Brooding over this…
December 12, 2007 7 Comments
2 burdening thoughts around business on my mind right now –
A. Will a home delivery model work for a coffee-shop like Cafe Coffee Day/ Barista? Well, lets not forget that before coming to India, McD had never thought of home delivery. And lets not forget that there are companies that have figured out ways of sending ice-cream as home delivery! 🙂
B. Consulting as a profession takes you away from Entrepreneurship. Because you are always thinking about three scenarios – Conservative, Base and Optimistic. Now, show me one person who started a business to make the returns expected on a base scenario!! Unless you really are optimistic about the idea, you won’t get into it! A consultant on the other hand, will train you to cover for the conservative scenario and aim for the base!
On a different note, Tamal and I were discussing the other day how the idea of a service apartment (an idea we had discussed in 2003, when Service Apartments were not that common) had become a rage (he is staying in a service apartment right now, on his recent assignment) in terms of ease of operations and assured returns! Damn it! We were discussing the worst case scenario even then! 🙂
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About Amit
As I Was Saying 
@Deepak – Long due reply.. but yes.. the exposure to consulting has its side effects 😉 and these days.. I wont talk a lot about I-Banking! 🙂
@Rambhai – I agree with “ambience” being one of the drivers. But I dont agree with coffee not being nice. There are some who are suckers for their taste. As you go westwards (which is where most of our influences come from), you will see how refined the taste for coffee becomes ;). In that sense, the key is “hot” or “cold” coffee – delivered to your doorsteps!
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well its quite doubtfull whether this model will work~~i mean some people go to ccd only for the ambience (lets be honest the coffee over ther doesnot taste that great~~~) whereas some go over there because its their favourite hangout place~~soyou hav to take into consideration this significiant amout of customers~~
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dude…
Trust me you are so right about consulting killing enthu towards entrepreneurship…I worked mostly with family managed companies in my consulting stint and thought I saw entrepreneurship, but then the problem with consulting is rarely do we think anything beyond incremental – we are stuck with ansoff matrix, seven steps to growth and all those models which while giving structure kill anything else you can think whacko. Also since finally every slide needs to have data with supportings and a credible source, a new business idea will never get born since by definition it is new and will not have this…. anyways… 3 years in consulting and 7 months in i-banking raising growth capital gives a vague perspective about life 🙂
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You got me there! 🙂 Thats exactly my problem. At 11 in the night, I dont want to walk out for a cup of coffee. But I would love to pay a premium for someone who is ready to deliver! 😀 Something like min. Rs.100 order size for home delivery, right?
Cant think of any pinkdot in India. But definitely a concept worth exploring in the metros! 🙂
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Dude, I the more I think about this the more I love this idea. Even Starbucks or their competitors ( if they still exist) should adopt this. Most bucks close by midnight and open at 5. If they had the option of home deliver for orders which meet a minimum req., that would be gold! Who wouldn’t like a hot beverage on a cold night/morning, delivered at their doorstep!
Or maybe you could start one of these : http://www.pinkdot.com . ” We deliver all kinds of crap at your doorstep” Kuch aisa hai kya des mein?
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Well. The idea is – just as you call that “chai ka stall” wala guy to your office to supply 8-10 cups of team, which he religiously would bring in a kettle along with small glasses/plastic cups, why hasnt CCD/Barista/Starbucks thought of delivering to the neighborhood buildings in a similar manner? And I agree with you that it “can” work with a bit of thought. Ultimately, its just an augmented product (service) that complements the base product (branded, and maybe better coffee!)
Re. Service apartments – there are several now. But most of them that I know are with corporate tie-ups. That could be the reason you did not find any explicitly. Internet as a source of information in India is still not very strong! 🙂
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I guess coffee delivery *can* work … the chotu chaiwalas who deliver to businesses every day are a working example of that model in India. I am not so familiar with CCD prices, but I can imagine that it is like any other branded coffehouse – overpriced coffee which banks on brand recognition for sales. I think greater benefits can be reaped by giving the customers an experience which draws them to the place every evening. Good coffeehouses welcome groups to sit around for hours (browsing,chatting, playing board games etc.). Trust them to buy your items, and they will.
There are service apartments in Mumbai?! Where? We were looking for one earlier this year and couldn’t find any.
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