1) A good value proposition will get you attention, but does not guarantee retention. For retaining customers and getting ‘repeat purchases’ you need to deliver a great product. Just the promise of saying that ‘My product is better,’ without demonstrating why it is better, is not going to work with the customers, even if they are desperately seeking a better product than what they currently have.
2) Stop criticizing and start delivering. If consumers already know that they are currently forced to buy crap, there is little value in a new brand repeating that. Stop talking. Start delivering. Else shut up and step aside.
3) Over-confidence and arrogance are great tools for suicide. And you won’t even realize it.
4) Plan before you have to execute. Unless you plan, your incompetence will be your bottleneck in scaling up. And you will eventually die, even if you had a great product. The AAP model, like most startups who do not plan for scale till they are in the scale-up mode, was like building the airplane while you were flying.
5) Be pleasant. Smile. People may tolerate a grumpy person for a bit, but it is quite a challenge to tolerate someone who is constantly complaining, has a grumpy look all the time and is just critical of everything around him.
Be careful when you do a startup that promises to change something that customers are desperate to change. Because if you screw up, they loose faith in change, and then it takes time for people to believe that someone else can actually deliver.
Mr.Kejriwal, you screwed up badly. Wish you had not. Glad that others, with the same intent as you,will have the next 5 years to prepare and learn from your mistakes. Is baar Modi Sarkar. Par shayad, agli baar aur aache logon ki sarkar.
Raghavendra Kopalle
Good one, few more to add.
1) Taking a mammoth head on was a bad idea. For a startup, survival is key(unless you have the backing of big bucks to play a waiting game) and it was foolhardy for AK to go for a head on collision with Modi. Even Modi contested in 2 places, that too for strategic reasons. None of the top brass of AAP(AK, YY, etc) won, they could have been more useful to the nation if they had a long term vision and played safe. As a startup first aim for survival, then grow, there are no shortcuts.
2) Lack of vision. They started with anti-corruption. The nation responded positively. They jumped to secularism, etc. In the end the electorate lost confidence. Focus is the keyword for any startup.
3) They were given a chance to run the show in Delhi which they threw away. It is difficult to buy an empty slot in your customer’s mind once you get your positioning bad.
4) Mistakes can be very costly… for any startup. Unless BJP screws up big time, it would be nearly impossible for AAP to gain momentum and make a dent for atleast another 5 years.
Nikunj Bubna
10 Practical Lessons Modi’s Staggering Victory Teaches Me:
1. Money can be your biggest weapon, so don’t ever be underfunded
2. Anything can be sold if marketed/ packaged/ advertised well
3. Start preparing early & Strike it when its hot
4. Plan well & keep slogging (No substitute for hard work)
5. Use bosses/partners as ladders & Throw them Away Smartly at the Right Time
6. Nobody is untouchable so partner with everybody (Principles & all is BullS**t)
7. Research well & Say exactly those things which people want to hear
8. Speak so well that you touch People’s hearts with your words
9. Dream the impossible (like Mission 272+) & articulate it well to excite employees
10. And finally Play to Win & just Win anyhow by Hook or by Crook coz Winning is what ultimately matters (Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar)
Sanjay Banerjee
vow
Saraswathi Pulluru
Good Read Prajakt. My 2 cents – In politics and life, it is the ability of how well you can take people along with you determines how far you go. AAP and AK are severely handicapped in that respect – not everyone who disagrees with you is incorrect. I really wish they pivot well and come back strong. Their vision is good, but execution strategy needs to be thought more.