember we made a movie and there was a particular dress which was made by Biba and they still sell that dress after 14 years or 15 years. And that, virtually that dress made Biba as a brand also to a great extent. So earlier there were other influences, but it was, it was commoditized to a great, great extent. But today things are different. It's getting individualistic, More. And then you have to find that kind of users together and make them into a …

AI assessment note: “whenever a dominant media or communication method changes, everything changes around it.”

Q believe that in life there are two buckets of things. One you can control, another you can't control. For what you can't control, there's no point like breaking your head over it. Uh, just as advice to us who are like entrepreneurs or budding ones and people around, what do you think went wrong? What caused it? And if you had to do it over again, what might you change?

A So I think I'm a, as a personality, I'm a little impulsive person. So what went wrong is basically growing on debt and not building a strong balance sheet. So that is one thing which was apparent. Third, I, I then, My daughter just started studying Shakespeare. So other day, some 10 days back, she came out of the class, and she called me up. I had one of my best day of my life. I studied a concept of storytelling called the tragic flaw. So every character with Shakespeare built had a flaw in that, and he used to highlight that flaw and that character. Then I started looking at Ramayana, Mahabharata, and everybody had a flaw, but flaw in India was never highlighted as much. We were taught that everybody is perfect. So everybody has a fatal flaw. I converted this tragic flaw into a fatal flaw, and I started analyzing my fatal flaw, and I was able to discover a lot. So, and everybody has that flaw. And I believe every entrepreneur has some flaw, which I think, which should be taught. And if somebody can work on it, they'll make less number of mistakes and will be more successful. So I've gone through flaws and flaws and flaws.

AI assessment note: “what went wrong is basically growing on debt and not building a strong balance sheet”