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| Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Market domination In the first article of this series, I had stated that market domination may be one of your ambitions. This is not wrong. With your capacity (machinery, materials, manpower, money and methods), you could aim for market domination. You should plan to achieve this target step by step and you should secure your position after every step. Never plan to capture market share, say 50 per cent, immediately. In fact market dominators have achieved their target by high quality, experience and advertising. You should not expect people to change their taste overnight. I have seen some enterprises commencing operations with huge buildings, heavy advertising, massive stocks, and a large cadre and capture a meagre market share, which was not worth the effort. If you enter the market and have secured a small share, say five per cent, you should identify your next competitor enjoying a 10 per cent share. You should then study their methods, the quality of their products, services provided and networks and plan a knockout which will take time. Once you capture a 10 per cent market share, you may proceed to secure your position by the following methods: 1. Taking a major share of your competitor If not, you could proceed for the next competitor on your own. In the meantime, you have to analyse whether capturing additional market share is worthwhile, taking into consideration the utilisation of your resources. In India, defeating the competitors step by step is called 'Sanakiya' tricks. Sanakiya, an educated Brahmin priest, with the help of Prince Chandragupta, attacked 'Padalipura' the capital, to take revenge from its king who had insulted him in public. Unfortunately, he was defeated miserably and had to go into hiding in the jungle with Prince Chandragupta. One night, he was staying over at an old woman's house and was served kiribath. The woman's grandson put his hand in the midst of the hot kiribath and got his fingers burnt. Seeing this, the woman asked her little grandson if he too wanted to be a fool like Sanakiya. The surprised Sanakiya, realising that the woman was intelligent, requested for a clarification of her retort, without revealing his identity. She then told him that since the Kiribath was hot, her grandson should have started eating at the edges, so that when he reached the middle, it would be ready for his consumption. She said that Sanakiya too should have attacked the border villages first and secured his position before attacking the capital at once. His lesson learnt, Sanakiya's next move brought him great success. I suggest therefore, that you should realise your capacity and plan to capture the market accordingly. Market domination is possible step by step after analysing and taking into consideration your resources at every juncture and taking into account the viability of the next move. |
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