Its turbulent times for the textile manufacturing sector.
Increased competition, the dollar woes, added to so many already in existence.
Everyone waits, and asks, discussions take place, sound bytes recorded,
concessions sought. Hoping and waiting. Real bad scene, all murmur. And call
up their consultants to follow up on the expansion plans. Crazy? But true. All
around, howls of too much competition, and, more coming up.
So, facts, the margins are squeezed and going to get
tighter. Competition is tough and getting more so. Like it, or lump it. This is
the industry scenario and in this, you have to make money. What then, are the options?
Before we go deeper into this. Let us look around. It is not as if this is
unique to the Textile industry. Other areas have seen such times, and may be
worse.
The example of the Mobile industry is glaring. From sale price unit of 24 Rs. per minute and incoming paid for, to 10 paise per unit and incoming free.
Yet, they are making more money today. Its obvious, when planned; no project could have forecast a revenue downswing of more then 99%. Thus the money making model of
that time, is obviously not making them the money. Then, how? They saw the
events unfold, and changed accordingly. Not just what they were doing, but how
they were doing. An entire business manual can be written in this saga. Enough
for us to take a cue from this example.
So its not that for you to make money out of a declining
revenue business you have to change the business, or even for that matter change
the technology. What you need to change, is the mindset, the way you do
business, where you focus, and more importantly, where your team and unit
focus. You would retort, arent they the same. Yes, theoretically so. But our
experience shows to the contrary many a times. More on that later.
I think its time to remodel the way we run our business.
Emphasis on business remodelling. And our business? Primarily, making money.
The route to it? Customer satisfaction. Or, is mere satisfaction enough? Why not
customer happiness? For long, we have tried to cater to the needs of the
customer. Bound to be a margin squeeze there, for his need is defined, and
something that has been defined and frozen gives that much less opportunity for
extracting perceived value. Satisfaction, or his need, is defined, specified
and a cost assigned to it by him. Happiness, is not, and the price he may pay for that happiness over and above the cost he is willing to pay for the need,
open.
Reaching out, beyond satisfaction is the challenge. Defining
and measuring happiness in the textile industry context is something novel. Do
we recall a customer happiness survey conducted by any textile
unit/association? Rankings on the diff things that makes a customer happy? I
dont think we have even listed what makes him happy.
Yes we grade our fabrics as per international norms of
points etc and ISO systems etc. Thats quantitative satisfaction. What about
service? What about really understanding his processes further on? And what is
that we can do to help him save or make money there? Can we use our expertise,
to create value for him at that point and beyond? Eg. Mobile again. It is no
longer just a phone, and major portion of money is made in non phone usage and
not in talking. The mobile companies developed that potential for the customer.
He pays for the happiness. Similar technological potential may not exist in
fabric itself. Still, if by refining the product, and delving into what more we
can do for the customer, we can make him happier, am sure it will pay
dividends.
This is food for thought at this moment. Maybe it will
stimulate some reaction and discussion. Even if it pauses and makes one think,
the purpose will be served.
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