History has been written, Narendra Modi led BJP right into the Indian parliament, this time as a ruling party with clear cut majority. In last two years we all witnessed a series of well-planned historical election campaign.
The Narendra Modi Led BJP did tremendously well. I analysed what lessons can start-ups learn from his way of doing things, Here are exact steps of Narendra modi’s way to grow your start-up business into a great company.
Lets Begin
Step 1) Know the pain existing in the market.
Every idea begins with a problem it is trying to solve, in the great democracy’s case, it was the poor governance, corruption, slow development. People had enough of it, the unemployment was increasing, government office procedures took infinite time to complete and take all your energy and even money, big-companies didn’t want to move here due lack of political stability and long-decision taking time. Anna’s movement has already shown Indians the true face of the government. As problems were clear Narendra modi has crafted all his promotional pitches and activities around these problems and promised people about the actual solutions.
Take away : “Have deep understanding of your market, understand the problems and craft your product/service according to it”
Step 2) Set up credibility
Building a great company is a marathon, not a sprint, many founders try to scale the untested solution, even when the processes and plans are not at place. The best approach for scaling is building credibility in the existing market, it may be small, but it matters. People will recognise you by what you have already done, and then only you will be listened. Modi already has already set a great example of planned governance in Gujrat, the star state of India. He has a long record of being a volunteer in different activities, since his childhood, RSS also helped him in building a strong image.
He also was a star performer in the eyes of industrialists due to his records of development in Gujrat thus big corporate houses backed his funding. The paid promotion came afterwards.
Take away : “Start-small but start now, may be your initial footprint will be smaller but it will help you understand the market well, and will set up your credibility in the next markets, a been there and done it approach.”
Step 3) Assemble a great team
A company is an abstraction of a people working together. The team behind Modi’s win deserve an equal appreciation. BJP has made a great team, including experienced leaders like Rajnath Singh, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley to name a few. They all were assigned specific roles, where they gave their best. All were engaged in multiple rallies, meeting around the clock and didn’t settled even after the last turn of polls. All the candidates of BJP no matter they won their seat or not played their roles in getting the 272(majority) mark.
Take-away : “A team can make or break up a company because the chain is only as strong as its weakest link, first step to business is selling your dream to your team, if they aren’t convinced your customers definitely won’t.”
Step 4) Be the Face
Everybody has a face, a recognition, we mark virgin group by Sir Richard, Facebook by ZuckerBurg. Be the face for your start-up, represent it, have atomicity. Everyone loves humanized stuff, and if you won’t, people would by themselves attach some human image to your company. While INC hasn’t declared any PM candidate, people already got a cute guess. Being bold matters, the first step BJP did was to choose a PM candidate, it was a time of tension among the party, and most of the times we try to avoid such situations as they arrive, but BJP took it boldly and made Narendra Modi the face of BJP for 2014 general election, although it resulted in internet conflicts and Nitish Kumar withdrawing his support, we all now know how important and powerful the decision was.
Take-away : “Be a leader, or find someone, have a uniform tone, take the ultimate responsibility, be the face for people, people are interested in stories”
Step 5) Start Early
Don’t wait for the perfect climate, just go and break things, BJP has started its election campaigns long ago, Modi appeared in numerous places giving speech about his dreams for India and Indians. He started using social media in as early as 2009, which gave him a clear cut advantage in later periods. Also when you start early you learn a lot in the go, the stakes are small. Mark started Facebook within a month of getting the idea from the Winklevoss twins, the first version was crappy, but what it is today is definitely a revolution.
Take-away : “Start from where you, don’t wait, as the perfect climate is an imaginary event.”
Step 6) Utilize all media
“Abki Baar Modi Sarkaar”, this has been to each and every ear in India, Modi utilized all channels for marketing, whether they were internet based like content creation, tweets, social media, you tube videos etc. or paid like newspaper, TV ads (even in cricket world-cup, the famous 20 second ads), distributing merchandise to local people and business, and reaching them via non-traditional methods like Chai pe charcha.
Take- away : “Find all the media channels you could promote your start-up on and how can you get there, ,meet more people, choose free marketing channels in the beginning, and remember No-Press is bad press.”
Step 7) Develop Evangelists not just Supporters
I am sure on this, your Facebook wall, twitter feed was filled by posts from Modi fans, lot of times in the last one year. Create a brand people love to share, create a viral loop, the ultimate goal of a marketer is to send his message beyond his first set of audience. Modi successfully did it, his messages were floated all around social media in no time, each one of his supporters praised his views and ideas, and shared them with his peers. It made sure that even Modi couldn’t directly reach many people, his message was sent to them via his supporters.
Take-away : “Build a brand people want to talk about, you can also artificially inject viral loop in your product/service (remember Dropbox’s famous referral program? )”
Step 8) Be an Executer
This is the key, no matter how great you plan, how cool your team is, everything will go into vain if you aren’t a good executer. Each and every thing in BJP’s election campaign was well planned in advance, they had employed different in-house and external agencies for maintaining the campaign, Modi himself did many rallies on a single day, at the age which is set as a date of retirement by our government. He appeared in TV interviews, and yes everything appeared planned, and was executed well on time. The operations are the core of any business and should be taken care with the ultimate responsibility. Jeff Bezos planned and executed Amazon in Indian market so well that it has started capturing major market share within a year of its launch in india.
Take-away : “No one remembers a great marketing plan which never crossed the boundaries of a paper or a board room, you have to come out and execute, may be you will fail, but you will learn to grow”
The real test of you as a company never ends, you always have to deliver over your promises, we hope narendra modi led government will fulfill all the promises made by them.
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