Kishore Biyani’s Advice To Startups: Look At The ‘Canvas’ And Grow Accordingly

Addressing the small and medium businesses and entrepreneurs at the Amazon Smbhav, on Thursday (January 16), Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani gave insights into the basics of building a business and growing it.

In a conversation with Gopal Pillai, head of marketplaces, Amazon India, Biyani said that India will be built by entrepreneurs. “India is all about entrepreneurship. I meet a lot of new-age entrepreneurs and they are bubbling with new thoughts, new ideas. If India has to be built, they are the ones building India,” he added.

Talking about his journey of building Future Group, Biyani said that India allows entrepreneurs to do many things as you start small and start doing big things gradually.

Highlighting the sense of creation, Biyani also said that when a business is small, entrepreneurs are involved across segments and are more hands-on. “It is the journey of growing from small to medium to big business,” he explained.

Emphasising on the importance of the journey of building the businesses, Biyani quoted “Pursuit of Happyness” saying that the process is important and not the end goal.

Biyani also talked about building value through the business, which is the path to create the brand. “Economy only grows if there is value addition in your ideas. You should think about how to scale it up and build value add for the brand,” he added.

Biyani also stressed on the importance of consistency. He said that in the online businesses, customer accountability for reviews, delivery, etc, creates more consistency in actions.

He advised businesses to reduce variables in what they do, bring consistency, and think about scaling it up slowly and consistently.

He also advised startups to look at the market they are operating. “Look at the canvas you are operating, otherwise your painting can’t expand much. If you want to think big, look at the big canvas and vice versa,” he added. He also urged them to define the way they want to build the business and grow accordingly.

Biyani also talked about brand creation at an early stage, saying that if a customer is recognising and buying a product, again and again, it is a brand. He further said that from an early stage, businesses should build the brand by focusing on how it looks and sounds as well as positioning the brand.

Talking about challenges and mistakes, Biyani said that his business has created a lot of mistakes, like the wrong store and location, but it was not noticed much.

For startups, he emphasised that all businesses will have highs and lows. “You have to keep your eyes and ears open for customer feedback and with this, you can achieve success,” Biyani added.

He also said that an important part of growing is that the businesses should learn from the mistakes by introspecting about the reasons and make sure they do not commit the mistake again.