Pregled posta

Marketing

As a frequent traveler, I have a real picky way about the hotels at which I stay. Sometimes however you just don't get a choice, and you land at some place you've never been before. Depending on the alternative, this can often be a rewarding experience, but other times it can feel downright disasterous. Before you get the idea that I'm too picky however, allow me to clarify.

First and foremost is that I'm a tall man. As a tall man, I expect a certain degree of "elbow room". Sometimes this can be both horizontal and vertical. For example, hotels that put their fitness centers in the basement forget that the treadmill eats up a good foot of overhead space. I've been to places where I can use the equipment for this reason.

The horizontal comparison of this would be hotels that still use straight shower curtain rods. There's just nothing pleasant about waking up and taking a shower against a curtain that you know has been rubbed up against by countless other dirty strangers. More recently, many hotels have been adopting a curved shower curtain rod. This pulls the curtain away from your upper-torso.

Once I've arrived at my room, I will likely want to work on my laptop and charge a few gadgets.

Desks and chairs can be a real pain in some older hotels. In smaller spaces, these are confined little areas. In some cases, there's a second table on rollers tucked under the smaller main table. The idea is clearly to give you mobility and more space, but at the cost of about eight inches of knee space, I often end up working on my bed. Of course a chair that does raise or lower to accomodate doesn't make things any easier either.

In fact, I've actually evolved to carry a portable wireless router with me that allows me to work anywhere in my room. This raises one of the more common problems I encounter - a lack of electrical outlets. It annoys me to no end to have arrived in my hotel after a long day of travel only to have to move the bed to plug in my laptop. Then to have to "share" the time between my laptop and my phone charger? Riduculous. Where does that wireless router go? My iPod? Anything else? I generally sacrifice the alarm clock next believe it or not as I can use my phone or laptop in it's place.

Many hotels have caught onto this limitation and are using products that take an outlet to give you four more. Take for example a desk lamp, that would normally block access, and that now gives you four slots in return. Some hotels even have desks that have powerstrips built right into the side so you don't have to go crawling around the floor. There's no doubt that in today's world of increasing digital reliance, having a place to plug in my equipment is very important.

This brings me to where to plug in an iron. Iron's in general at hotels are a sore spot with me. They are never filled with water (doesn't anybody use steam?), they've often been dropped enough that they leak horrendously, and the ironing plate itself is often covered with some strange substance that's not native to the iron itself. Getting passed that mess - where am I supposed to plug it in?

If I've got power then I actually need a surface on which to iron my clothes. Most hotels give you a full size ironing board. Sure the cover is rarely on correctly, or smoothly. Sure the legs have been opened and closed so often that they're now warped and it doesn't stand flat. I can deal with those situations. Imagine my surprise however, when I arrived at the Marriott LAX and found the ironing board was smaller than my desk!

To bring this story full circle then, remember that I'm a tall man. Ironing on this little piece of fiber board turned out to be an excruciating nightmare. A typical session of a few minutes work turned into a thirty minute ordeal. I had to iron my shirt in more than ten different passes! With my pants I finished the legs and just gave up on the creases at the top. And notice that there's no flat surface at the end of the board for a hot iron - what am I supposed to do with those?

From the Nepali Times:
In 1987, a one-room road-front shop selling cheese, curd and bottled drinks opened in Kathmandu's Bhatbhateni. The owner, then a clerk at the New Road branch of the state-owned Nepal Bank, had rented the room together with his wife who ran the shop.

From the beginning, Min Bahadur Gurung, with no previous background in business and the only member of his extended family not to join a foreign armed services, understood four things: first, the business he was in was not new, second, there were hundreds of such stores all over Kathmandu, third, he has to think of new ways to differentiate his store from those of his competitors' and, fourth, Bhatbhateni-with expensive-looking houses in the neighbourhood and located on the way to other posh residential areas-would be where a convenience store do rather well.

Fast forward to 2004. The one-room shop has evolved into a giant multi-storied supermarket with a large parking lot. It sells everything from groceries, designer clothes to expensive jewellery and even treadmills. Up to 5,000 people come everyday, making Bhatbhateni Super Market the busiest single shop in the Valley. It employs over 200 salespersons, drawn mostly from the villages of Khotang in eastern Nepal, the owner's home district.

Though old and new competitors remain, Bhatbhateni has made a name for itself in terms of accessibility, choices, quality, value for money and service. What could be some lessons that aspiring Nepali entrepreneurs can draw from Gurung's experience?

Small start: Starting small is unglamorous. But it pays off in the long run, especially if one is ambitious to grow big. Mistakes committed when a business is small are not big: they can easily be corrected and lessons are learned without wasting much money and time. Most Nepali start-ups fail-and fail spectacularly-because entrepreneurs are almost offended to think small.

Credibility: Even when his store burned down in 1993, Gurung paid all his suppliers. This act, he said, enhanced his credibility. Making a quick buck at the hapless customers' expense may be tempting, but the market rewards those who project consistently trustworthy actions. People, after all, buy and sell with those they trust.

Curiosity: Gurung knows his sales staff need better training, and that his management systems need to be professionalised. He seemed most at ease when talking about issues he did not know. This paradoxical trait is noteworthy in business because it keeps entrepreneurs humble-they ask questions, learn and strive to buy and sell better. You know a business is going downhill when owners start exhibiting a know-all attitude and are closed to different viewpoints.

Focus: Gurung is clear about his focus-to sell Nepali and foreign goods at the lowest possible prices. He avoids distractions. For instance, he does not appear as a talking head on the television. He does not dissect macroeconomic policies. And he does not hog the limelight at Chambers of Commerce gatherings. All he knows is how to sell, and has succeeded by doing only what he does best.