Change Your Life With Fingertips

Hello Friends,

How many of you use the quick commerce services for your daily requirements on a regular basis? I am sure most of you do. In a fast moving world like ours where we believe we don't have enough time and it must be utilized properly, getting your favourite food or grocery items or any other essentials within moments is truly a blessing. Gone are the days when our parents used to go to the nearby market, roaming around the shops to find the suitable items which are fresh & within budget spending hours for the entire activity. Now that entire activity can be performed with our finger tips within minutes. Experience of these hassle free services makes life easier specially for the corporate executives. On the other hand senior citizens who can't travel to market or don't have the support to get the required items from market gets benefited too with this service. Some commendable work has been done by these quick commerce companies to accommodate even the small towns into their business model where people are not that tech savvy.

But while reaping the benefits of such services have we ever thought what sort of efforts have gone behind the scenes to make the entire experience such a smooth one? At times when the scheduled delivery is delayed even by a few minutes we don't hesitate to scream on the delivery agents without ever realising the kind of efforts are being put to provide us the best experience in time. Those who are working in the retail segment must have a fair bit of knowledge about the behind the scenes happenings to solve one of the biggest problems of modern day life. But what about others?

Recently I came across a book which depicts the journey of one of the modern day quick commerce giants in a simple yet effective manner. This book throws light on all such aspects that are important factors behind this timely and quick service at our doorsteps. Starting from the challenges, the efforts, setbacks, opportunities to understand the customer psychology to provide a suitable solution everything has been covered in this book. Let's dive deeper into the life of one of the modern day inventions without wasting any further time.

Buildit by Albinder Singh Dhindsa

Introduction

Blinkit (Now acquired by Zomato) is one of the prominent names in this segment. Starting with the name Grofers during initial days before slowly switching the brand name to Blinkit and establishing itself as a market leader in the segment by serving millions of customers, the stakeholders have done a commendable job. The book I am talking about is an accumulation of several interesting facts during the challenging journey of this renowned brand. Title of the book has been kept as Buildit to make it self explanatory. Most interesting aspect of the book is that it has been written by none other than Albinder Singh Dhindsa who is the founder of Blinkit. Written by the person who has experienced all the ups & downs himself gives a different dimension to the entire narration. The exact emotions can be felt through the narration.

The Starting Point

Talking about the content of the book it has its own positives & not so positive ones. Let's talk about the positive ones first. The narration starts with how the author got moved by the experience he had while taking services of Amazon & Wallmart abroad. That life changing experience was kind of starting point for him when he thought of building something similar for his countrymen. Most of the startup journeys begin with one personal experience or tragedy or need of the founder. In Albinder's case his experience with two of the e-commerce giants prompted him to create something that can take the Indian consumer experience to the next level.

That was just the beginning. How he tackled the next phase of challenges as well as growth along with his team is the gist of the book. At the beginning author has given a detailed account of how the gig work segment works in India. Since gig workers are one of the prominent pillars of this multi million dollars business from day one till date it was essential for him to understand the nitty- gritty of this component. What are the challenges he faced while dealing with them during his initial journey, his learnings, how he delivered some of the unique solutions to the challenges and most importantly how the segment has grown till date everything has been included in one of the initial chapters.

Building Blocks Of A Business

Further chapters narrate about how the business kept moving despite facing hurdles one after another. Even smallest of the incidents that helped the team learn a lesson or paved the way for a solution to a bigger challenge has been included in the narration. The biggest input that the readers can acquire from the book is how an operation heavy venture actually works and how rigorously the entire team works to provide a smooth experience to the consumers. Several important aspects of startup culture have been discussed in detail throughout the narration like funding, understanding customer sentiments, business expansion, keeping employee motivation intact or business pivots during different phases of the journey.

Since all the events have been experienced by the author himself the true emotions could well be felt through various incidents mentioned in the book. How the team felt on certain disappointing outcomes or celebrated even smallest of the victories found a place in the book. The biggest takeaway from the entire narration could be how the founders positioned learning from various experiences as their top priority. It's a fact that only through learnings from setbacks Blinkit became the brand that it is today. In fact that's the same story with all the successful startups.

The Stretched & Missing Ones

Coming to the not so positives, while explaining some of the important aspects related to the business it seemed like the author has gone overboard. At times it felt like he was deviated from the main topic of talking about his business. Appreciation is a must for the way he has explained some of those important aspects. He kind of poured all his learnings into the chapters. But while doing so at times some of the narrations seemed to get a bit prolonged which can make readers loose interest specially during some of the chapters towards the end. Context of such explanations is understandable but keeping them crisp could have been a better way.

On the other hand though most of the events have been explained sequentially there are some important events which deserved a little more mention. For example acquisition by Zomato could have found a detailed mention. Challenges faced from competitors could have been bit more detailed. Those aspects kind of throw light on the strategic side of the business. One of the important aspects which has found a detailed space in the book is about customer psychology which is a very important part of any business. So definitely the author has ticked most of the boxes while being so candid in narrating his own journey. A simple language & no use of exaggerated business jargon or loads of financial stats are some of the key features of the book.

Learn It To Build It

Buildit is a book that can resonate with all those entrepreneurs who either have started their hustle to build their dream ventures & got stuck or are planning to start their entrepreneurial journey. If you believe in your dreams and have the resilience to fight through all the roadblocks that might come your way there is no reason why you can't build successful ventures. Hence learn it to build it.

Image Credit: amazon.in

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