Cannibalization of Entrepreneurs
If you don’t cannibalize your own product, someone else will — Steve Jobs
This was an acceptance by the founder of Apple, that products have a limited shelf life, and need to be continually replaced with better ones.
Business fundamentals
- Every business needs a defined target market.
2. Every business is a target market for someone else.
3. Every producer is a consumer.
4. There are no free lunches.
The example of selling ice to an Eskimo has been done to death. But I can’t resist sharing some interesting takes on it, that I came across on Quora:
“Sir, I understand you have to use the restroom badly. The keys are frozen in this block of ice. That will be $5.”
‘Let’s try this one: “Welcome to Death Valley Mr. Eskimo, would you like some ice water?” Nobody ever said the Eskimo was in the frozen tundra of Alaska. Again, all this does is create the need and eventually the urgency to buy when the Eskimo begins to die of thirst in the 115 degree heat.’
… By Carl Hartman, Business Power Coach.
Marketing logic dictates that a need for the product should be created, not just satisfied.
Enjoy a video on the same theme :
Weblink :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqa8Iv-d5fI
The Freelancing scenario
Freelancing is supposed to be the new normal. America claims to have 54 million freelancers as in October, 2015, and 60% of them are supposed to have made the jump by choice.
(Source: https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2015/10/01/freelancing-america-2015/)
This is being predicted as the trend for the future, with companies engaging people on a just-in-time basis.
A small sample size of Indian freelancers is given below. The following figures show the number of people on LinkedIn, in entrepreneurial pursuits in India. The figures may only be a close approximation. Many of the Directors and CEOs could be corporate employees. A lot of duplication in profiles and titles may be there. And there would be many more outside LinkedIn. Let us just take this figure of 2.2 million as a ballpark figure. The various schemes being floated by the Government, and the availability of venture funds is drawing many more to entrepreneurship.
All of them are not successful. All do not come with prior training and experience. Many of them find it a daunting task to manage all verticals — planning, raising funds, defining target markets, creating vendor and service tie-ups, vendor development, sales, marketing, production, customer service and engagement.
This has spawned another species –individuals and institutions providing services to these aspiring entrepreneurs. A few examples are listed:
- Certification courses
2. Business and Success coaching
3. Social media marketing (to get Likes, not customers)
4. Content creation
5. Finding gigs for public speaking and publishing, with the content provided.
6. Work-from-home opportunities in the field of recruiting, career counselling, sales etc.
7. Providing CXO-level consultants to help start-ups, on a profit-sharing basis. Maybe, both the CXO and start-up do not make a profit, but the agency who brought them together has.
8. Websites that put the buyer and seller on the same platform.
9. Media platforms to showcase your business
10. Franchise opportunities.
11. Internship opportunities for freshers.
The Unethical Part
It looks good, so far. The catch lies in the demand for a ‘small investment’, which may not always be small. They promise future work opportunities, and many other benefits in return.
The aspirants who have paid the money are trapped. They keep working just to recover their investment, and the institution has found ‘free labour’, to cater to the business that they acquire.
In some cases, the institution is unable to garner sufficient business, to engage all the freelancers that they have on board, and the ‘investment’ has sunk.
Certain individuals/institutions have found ‘training people’ to be a more lucrative business, than actually finding work in the market. They use their first-mover advantage, the geographical outreach and their established ‘niche’ image to draw trainees. In the process, the number of ‘certified service providers’ far exceeds the demand. They create their own competitors, and cut into the future market that they could have commanded, in small numbers.
Needless to say that there is a lot of untruth, overblown rhetoric, fake claims and false promises floating around. The gullibility of aspiring entrepreneurs feeds these initiatives. Paying a capitation fee to secure admission in professional courses, paying ‘gratis’ amount to pass exams or secure jobs are widespread evils in the country. This is just an extrapolation of the same trend, disguised in legally acceptable terms and conditions.
No Easy Solutions
Awareness and calculated moves appear to be the only defence available for this aspiring class.
Local clubs and associations can be formed, where people help each other free-of-cost, or for a nominal fee. This will cut out the middlemen. The business aspirants need to get over unfounded fears of competition.
Chambers of Commerce and similar institutions should organize such meets to gauge the availability of talent and capability in the market. They can then venture into further capability-building initiatives.
Companies can train people to cater to their needs. They might come with wider experience, better understanding of business and a lower cost than the premier school graduates. The initiatives to hire women on sabbatical, are a move in this direction.
Any takers?
