Hawkers : The Past or The Future?

It’s just over a day for the strategy world tour of Illinois Institute of technology Institute of design of design kicks off with its Mumbai leg.

Having taken the earliest flight tomorrow to reach Mumbai, in an attempt to beat the traffic, I decided to take to take the day off today. This afforded me the chance to spend the evening strolling around the markets close to home.

Growing up, I never really thought of the market as a big deal. Being so close to what was then and still is a blur of activities, the sights and sounds of the relentless haggling, shout outs and special discounts for frequent customers was just another thing, you could buy everything you can ever need on these streets and still pretty much can.

Today the scene is just a little different.

The central market area remains the same. You could travel back through time to land up in the same location and you just would not be able to tell the difference. It’s what on the periphery that its constantly changing. Evolving. Sometimes mutating. There was a point in time a Bata store, a footwear retailer; was the fanciest store on the block. Today, it’s almost a relic. Showrooms of international brands stand proud and bold along the streets that were previously lined with homes just a couple years ago. Aggressive selling now comes packaged with sugar coated words and a smile. A professional world has come in: The organized sector.

Are we loosing out on the old world? Absolutely. But it would be rather foolish to hold on to the past for anything more than for nostalgia. The past was the future back then just like today’s future will soon be the past as well.

Change; like time, is both inevitable and unstoppable.

Hillary Predko, wrote in a post for the IIT ID, that learning something new was like acquiring a language. The best way to acquire either is to immerse yourself in it.

That’s quiet a thought.

Let me now introduce you to the one thing remains untouched in India: Language.

I should be saying saying ‘Languages’ instead.

How do you know which particular language to engage a customer with in a land where languages are a dime a dozen?

As I strolled down the streets, hands in my pocket; I heard languages, not what each one is shouting out, just the languages he was shouting out in. Jumping, skipping and hopping between languages they have acquired and being just as convincing in each one. Bending, twisting and turning to make the sale.

To be able to make the sale, how do you grab the customers attention?

Show them the product. Simple. Hence the One shop, one product mentality I was talking about in my previous post makes sense.

Mind you, these are hawkers, not business students. The only formal education they have had in business is in the pain of a going back home empty handed.

So, I wonder.

The whole chunk of the market that houses the hawkers, Is that segment better tuned for change? better tuned to learn quicker and adapt sooner? faster to innovate?