Gopi said – “If you have Become Comfortable in Your Business, then it means that you have stopped growing”
Gopi is the Vada Pav (potato sandwich) Stall Owner outside the Lokmanya Tilak railway station. Just like Gopi, every entrepreneur has to constantly reinvent themselves, their business, and most importantly their customers.
All Business is in a constant state of shift. This shift is as high as 60% within a cycle of 7 years. This is evident from the fact that in 2012 the top 5 companies* were Exxon Mobil, Apple, Shell, Microsoft, and IBM. Whereas in 2019 the same list comprised of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple & and Facebook (Meta). It is to be noted that only 2 companies (Microsoft & Apple) could hold their position and 3 out of 5 companies have shifted.
Similar logic applies to the client base within a company as well. To put things in perspective, imagine any business or firm. 3 out of 5 of their top clients will change every 7 years. (Optimistically speaking!) So, to run a sustainable long-term business it is essential to hunt for the next 3 top clients right now.
With this constantly changing revenue mix the business hunt for innovation has accelerated in every possible touch-points like the product, marketing, customer service, delivery, and even packaging. Retaining customer loyalty is now harder than ever. Smart customers flock towards economical, faster, and convenient products and services very quickly, in fact; this switching economy** was about $400 billion in 2013 and has multiplied manifold by now.
The challenges are even steeper from here. Famous Israeli economist ‘Yuval Noah Harari’ claims that the rate of change is way faster than it was even a decade ago and so just as the future is unknown, it poses a question as to what we teach our next generation. Most of the learnings and processes are becoming rapidly obsolete.
Being an entrepreneur is most challenging in the present because no strategy can be devised, no prediction can give an accurate result and most importantly the customers are clueless about what they want.
Also, being an entrepreneur is most rewarding in the present because any wave whether it a short-term hype, bubble, or even sustainable long term can be very profitable as the buying power has increased substantially, customers are sensitive towards themselves and their surroundings and most importantly customers are adaptable to change.
So which side are you on?