Monday, July 29, 2013

Why should big dogs bite ?

This is an open letter to all the big guys from the industry. My pranams to all of you.

Whenever we talk of creating a conducive habitat for entrepreneurs, typically the stake holders that we include are investor, government, and civil society. Rarely do we include the large and established players in the business, like yourselves. How come you are exempt from this key responsibility? Shouldn’t you be my role model? Aren’t you ideally in a position to be the best mentors for newbie entrepreneurs like me? I’m making out a case on two counts.

Firstly, let’s say I am a new entrepreneur and have an enterprise facing product. My customers are the big guns like you in the industry, both Indian and multi-national. I know I have a brilliant product and I am sure it will enhance the intrinsic value of your products. My product demo has been successful, and I’m sure we are getting the contract. My euphoria lasts only till I see the terms of the contract. Unreasonable SLA’s, impossible non-compete clauses, outrageous pricing and a completely one-sided, no-holds-barred contract. 

As a thinking human being, I should actually shred it into pieces and throw it in the dust bin. But as an entrepreneur, I do the most irrational thing, I go ahead and sign this preposterous agreement.

Why did I do it? I did it knowing that if I didn’t, I would lose you, my customer. And you have so much brand equity in the market that I simply can’t not have you.

As we start servicing the agreement, I realize that the biggest killer in the contract is not just the price but the payment terms. It says clearly that it is 180 days after delivery. So to make sure I keep my end of the bargain, I borrow on my credit card, cajole other vendors to give me credit, and generally drain myself and my fledgling company dry so that I can deliver the product on time. On day 180, when I’m waiting anxiously for my cheque, comes my first moment of disenchantment. The signatory has gone missing in Africa, the invoice has got misplaced, the person who was to have processed the invoice has left the company, there are audit objections as approvals were not taken before placing the order, and the nastiest of them all, that you are not happy with my product. But up until yesterday, you told me that you were delighted with my product, says poor hapless me!

To make matters worse, I am also told, very patronisingly I must say, that if i want to succeed as an entrepreneur, i have to be prepared for such delays!

Why should I? Why can’t you big guys be supportive of entrepreneurs like me and not make it your mandate to push me to a corner? Why can’t you have separate policies that are friendly to people like me? Why can’t this be your new diversity policy, maybe even your new CSR? Mind you I’m not asking for any favours. I’m only asking you to be reasonable because we are part of the same habitat where we are all interconnected and if you annihilate me today, you are going to die tomorrow.

My second case is that as a big guy in the industry, why don’t you be my mentor? Instead of either dismissing me as competition or ignoring my existence, why don’t you take me under your wing and nurture me? Not only will my chance of success improve dramatically but you are my best hedge against risks! I don’t want you to give me money, I want you to share your experience and learning with me so that I do all the right things to build a great enterprise. Won’t you be happy if I succeed? And won’t it be in your interest that I succeed? Can’t we all happily co-exist?

To misquote John Donne, no entrepreneur is an island, entire of itself. Every man is part of the main, a piece of the continent. Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Yours humbly,
A rookie entrepreneur 

3 comments:

  1. Visualizing this happen itself made me really happy.If this really happens some day the entrepreneurial scene would go to the next level ! Really superb thought ma'am !

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  2. Hello Nandini,

    Several big shops have started setting up an Entrepreneur's wing or an Incubators promising to convert entrepreneurs dreams to creating big companies like themselves. I have personally known many entrepreneurs, some of who have burnt their hands, some of who succeeded, but whose work was stolen and monetized by the big guys. A couple of them claim to have benefited with such setups too.

    For most part, these big guys have the money, the time and a crazy budget for R & D which they have to spend by hook or crook. In return, they would want some cool ideas, great products and also the IP from the entrepreneurial community. In return, entrepreneurs lose IP, get very little money and end up going back to who they are - very little known people. There might be organizations who are genuinely creating a great ecosystem. If they exist, they probably need to work on their marketing ;)

    I strongly believe that there needs to be a system in place to curb such crazy hangovers and help ensure creation and sustenance of a healthy ecosystem. Since big guys are big guys, government intervention might help. To what extent, only time can tell. I am told that every district collector has a fund of 1 crore that needs to be used for funding entrepreneurs. How many of us know that?

    Good read. Thanks a ton!

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  3. This is a hard fact that a big fish always eat the smaller one in this selfish world except in rarest of rare case some bigone becomes helpful.

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