Driving through Mumbai, I overheard my
Sister in law talk shop. She is the Editor of SAVVY. She was
referring to a lady who did not want to publicize her Christmas sweet
recipes because they were her trade secrets. She felt that if her
recipes were published she would lose her business as all those who
read the same would attempt to make the sweets at home and not buy
from her.
A gentleman working for a rival
manufacturer, told me that he had visited our factory along with a
dealer without our knowledge. That forced a retort out of me, “So
you must have seen that your Brand has no chance against ours.”
COKE and PEPSI are widely known to be
extremely secretive about their individual recipes. As are IBM or
APPLE. Today, when you enter a large organisation you will have to
leave your camera phone at the gate and CD's and pen drives are a NO
NO.
So is the Lady who did not want to
share information about her recipes right or was our security lax?
Should we all not follow the rigorous
security drills of the large companies?
A Professor at the Asian Institute of
Management, told us a story to explain the importance of getting the
right information when opting for technology transfer. His question,
“Is a song part of the recipe? Most if not all answered that the
song is irrelevant with regard to a recipe. He had a different and
enlightening view. He said that by buying just the recipe one would
never get the dish right. The song signified or addressed the issue
of timing. The different verses were clues to when an ingredient had
to be added, the tempo allowed one to stir the pot at the desired
speed. Therefore if someone bought only the recipe he would be a
loser.
Using this analogy for start ups or
smaller companies, I would believe that unless the person is able to
steal the song along with the recipe he would not get far. The
downside is much greater if
the start-up does not
get the necessary exposure.
So in the first example I would believe
that the lady lost a big opportunity to show case her products and
promote her brand by refusing to publish her recipes in SAVVY. I am
sure had she published her recipes, far from losing business she
would have gained business.
We are open to allowing industry visits
at our factory and explaining the products to anyone. The belief is
that the process is commonly available and definitely not rocket
science. By blocking access we would deny our potential customers the
brand experience. They can see our systems, processes and can be
assured we are capable of producing a quality product. I doubt many
have gone back and considered starting a similar unit. The reason
being, what is not on display is the “SONG”. In our case, it is
the highly motivated team of people, the level of commitment and the
overall atmosphere which allows the individual to flourish. Hen used
the technology to create the product
If you think about it carefully and
follow a couple of companies performance, you will notice that in the
same category category of products or process there will always be
one who is far ahead of the pack. Try and pick his song. In the case
of Jobs/Apple, they were able to guess the need of a customer even
before the customer was aware of such a need. They then used the
technology to create the product. The MERU taxi service, the song is
the customer centric approach which enabled them to reach customers,
no rocket science in driving a cab.
In summary rather than blindly follow a
large company's thinking, each individual start up should decide what
constitutes the recipe and what constitutes the song. They should not
only guard the song but also improve it. The company will surely
benefit in terms of the right exposure.
I believe the lady should publish her
recipes, what do you think?