Channel Needs Yusuf Pathan

“Agar

ball

mere area me hoga to main maroonga,” so said Yusuf

Pathan after his swashbuckling knock which gave India an unlikely

victory in South Africa. Not much was expected of Pathan in the fast

bouncy pitches of SA. The expert consensus was that his hack and cart

approach of batting would come a cropper against the pace and bounce

of Steyn and Co. But Pathan confounded all his critics-while one

must laud his guts for taking all those blows and still not

flinching, this innings also brought out a smart aspect of the Sr

Pathan hitherto not discovered. That is instead of worrying about his

weaknesses and harping about them, he was intent on maximizing his

strengths. Therefore while he bided his time against Morkel and Steyn

by taking bod blows, Botha and Co were literally blown out of the

stadium. That's what a smart guy does-he plays up his strengths so

as to cover some of his weaknesses, so that the sum part still makes

him a winner.

That's the lesson the channel partners

need to learn from Yusuf Pathan. These guys should stick to their

strengths and try to consolidate their businesses on those lines;

rather, most partners now either crib or harp over their limitations

or they try their hands at too many things, ending up short in all of

them. It is best or prudent to be 'Master of some trades, rather than

being the Jack of all (or none, to be more precise).' For example, if

you are good at retail-you have the relevant space, at locations

where you can get footfalls and the deep pockets to sustain through

the initial days-only then go for it. On the other hand, many of

our channel partners are blindly jumping into the retail bandwagon,

and then burning their hands and wallets.

Or, with most hardware getting

commoditized, once these partners come under margin pressure, they

are now straightaway going into software as is today's fashion.

However, what they often do not realize is that the dynamics of

software sales is completely different and the same principles

applied in their traditional hardware businesses might not work.

Rather, in case they go for hardware only in relatively niche areas

like surveillance or GPS, it might work out better as they can use

their past experience. It's best to maximize and play up your

strengths; unfortunately, most of our channel partners are going into

areas with no knowledge or expertise and fumbling badly as a result.

Maybe, after the World Cup, we should ask Yusuf Pathan to take a

class for our channel partners.