The E Commerce Conundrum
This again was a article published on Linked In on 20th January 2020 and shared here
For the benefit of those who seek full disclosure let me first state that I have been a great admirer of this Govt's policies and performance and have been particularly impressed with Mr. Piyush Goyal as one of the few articulate and talented ministers that this Govt has. But I am no blind admirer and will call out issues which to me are incorrect. Secondly my reactions are NOT about Amazon, NOT about Mr. Jeff Bezos but about the image, attitude and message that a Govt sends out when it makes certain comments in certain circumstances.
While the statement of Mr. Piyush Goyal did set off a storm and he tried to clarify it, the headline picture of this article tells a completely different story. Lets dissect it item by item.
Mr. Jeff stated that his company had helped create 700,000 jobs. One is free to question that number, one is equally free to also take a contrarian position to say that job losses must also be factored in. But then you now say - "I cannot create 700,000 jobs by BREAKING THE LAW". This is a most irresponsible statement because the questions then are - What is the Govt doing? What was the Govt doing? If for 6 years jobs were being created by BREAKING THE LAW then why did the PM himself fete and greet the very same Jeff Bezos in 2014? Why didn't the Govt take action till today to shut down Amazon? How many court cases have the Govt filed against the company? How many company executives have been arrested? If you done nothing of this sort then how can you claim the company broke laws? Is the Govt saying that none of the other E-commerce sites haven't broken any laws? If they have then again the very same questions need to be asked. Given the fact that none of these have been done the only conclusion is - "This is a irresponsible statement with no basis"
The next comment is - ".... causing MILLIONS of jobs to be POTENTIALLY lost". This actually can be dismissed more easily as irresponsible. Does the Govt have any data, logic, even empirical back of the envelope evidence or like many of our media stars "my driver told me" evidence to back up this statement? The moment you use the word potentially - anything can potentially happen including world war III or nuclear attack and millions of lives lost. Stretching that argument logic, we must cease and desist any work on defence and nuclear in India.
Mobile stores that have shut down - at least where I stay I see the number of physical stores of "Poorvika" "Sangeetha" mushrooming all over that I keep asking myself - who the hell goes to a store to buy a mobile phone anymore? how the hell do these chaps make money given the cost of real estate? Actually I would if I were to use the logic of the statements above ask - "where is the money coming from for all these stores being opened? Whats the illegality behind them that driving their investment"..because you see mobile stores are being shut down as claimed by the Govt.
These news items belie the impression that mobile phone stores are going out of business. The reason that brick and mortar mobile phone stores went bust is the fact that the models change fast, stock holding is costly and dead stock causes huge losses. Also fact is that a E-commerce platform gives huge variety for a buyer to choose from as against a shop that may have at best few models and the rest would always be mock up models.
In my own area I have seen how the small kirana shops who have less ego and more enterprise use the E-commerce platforms to earn more money with local delivery, pick up returns etc. So let us not belittle the kirana shop owners as if they are helpless and are being crushed underfoot.
This is not to claim that small pop and mom shops arent affected or not closing down. On the one hand when the Govt is driving digitisation, internet transactions with a view to lift the Indian citizen in to the future fast, there will be disruption and the solution is to co-opt the big boys in this game to lessen the pain. India isn't a 800 pound Gorilla like China where you can throw tantrums and hope that the world will listen.
While it is nobody's argument that any new business model be it E-commerce, Taxi aggregators will disrupt the existing status quo and some will be hurt the more important issue is how the Govt handles the issue and what message it gives.
I had in a blog on here talking about Indian behaviour said this in para 3 of part 3 of the 4 part blog which the minister has only reinforced rather strongly.
When the minister says that this will not affect investment, he is right. But what he needs to realise is that he is making things more difficult. Today this Govt has made it a strategy to co-opt its citizens in the development and progress of the country which is brilliant and in this scenario many an Indian in business is a ambassador/ salesman for investments for the country. They need to focus on selling the idea of India and not get side tracked by extraneous issues. Not every investment is a billion dollar big ticket deal. Majority are small but together make a huge difference. In this situation those who get the chance to sell the Indian story listen to stuff like - What illegality did Amazon do? So your govt thinks a billion dollars is small change? We need to do due diligence on all the laws in your country and so on so forth. This only makes the job of Indians selling India harder, results in getting diverted from the task of investments, creates more fear and nervousness about the unknown in India - because you have allegations and statements but no action - so it creates uncertainty of the unknown.
Post 2014 truth be told, this Govt has created excitement and optimism amongst global companies, its officers have been bold and innovative on many issues. Truth also be told, formal employment in India is low and its the self employment, pop and mom biz establishments that thrive majorly. So if the Govt understandably has concerns the right thing to do is call the industry folks and talk to them, lay down the expectations, give them time to change, get them to co-opt the small and weak and that is how you marry big money/technology for the benefit of the weak. You dont without provocation publicly react with such allegations about any investor. Such behavior makes India comes across as a brat with neither brain nor brawn when the truth is otherwise. Athithi Devo Bhave needs to be practiced.
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