Book Review: The Choice - Eliyahu Goldratt

The Choice starts with more generic issues that people face in their lives- how to leave a meaningful life? Whether or not to leave an easy life? How do people behave and what's the rationale for their behavior? But it goes to the frontiers of operation management in retail business.

Goldratt (he needs to introduction)draws a parallel with apparel retail business and human behavior. The entire book is in the form of a conversation between a father and his daughter. The case-lets discussed in the book are interesting and adds to the perspective of the reader. Goldratt, as usual sticks to his commonsensical approach of finding logical solutions to issues...be it a matter of handling apparel retail, supply chain, discounts, business development, replenishment cycle of breads. The book teaches how to acknowledge one's lack of understanding, move out of the general notion of trade-offs and how to arrive at a structure approach to problems at hand. 

If you are interested in retail, supply chain management a book will be a good purchase/borrow. Don't try the book if you want to understand how to leave a meaningful life.

Imitation as a Business Strategy

Why to reinvent the wheel again and again? Why not learn from others' mistakes and achievements? Is there anything which is entirely innovative and has not been inspired by some source or the other?

It is being widely accepted that when it comes to business, imitation is as important as innovation. We have ample examples where products, processes, management structure, even entire business models were imitated by firms. Burgeoning .com companies, e-commerce business etc. are result of imitation at large scale. Imitation comes with its own merits and demerits. Many companies have been sued and have sued others for copying. Pharmaceutical industries are known for such litigations.

Though as a student I used to see imitation/copying with a negative perspective, I have slowly realised that this is a business imperative. There is nothing negative in following something that is already available in public domain. In fact, when consulting companies boast about their knowledge of business best practices, the essentially talk about their ability to tell you what they have seen at other places so that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. And many times imitation could actually provide benefit to the society. Imagine something like Arvind Eye Hospital coming up in different parts of not so developed countries.

Recently one of my friends pointed out that problem with imitation is much deeper than it seems. Large scale imitation could hamper society in a larger scale. Companies will stop investing on innovation if they don’t reap benefits of their innovation- that’s precisely the reason why we have patents. Companies get the scope to protect their investment in product innovation through patent applications. But what about business models - innovative business models could be imitated by others.

This reminded me the story of Flipkart.com where the CEO detailed out Flipkart’s business strategy. Flipkart realised that its business model is not difficult to imitate and as the business goes successful, larger Indian players will start entering into the market, outperforming the pioneers which are relatively smaller companies. They started investing in brand building activities without waiting to see whether the business will turn successful or not. As a result of this by the time Flipkart turned out to be extremely successful, brand Flipkart had made a deep presence in e-tailing market. Bigger players though could imitate the business model, have to face an established brand in the market- a brand that has by now has received widespread acceptability and reputation. At the same time Flipkart has become an inspiration story for many Indian entrepreneurs.

Business models though could be imitated, have certain intangible aspects attached to it which is unique to the organization. Imitation of business model won’t provide success unless the intangible aspects of business are internalized and inculcated in organization.

Will the real Christmas Day ever come?

There have been many instances when I have waited for a specific day, occasion expecting that it will bring lots of happiness and vivacity with it. I call all such awaited days and occasions as Christmas days. Have they really come? Yes, they have come and went by but have failed to make any major impact in the way I live and visualize the world around me.

Why on earth one needs to wait for a Christmas day to start or give up something. Why we have the concept of New Year resolution? If one wants to do something, it makes sense to take first step towards it at the soonest possible. Waiting for a particular date will not help. Otherwise another Christmas day will come and go without making any desirable impact.

It would be incorrect to say Christmas days don’t come. Our manifestation of life is dependent on our perspective and our way of evaluating situations. Understanding of deeper self will make ordinary days to Christmas, providing respite from long wait for Christmas day and the agony of letting Christmas days go without any major impact.