C — 22 Book Review - A Never before World
Tracking the evolution of Consumer India
“It (Consumer India) steals along the meandering, unmapped back alleys of progress instead of walking down the well-lit road of the market revolution, as most other markets have.”
This first line of the book establishes the strong premise that is well elaborated throughout the book. Rama Bijapurkar in this book, which is the sequel to her earlier work “We are like that only” sheds light on insights to skin the Indian Market cat. Rama is one of India’s most experienced and prominent independent directors having served on the boards of several of India’s blue chip companies such as Infosys, Axis Bank, Bharat Petroleum, National Payment Corporation of India, CRISIL etc. She has studies Market Strategy and Consumer India with great precision has written books and columns on the same.
Rama unravels the Consumer India in the post liberalisation period and points at the obvious heterogeneity present in the market. She affirms how a market like India cannot be viewed from a European lens, and can neither be viewed from eyes of the bordering nations like China. The spending patterns of Indians is fairly unique and quite distinct from the western market. Countries like USA are large economies, comprising fewer high income people, while markets like India are large economies too but with lots of modest income people. The author disagrees with the phrase, “ People are people the world over”, because all people, and their economies, are a result of their past and present social, economic and historical contexts. The “think global, act local” strategy, mostly adapted by MNCs, does not serve the customized needs of the local dwellers, as their strategies are still global, which they fail in condensing to a local scenario. Various case studies of interesting ventures like HUL, MTC, Disney, McDonald's, L’oreal, adobe to draw a contrast with their local and global strategies.
An executive summary precedes the first chapter and gives us a glimpse about the topics that will be covered in the book. That Summary was indeed a very innovative idea as it warmed up the readers about the contents and theories that proceed. In my opinion, the book was as crisp as it could be! I, personally, do struggle to understand the complexities of Economics. But even though I could not fathom all concepts, the book did instigate curiosity in me and made me think in ways which generally is not prescribed in any text book. I also understood how Western Centric our understanding of economics is, and how we should think in lines of the diversity that India inhibits. The book also has a very conversational tone, which makes readers of all kinds involved in it. The boo is all-inclusive as well, as it doesn’t show Consumer India only from the point of view of MNCs, it also reveals the real India that also shops in thelas and carts. Thus, it must be read by all, and not just economics enthusiasts.
