Monthly Archives: March 2008

Cafe coffee day, we dont need u

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Tuesday (18 March) , I and nandini were catching a flight to bangalore from delhi airport, it was early morning around 0500 am and we were hungry. We decided to get something to eat and headed to the cafe coffee day just outside the terminal.

Me: Can I get two masala chai?

CCD: We dont have masala chai, only coffee. (NOTICE THERE IS NO APOLOGY IN THE WORDS)

ME: Why no chai?

CCD: There are no tea bags.

ME: Ok, can I get a sandwitch and one cofee (I handed him a 500 Rs note)

CCD: Please give me change, I dont have change

ME: I dont have change

CCD: We also dont have change (no attempt to get change from near by shops etc, there were two people in CCD)

ME (got angry) : Thank you very much please cancel my order

CCD: says nothing, makes no attempt to stop me or appologise, just hands me back my 500 rs.

We decided to go inside the airport and find another place as you coffee day is not the only business who sells coffee/tea/sandwitches (although it seems like thats what they believe).

And once inside and checkedin , we looked around and found a spanking new outlet of a new chain (Buno and Kaffa). They gave us great service, fresh sand witches and smiling faces.

Its sure that from now on, when I ever I travel via delhi my preferred place to eat will be BUNO and KAFFA , coffee day does not need me or my business…

I have noticed this scenario repeat often across multiple outlets of  CCD all over india and i am sure more and more customers will opt for alternatives and CCD’s business will be effected badly **THINK STARBUCKS**, and they can continue to think they are doing a favor to customers by selling coffee, tea, sandwitches… where as they really ought to be selling the customer experience…

Startup reading: Insipirations and learnings

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I wanted to recommend some really good reading material, check it, add more similar stuff in comments and lets us know your thoughts:

Startup Essentials: Hire the right kind of people (and fire the wrong ones)

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Jason / Michael and bunch of other folks have been talking about kind of culture startups should have, to be able to save every penny and march towards success.

As we all know people are the the most fundamental ingredients for every startup and everything else is the function of the kind of people you have.

Based on my experiences, one of the biggest and sustainable cost/time saving can come from hiring the right kind of people (or firing the wrong ones).

Within a team (or the company) there are two types of goals:

  • Team goals
  • Personal goals

There are bound to be times when team goals and personal goals will conflict. You want to have people who will 90% of the time go with team goals. Get these people and keep them (no matter what it takes).If you have people who are always picking personal goals over the team goals, spot them, provide them the feedback , if they dont shape up – FIRE THEM.