The last fortnight has been weird contrary to forecasts by various financial
institutions that India will not be affected, exact opposite has happened. India
has been affected and how. Stock market and real estate has tanked, the aviation
sector finally affirmed what many had suspected for long-that all is not well
with the sector. And questions, though not always true, have been raised about
the liquidity of many banks.
The markets in general are facing severe cash flow problems. It is true for
channel partners as well. Instances of people winding up operations and
disappearing are becoming more rampant. News keeps making rounds how most
distributors have suffered huge losses, since people have invested the distis
money in real estate and stock market. Then to keep the business afloat they
invested their own money, so now paying up to distis and vendors is a huge
issue. Everyone has money but none they can use.
Situations are turning grim with most vendors becoming very cautious in
doling out money to partners. A senior executive at a huge vendor who has
pan-India presence and an aggressive plan for channel partners said that they
were being extremely cautious about who they worked with. In an industry when a
company which has seen good growth in three quarters seems in a somber mood in
the fourth not sure of what the next year holds, you know times are bad. When
asked to forecast about the predictions for the next one-year the executive was
honest enough to say that he had no answers.
Another top-level executive that I spoke to about the same issues was also
categorical that hard times are here and the sooner people accept the same and
make provisions for it the better. He said that this was not the first time that
the channel partners were going through a phase like this. His insights and to
which I would probably agree was that this might prove to be a blessing in
disguise. People who were in the business for fly by night will have to shut
shop and go and the ones who have the commitment would be the ones who would
stick around.
That apart what I do believe is that the cash flow problems will make
everyone sit up and take notice of where money is being spent. Everything
whether it is processes or human resources would become spiffier as people
whether it is a local channel partner of a big vendor will think on the return
that each rupee spent will get them. There will be more focus on the business,
which is always a good thing.
To tell you from personal experience, I was around when the great dotcom
bubble burst. Employed with one of the leading dotcom companies of that era,
from being a 20 member strong team in one day my team went down to two. The pink
slip days are something that I will probably never forget and another thing that
I will not forget are the learning's from that phase. After the entire meltdown
when the ashes settled we were a much more efficient team which still did the
same work which the 20 member team was doing. The company till date prospers,
and yes later when things went good they hired loads of people again, but for
different and exciting projects. And that is what will happen in the channel
space also. After the dust settles, you will see a lot of innovation coming out.
That is probably why they say; every dark cloud has a silver lining. We just
have to be patient to see it.
Shivangi Yadav
shivangiy@cybermedia.co.in