Dear Mr. Kejriwal, Forget the politics, Save the model

Dear Mr. Kejriwal,

I write to you at a very bad time for you and your party but I write to you because now is the time you need to hear this. As the joke goes around, a Taxi has more seats than your party. Never mind my crass humor, you'd be happy to know that I'm neither a BJP or Congress supporter, I'm actually a skeptic. As the masses who didn't support you, ridicule you and your supporters pour tributes and judge this country for not voting for you, I feel what you need to hear, is an honest neutral opinion.

I felt immense joy when you changed the face of Indian politics to organize a cleanly funded political movement which had such brilliant grass routes participation. Even at my office in Hyderabad, I know more than a handful people who made calls every weekend to campaign for you and some even traveled to Delhi to canvas on the ground. The way you mobilized the educated masses in a dirty field like politics was simply astounding. They believed in you not only because you were an anti-corruption crusader with a clean record but also because you spoke of a new model, 'ek nayi rajneeti'. You believed in grass-routes accountability.

I clapped and fist-pumped the day you won because I always root for the underdog. But from then on, I have simply cringed as I've seen every move by your party. Let me tell you why.

We're a country of perception. If my country is guilty of blindly buying into Mr. Modi as a solution to every economic problem in this country, it is also guilty of having blindly bought into you as a solution to every corruption problem in this country.

Mr. Kejriwal, if people like me think of corruption and try to be a little rational, we'll find that unlike what we think - that corruption is a flaw in someone's character or is somebody's personal choice, it is actually more an economic problem, one of scarcity power and of supply and demand.

Scarcity power because our systems, our processes today aren't transparent and people in a position of power have a scarce but valuable resource, public money. This lack of transparency makes the monetization possible. There is no way for people to know which companies tendered for which contract at what rate and which companies are owned by relatives of which politician.

The other problem is your day to day citizen who encourages corruption. I know educated citizens who will support your anti-corruption stand and speak for your party but will pay a thousand bucks to avoid a 3-hour line at the RTO or speed-up the permission file when their procession/party still doesn't have permissions. Our existing processes of public-government interaction are inconvenient in their current form and incompetent to handle our growing population. People like me with resources are more than willing to pay a premium to save our time. The question is why do we need to in the first place?

I like to put my faith in technology. We live in the information age. It is possible to build scalable technical infrastructure which when brought into public machinery brings transparency to processes and makes data available easily. Why aren't tenders being requested online and the details of the companies submitting them provided? Why can't I submit a complaint in my area with photographs on government portals and track the request and days to resolution? Why can't I submit all my applications online rather than standing in line for 3 hours?

Clean candidates matter. They are the people who will drive this change. But what will endure is this new approach, this new model. You talk of swaraj and responsible grassroutes involvement. You need to start experimenting with these ideals and come-up with replicable and scalable models which this country needs, which this country can see and which this country will ask for.

Sure, your first junta durbar failed. It was ill conceived but you'll find many more ill-conceived ideas and unforeseen challenges. What you need to spend time on is trying to perfect this model in a single constituency, in a single area and make an example which this country so desperately needs. Don't go selling a prototype to the market. You're still very much in beta.

Trying to fight the Lok Sabha elections only did you harm as you set to meet an aggressive schedule of promises that nobody asked you to deliver and you rolled out headline after headline of unsustainably met promises. Delhi never asked this of you. All they wanted was 5 years of good governance. You had a chance to make a new ideology work. You had a chance to utilize the youth behind you in creating the infrastructure I mentioned. You had a chance to create a new brand of governance.

Unfortunately, ambition and scale got the better of you.

When you won, they called your party the fastest growing start-up by an IIT-ian. You see Mr. Kejriwal, start-ups fail now and again but what they are advised to do is to fail fast. I see that you've done just that. Now is the time to hustle. 4 Lok Sabha constituencies and whatever the people of Delhi are kind enough to give you back - that's a lot to start with. So make it matter.

It's going to take time and you'll have to be patient. Ask the guy who took twelve years to shed the image of a mass murderer to become this country's 15th Prime Minister. God speed my friend. 

