Its 09.45 Hrs. A young chap hardly out of his teens, dressed in Tata Motors T- shirt comes up with a folding, easily dismantled kiosk and waits patiently in front of the main door of State Bank of India (SBI), Belghoria Branch. The collapsible gates are closed as banking hours will start from 10.00 Hrs. There is a crowd of people mostly elderly people raring to go inside. He talks something to the security guard in a hurried tone which I could hardly hear. The security guard nods and let him go inside. I also tried to shove my way through the crowd to go inside. The security stops me and barks --- “WAIT”, its 09.50 Hrs, and the bank will start functioning from 10.00Hrs. I thought there is no use of arguing with the security; let me wait for another 10 minutes.
Its 10.00 Hrs. We were let in. There is a mad scramble to go inside and go to the nearest teller counter. Every one wants to be the FIRST in the queue. I ended up standing behind five people. Meanwhile the young chap from Tata Motors had set up the kiosk, fixed up the banner of Nano car, stacked up all the pamphlets and hand bills of the Nano car. The Tata motors in an understanding with the SBI are ready to give a soft loan to sell the “people’s car called Nano costing one lakh rupees.” The banner says it all. “You pay only an EMI of Rs 1833/- and get the dream car”.
The young chap is ready behind the kiosk. He arranges for a molded red plastic chair. Helps himself a bottle of water from the “Aquaguard Cooler”. He gives a hawk eyed look at the customers standing in front of the teller counters probably to interact with the first potential customer of the day. More people come trooping in inside the bank --- young executives, pensioners, housewives, children, not so young ladies with their husbands, college goers and businessmen, almost every one.
Meanwhile my position in the queue became 3rd. I was happy to calculate in my mind that it will take another 10 minutes as the lady at the counter usually disposes of each customer within five minutes. The young chap still waits. No one ever bothered to come up to him and ask him about the people’s car and the formalities needed for a “soft loan”.
My turn at the counter came. I got the receipt and started walking back towards the main door. Suddenly it dawned on me to check how many people really come to the Nano kiosk to look up the details. I quietly place myself comfortably at the row of benches placed opposite the kiosk and observe without showing him that he is being observed.
10.45 Hrs. Not a single potential buyer came to the kiosk. None bothered to gather the pamphlets/ leaflets which we all Indians are used to. The curiosity wasn’t there. Slowly frustrations were showing in his face. With nothing to do now he starts fiddling with his cell phone, trying to make some imaginary calls like most of us do to ward off undue stares from strangers. Its now almost 21/2 hrs the bank had opened. No one has shown the eagerness to buy the “people’s car””. With all the free campaign done by the political parties and the media hype before the birth of Nano why people are not coming to buy their “very own affordable car’’?
I stretched my legs as I was also feeling uneasy. The question was hammering inside me. Why this state of affairs with the poor Nano when car sales are up in India as the present quarter of the year states. Then I remember some advertisement in the newspaper. A realtor gave an offer that if you buy our flat we will give a Nano car free. Then there was another offer which was by a furniture maker which runs like this” buy our bedroom package and get a Nano car free”. Last heard, that no one was buying their products. I also remember Prof B Saha of the famous Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata (IIM) predicting in 2008 that soon Indian roads would be overflowing with Nanos and we would all be overwhelmed by jams and congestions. City planners and administrators would be facing a tough time redesigning things. Nothing of that happened.
What happened? What went terribly wrong? Why Nano car is dying in its infancy? Remember the Maruti 800 from the Suzuki stables. It sold like hot cakes. Every one wanted to have a piece of it and they still want to have it. It doesn’t matter that the company had stopped Maruti 800 production. Why there is an aversion to this cheap people’s car when people are ready to buy bikes costing Rs. 80,000/-? Is it bad design? Is it the looks? Does it feel unsafe? Well something is terribly wrong Mr. Ratan Tata! There are many reasons which Mr. Tata will not be able to see with his opaque vision.
Lesson Learnt:
- Business Strategy is not number crunching. Things that matter are not measurable.
- Making things cheap does not always attract customers, especially cars
- Design Matters!! Proportions matter!! These attract.
- Reliability matters!!
- We can’t predict anything in the long term.
Motto:
Cheap, Beautiful and Reliable stand a better chance. A compromise in any aspect spoils the chances of success. It is still a chance because nothing can be predicted in the long term.
This blog post has been contributed by my colleague Mr. Sitendu De. Grateful.
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