Lessons from a Daily Commute

I drive to and from work for around an hour and a half each day - usually on my motorcycle - on the chaotic roads of Chennai surrounded by aggressive drivers competing for every inch of space. I tried to draw parallels between the chaos I witness on the roads and the journey of a typical startup in the chaos of market forces. My personal goals on the road are much the same as that of a startup - survive, reach your destination in shape and never relax until you get there.


Photo courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jace/65091602 under Creative Commons

This is a brief journal of the startup lessons I thought one can draw from such a commute.

Keep Safe Distance

That common sense adage is not just a good safety tip to protect you from ramming into the car in front. It also ensures you can see beyond that car in front of you. Do more than just chase the leader. Anticipate the widening road and rev up to glide past. Spot the buffalo strolling across to block the leader, and swerve away to jump ahead yourself. None of this is possible if you spend your energies staring at the tail lights of the one you chase.

Respect Privacy

 On the bustling roads that take you to work, often it is faster to jump into by-lanes and bypass peak time traffic on busy intersections. These by-lanes are lined by the homes of people who chose to live away from it all. Respect their privacy and avoid honking loud or racing too fast, lest speed breakers spring up through complaints from the residents. Milk your new-found advantage, but not at the expense of your users and their privacy.

Learn to Give Way

There are the obvious occasions where you have to pull up to one side to let the ambulance breeze past. No one likes a jerk, so just do it. Then there are the less obvious occasions where blocking someone in a super hurry might not be the best thing to do. If the chasing car rams into you, you are the jerk competing unfairly. If the passing car overspeeds to oblivion, you are the sagacious plotter who always knew. When you must block to compete, be tactful and look competitive!

Stay Lean, Stay Agile

Potholes. Patch up jobs after overnight cabling work. Stray animals looking for food. Sand and stones overflowing from a road side construction project. An idiot coming at you from the wrong side. How else do you dodge these challenges but by remaining agile? The swerving and slaloming is easier if you are also on a lean machine. Maybe that is why I prefer a motorcycle rather than a car to take me to work.

The typical Indian commute is never far from chaos. What other startup lessons can you draw from your daily commute?

An Aggravated Customer is an Opportunity

Every business has a human dimension - it must because all businesses eventually serve humans. This human dimension best comes to life when the business meets the human who is paying up for the service offered. When the human paying for the service is not very pleased with what they receive in return, we have an aggravated customer.

Too often, businesses tend to accept the aggravated customer as a natural side-effect of running a business - something that needs to be dealt with - because the show must go on. Businesses that look at an aggravated customer as a problem are missing out on a huge opportunity.

Here is an alternate perspective on receiving an aggravated customer.

Rejoice! 

You have a customer! Someone actually believed you had something worthwhile to offer and signed up. You must be doing something right. This calls for a celebration, followed by an appreciation of what you did do well so far.

They Hung Around!

The customer didn't simply walk over to your competition. Or just abandon the whole idea of leveraging your unique offering. There was something worthwhile, other things they believe can be fixed, a promise of better returns in the future - they hung around hanging on to that hope. Don't kill their belief. Reach out to them, now!

Learn!

If you care to listen, they will share. Patiently filter out the abuse, the frustration, and dig deep with them.

Empathize. Relate. What might be unique to their circumstances? You might just realize a whole new customer group existed you were never even aware of.

Understand. Confirm. What would they like to be taken care of? You might draw parallels with other problems you've seen and start seeing patterns.

Offer. Solve. What might be a possible resolution? You might just develop a new offering within your business - something someone might be willing to pay for.

You actually found someone who will give feedback voluntarily. Someone to learn from about your offering. Someone to bounce ideas off. Someone who dearly cares about what they deserve from you. Businesses would normally kill for that opportunity.

Celebrate your Aggravated Customer

Other businesses will brush the customer off by pointing the customer at their terms and conditions. They will try to teach them how to experience their business, to learn to accept their flaws. They will hide behind their vast number of customers who never grumbled, and convince themselves they are as good as they can be. You will be different. You will treat your aggravated customer as an opportunity, and treat them with the respect an intelligent, paying customer deserves. After all, they made the smart choice to choose you.

Note to: VFS, I have some ideas for how you could improve your services while making more money at the same time. You missed your opportunity.

When Premium is Wrong

It's all around us - pay more to get treated like a king - the Premium Business Model. Pay more, arrive later, jump ahead in line, spread yourself out, get a shower while others stink. Premium lounges. Premium seating. Premium visa appointments. Premium parking. Hell, there's even such a thing as Premium darshan at temples - which is borderline discriminatory - but we'll let it pass. I have nothing against the concept. You have it, you like to splash it, and keep yourself in relative comfort - sure, knock yourself out.

Despite the premium everything, humanity persists, and must persist over everything else. Businesses eventually have to be just, because being humane and considerate is the ultimate customer experience. Imagine suggesting that people with physical disabilities should purchase premium to jump the line. Or parents with twin wailing, tired, hungry kids must buy premium to get served first. An airline could say "Just travel when you can walk yourself" or "Just travel when your kids are all grown up", but they won't - it's bad business.


If you directly serve consumers, pay close attention to where your premium model starts differentiating on humanitarian features, as opposed to material features. Because being inhuman through a premium model is bad business.

Note to: VFS Chennai, where 1 year old infants are held with their parents for 3 hours for a Visa appointment, without being allowed to carry infant food inside.