Comment by CamelCaseName | Hacker News Reader

Comment by CamelCaseName | Hacker News Reader

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This is a really interesting article! I recommend anyone just checking out the comments to take a look -- it is quite short.

I wonder if there's a real opportunity here. Buy up Indian manufacturing firms with significant books of business and introduce productivity enhancing changes like LED lights. Of course, this is a simplification, but if the effect is as pronounced as described in the article, it seems like a fantastic opportunity.

I rarely see news about how business operates, or stories of business success and decline in India. Does anyone know where I could read more?

Thank you to the moderators for boosting this story after 3 days, it definitely spiked my curiosity. I presently import a few products from China and love learning about the challenges these manufacturers face.

There are plenty of small businesses in India going through productivity transitions and becoming bigger exporters. Air conditioning has been the easiest gain in the last 2 decades.

More recently it is mobile payments and computerized inventory and financing. The companies making these investments quickly become local franchises or quality exporters who can charge more.

Of course the owners and employees are richer for doing this, beating competition.

Do you have some example companies to read about?

These are really small neighborhood businesses. I remember walking down the streets and there were some local sweet shops with delicious street food. They used to sell it for Rs 5 (less than 10 cents) at the time.

Add some inflation, air conditioning, hygiene (using gloves for example), seating, led lights and these things cost Rs 30 now (50 cents).

You'd think the price would shirk customers off especially since competition was selling the same stuff for Rs 10.

But no. They got featured in local TV a few times, got large contracts to supply these food items to events. They mechanized their production keeping their recipe the same and franchised their brand, opened websites, created presence in malls and started exporting these foods outside India as a packaged food item.

All this in 15 years.

http://www.jumboking.co.in/

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