Are investments in innovative business ideas really safe?

This is an opinion I formed after reading an article about E-restaurants and also about mobile wallet applications in E.T.This opinion is about firms with innovative business ideas, not technology where there is a tangible product or a new software for sale. Rather, it is meant for mostly service related firms where there is no tangible product.

Some time back, I read an article in E.T about how E-restaurants are attracting millions in funding and they are praised as Flipkart’s of the future. After reading this, I am stuck with a question: are we considering a venture to have potential just because it is new? Are businesses being disrupted for disruption’s sake? Especially considering that even Flipkart, which actually succeeded in revolutionizing the way we shop, has not yet turned out profits.

E-restaurants, though a novel idea, have some drawbacks when it comes to earning revenue:

1. For Indians, eating at restaurants is not a regular habit. It is more like an outing for holiday. Norestaurant, let alone an E-restaurant, has succeeded in changing perceptions like Starbucks did for coffee in the U.S.
2. Flipkart has overcome customers’ anxiety of paying in advance by using cash on delivery. How can E-restaurants assuage customers’ anxiety about the hygiene of the food?
3. Can E-restaurants compete with subsidized canteen food provided by many corporate companies to their employees?

I am not saying that E-restaurants are completely a bad idea; however, are they safe enough to be invested with millions of dollars?

Now let us compare this with the Mobile wallet business. Today(the 2^nd of February),  I read an article in E.T saying that RBI is expected to do away with the two-way authentication  required while using a credit card on a mobile device –  suddenly mobile wallet applications are no longer a necessity. The same business is hailed as having immense potential until today. What is to prevent E-restaurants from going the way of the mobile wallet business?

With investors hungry for novel and innovative ideas, are we churning out startups that have weak foundations? Or, is it the way of the modern economy where a periodical cycle of bubble and burst is to be expected?

VJIM Flash Mob: a precursor to the mega management fest of Hyderabad- Chrysalis

Every fad has its golden window, the period between Wow and Enough already. So it is with flash mobs, those hit-and-run performances that keep springing up in food courts, produce aisles, public parks, transit stations — any place, basically, with a sizable and unsuspecting audience.

They’re delightful, for now.

One minute you’re standing in line at the gateway of Manjeera Mall and the next minute you’re clapping with glee as VJIM students dressed up in casuals pretending to be the typical shopper with hidden, amusing intentions. And if the intention is something like promoting an event like “chrysalis”, of course the more is said, the less it is.

Theme of the flash mob: “Make in India”.

Thousands of videos, many recorded via cell phones held by astonished bystanders, were posted on the internet. Audience were slack-jawed. We can say that flash mob might be the new free concert, available to entertain again and again.

The drill goes like this: Show up at a designated time that was at 6 pm, blend into the scene inconspicuously, stage an outburst of some sort and fade back into the crowd.

The concept already has been co-opted for commercial purposes to create a hype among the people. The flash mobbing begin with rigorous practice for day and night back to back with five popular songs. The day, of final performance arrived with all the students being dressed up in casuals to perform live in front of the huge audience out there. This flash mob was implemented”To remind and spread the awareness among the people living in India about major new national program. Designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, and protect intellectual property and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure. There’s never been a better time to make in India which are so vitally important,” as one participant explained. Oh, lighten up.

It’s going to take some imagination to keep this trend from going south fast. We think a flash mob could liven things up at the driver’s license bureau. Never mind about an elaborate song-and-dance routine.

By definition, a flash mob should not have been rehearsed. That is the opposite of the spontaneity that is its origin. But these dance performances — and there are dozens on YouTube — are such shining gifts to the unsuspecting audience, and the pleasure they inspire, seen in the faces of the young and old, is their gift to those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be there. Hence, the performance came to an end and the students of VJIM were appreciated truly with thundering rounds of applaud for such a wonderful flash mobbing that had been going on from the past few years. The Director, faculty members and all the students were very supportive throughout and congratulated the students to keep up the good work.

To know more about Chrysalis, the annual management fest of VJIM, Hyderabad visit: www.vjim.edu.in

-Sukanya Dhar

VJIM, Hyderabad