Good Enough for India ?

A??couple of hours ago someone commented in jest that since a product was to be launched somewhere in Europe, its interfaces needed proper design and execution – and a lesser done version would be ok for India. I remarked that the Indian consumer has already shown emphatically they do not want "lesser".??

I do agree that Indian consumers want affordable stuff, but within the limits of affordability they also want the maximum possible crammed in. And Walmart and the flood of less robust goods from China across the world has proven that its not just Indians who'd rather pay a lower price when the value is uncertain, or they do not understand it. Case in point being modern SLR cameras which last way fewer clicks than earlier, but are cheaper.??

Yes, we need "different" design for India – but shortcuts like scrimping on finishing, poorly done interfaces on products where the interface is key is likely to bomb, and receive a cold shoulder. Like I quipped – "Joota maregi junta" – as some car companies experiences when they tried dumping out of date models in the luxury segment, or as even economy carmakers learned when respectability came only with better paint finishes and shut line that did not really impact the cost negatively, but impacted value in a huge positive way.

What's your take ?

A few things I’ve noticed/felt

• CRM is broken. Sure, I have almost no knowledge of formal CRM systems etc, but having sat through a few presentations and discussions on this, feel strongly that both the Customer and the Relationship are completely missing from this – its from a sales force pov, completely. There’s a startup idea in this somewhere – ping me if you’re keen and can help find a market. 
• Hyperlocal will be big. Sure its been a jittery start, but there’s no other way to go. And the JustDials of the world ain’t cutting it.
• Search will be more about how Soc Nets/people’s heads are crawled (/trawled?). Realtimeness is one attribute, reactively looking for things, opinions, thoughts, ideas will be another. Aardvark has already been one small tiny step in the direction – there will be more.
• Skills : breadth is catching up again. For a while the world was too taken up with specialization – at the cost of wider skillsets. Specialists are very critical, as are those who can do 5 things well.
• I’m guessing a lot many in our generation (ok, I’m already old, so maybe half a generation downstream from us) will have second/alternative careers. Workplaces, HR practice needs to factor this in, starting now.