Flipkart is the Apple of my eye

How Flipkart, which has grown synonymous with the term ‘E-commerce in India’ at the moment, is the Apple of its Industry

As E-commerce ventures keep getting pumped up by capitalists in the United States everyday, little doubt exists that the sector is the next bubble in India and the dream of a second generation of web entrepreneurs is about to be realized. Armed with a growing net-savvy Indian population and attractive deals, revenues and popularity are both booming for E-commerce ventures at the moment. With fundings to the tune of millions and an evaluation of the E-commerce market in India to $1.5 billion, many have flourished and their growth rate has been exponential. Snapdeal, Myntra and Quikr are some of leaders in this pack. But clearly, Flikpart has emerged as the Poster boy of E-commerce in India.

Founded in 2007, by former Amazon employees, IIT-Delhi Alumni and brothers, Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal, the portal which began by selling books in 2007, today has diversified to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets and reported sales of INR 75 crore for the year 2010-11.

If you look at Flipkart and its success it has enjoyed in the last four years, it is difficult to not ponder about why this particular venture has raced ahead of its competitors, especially because when it was established, players like Ebay India and Rediff were already in the internet selling space in India.

After a simple analysis and a lay man’s take on Flipkart, it wasn’t difficult to see why Flipkart is destined to scale heights and change the face of the industry in India. Flipkart has in many ways, a product model that is similar to the one driving the world’s most valuable company – Apple. With a few observations which I state below, I hope that at a macro level, it is easily understandable how Flipkart’s product – its website, is similar to any Apple product in the market.

Reliability is strength. Consumer confidence is revenue

When you buy an Apple product, you have confidence in its quality and promises on performance are always kept. You don’t think twice about quality when you think of an Apple product. It is assured.

Similarly, Flipkart chooses to supply the products it sells itself, instead of being a portal which helps sellers meet buyers. In those portals, the quality of the product being sold depends on the web reputation of the seller rather than the portal itself. It is according to me Flipkart’s USP at the moment. When you buy from Flipkart, its Flipkart selling the product and it guarantees the quality standards of the goods. Delivery is on time. Product quality is good. Customer confidence to order from Flipkart is high and its reputation amongst consumers is unmatched.

Keeping it Simple – the interfaces

Take an I-Pod. Slick. 5 buttons. Everything you need. Using an I-Pod is as simple as it can get. User friendly products have always been at the heart of Apple from its early Mac days.

Any Flipkart user will tell you the same. Flipkart’s interface is very user friendly. With the best browsing, searching and payment procedures, Flipkart becomes my product of choice when I’m serious about buying something via the internet.

What you want and what you need – having only what needs to be there

Flipkart began its journey with books but now has ventured into the realm of CDs, DVDs and electronics, especially mobile phones. Traditionally, these are also the products which consumers are very comfortable buying via the web. No stupid products which I don’t want to buy. Its got what I need and what I want. Even the filters on the webpage are apt and the ones which a buyer really needs. Less cluttering on their webpage and easy to go through their products

Similarly Apple also has been a fan of putting features which really matter to a user rather than making feature- packed monsters which people hardly need. You love your apple product because it’s got all that you want and all that you’d need.

It’s a treat for the eyes – sleek looks

Any Apple product is neat, pretty, tres-chic. Aesthetics are well balanced to please one and all. Infact, clear trends can now be observed in the styling of Apple products. They are neat, no engravings/embossing, clear borders, use of basic shapes and so on.

Flipkart’s design is also neat compared to other E-commerce products like Ebay and Snapdeal on the web right now. Very less cluttered, it has a lot of open white spaces in between and has its tabs and buttons at the right places. Aesthetically pleasing to the user, it makes the buyer want to stay on the site rather than leave it.

Flipkart , Apple – Customer centric brands

From the method it utilized in its early days - word of mouth publicity to what it has become today, Flipkart has gradually established itself as trusted customer’s brand. From sleek looks, convenient features mentioned above to guaranteed delivery and quality – Flipkart has become a brand which people use and encourage others to use as well. Even today, word of mouth publicity for Flipkart is rampant and consumers like to associate themselves with Flipkart, proudly saying that they buy from Flipkart.

Apple has such a brand image age since ages. We all know the love an Apple user has for Apple products and the pride they associate with being an Apple user. The brand is now positioned that way after a deep focus on user-friendliness through time.

In a country of a billion people, volumes suggest Flipkart is still in its early days and has a long road of growth ahead of it. Also, with Amazon knocking at India’s door, tougher competition might step in. But when you see the above, the most valuable E-commerce venture in India today might just scale some heights of its own in a manner same as the world’s most valuable company.