Regardless of how prepared your business may have been for the onset of the pandemic, the impact on some businesses was extreme. Those businesses that could still operate were forced down two paths: diversification or disruption.
Businesses that were deemed inessential were left scrambling to figure out how to bring in revenue. Many quickly learned that having multiple streams of revenue was essential to keeping the lights on. This is what diversification is all about, Says Hirav Shah, Leading Business Strategist and Astrologer.
Also, due to government’s initiatives like Skill India, Digital India, Start-up India, and Make in India, the service industry as a whole, today provides a multi-trillion opportunity for a global symbiotic growth, Adds Hirav Shah.
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Hirav Shah Further Says
All entrepreneurs in service business like IT, telecom, media and entertainment, health care, banking and financial services, retail, railways, environment, energy, logistics, exhibition and events, facility, education, space, skills, start-ups and sports know that they have to serve their customers. A healthy flow of profit and scalability are an added bonus, but that can’t happen unless you’re giving customers exactly what they want. If you don’t, they’ll take their money elsewhere.
Shah Suggests -For Diversification to happen the entrepreneurs should stress on adapting to :-
1.Customer Trends
Growing with consumer trends is how your company can stay relevant to existing customers, and get your name in front of new clientele.Most service industries undergo change frequently, and it’s because buyers are fluid. A combination of internal and external factors trigger these changes and they have a direct impact on business. The food industry is a great example. Fast food brands are responding to this trend by offering plant-based items on their menu to show customers avoiding meat that they can still dine at their restaurants.For companies in service industries, like knowing how to identify trends as they happen can give your company an advantage.
2. Staying Updated
To stay in the know, make sure you’re reading publications in your industry to see what other entrepreneurs and companies are talking about. Learn from new research reports that examine the buyer habits of consumers in your target audience. Talk to other entrepreneurs in your market to find out what they’re seeing and exchange observations that can help both your companies stay ahead of the curve. And, most importantly, listen to your customers. Nothing will be more valuable than going directly to the source to find out what they’re loving and what’s becoming a thing of the past.
For a handful of companies, the pandemic has meant accelerated growth, Opines Hirav Shah.
Hirav Shah Says
Instead of temporarily halting their businesses, as many have done in other markets, scores of visionary businesses in India have explored ways to make the most out of the current unfortunate spell, through diversification.
Key Examples Are Mentioned Below
a. E-commerce giant Flipkart has launched a hyperlocal service that would enable customers to buy items from local stores and have those delivered to them in an hour and a half or less. Yatra, an online travel and hotel ticketing service, is exploring a new business line altogether: supplying office accessories.
b. Swiggy and Zomato, the nation’s largest food delivery startups, began delivering alcohol as a diversification strategy . The move came last year, weeks after the two firms, both of which were seeing fewer orders and had to let go of hundreds of employees; they started accepting orders for grocery items in a move that challenged existing online market leaders BigBasket and Grofers.
c. Udaan, a business-to-business marketplace, recently started to accept bulk orders from some housing societies and is exploring more opportunities in the business-to-commerce space, the startup told TechCrunch.These shifts came shortly after New Delhi announced a nationwide lockdown in late March to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The lockdown meant that all public places, including movie theaters, shopping malls, schools and public transport, were suspended.
d. E-commerce firms Snapdeal and DealShare began grocery delivery service too.The move was soon followed by social-commerce startup Meesho, fitness startup Cure.fit, and BharatPe, which is best known for facilitating mobile payments between merchants and users.
e. ClubFactory, best known for selling low-cost beauty items, has also started to deliver grocery products, and so has NoBroker, a Bangalore-based startup that connects apartment seekers with property owners. And MakeMyTrip, a giant that provides solutions to book flight and hotel tickets, has entered the food delivery market.
f. Another such giant, BookMyShow, which sells movie tickets, has in recent weeks rushed to support online events, helping comedians and other artists sell tickets online. The Mumbai-headquartered firm plans to make further inroads around this business idea in the coming days.
g. CRED, a Bangalore-based startup that is attempting to help Indians improve their financial behavior by paying their credit card bill on time, launched an instant credit line and apartment rental services.
h. Roosh, a Mumbai-based game developing firm founded by several industry veterans, launched a new app ahead of schedule that allows social influencers to promote games on platforms such as Instagram.
i. ShareChat, a Twitter-backed social network, recently acquired a startup called Elanic to explore opportunities in social commerce. Ok Credit, a bookkeeping service for merchants, has been exploring ways to allow users to purchase items from neighborhood stores.
Conclusion
2020 has forever changed “business as usual.” These changes have seen accelerated diversification and a blurring of industry boundaries, a focus on digital services and adoption of disruptive business models. The only way to truly future-proof an organization is by having the right foundation and strategy in place to embrace disruption and focus on their customers’ and employees’ needs.
On that note, for struggling businesses and startups- to diversify and reach upto the next level -Nothing is better than consulting a bonafide Business Strategist, Says Hirav Shah, India’s Top Business Astrologer, Corporate Adviser and Business Strategist.
Now you know, whom and where to “Ask”
