NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Roundup: Medicine Shoppe; A "Poor" Market - Comments

Maybe you should contact

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:42:43 -0400

Maybe you should contact Franchising Association of India (www.fai.co.in) A gentleman called Dhawal Shah was a great help when I was locating a franchise. I am not sure if he is still working there. but you can visit the site. Dhiren Pandya

Dear all I am currently in

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:06:29 -0400

Dear all I am currently in litigation with my franchisor ( medicine shoppe , india )and feel absolutely powerless in my quest to prevent other people from joining the scheme!! I have tried to contact all possible papers /organisations about it (watchdog, office of fair trading, different publication). We are about 20 franchisees at the moment, we are all in the same awful situation, we lost lacs of rupees and our franchisor is still out there convincing people that there is a lot of money to be made by this business! I want to clarify that it's not about stupidity or naivity always! Sometimes the trap is really made with skills and most people can be easily manipulated into a scam if it's done cleverly. I have fallen into a trap myself. And you know what? In fact, I have checked into everything thourougly before joining and buying this franchise! I have draw a business plan and made a bank approving it and the franchisor approving it in writing before signing any contract. I have asked for legal advice to check whether the contract was a good one, I also ringed 4 existing franchisees to check on their earning and they were really happy with everything. Little did I know that after a few months their commissions would disappear and would not translate in REAL commission. I made a big mistake: the company was too new and the franchisees I talked to were operating from just a few months: not enough to get the full piture of what was going on after the first few months. I don't say anybody who has been victim of a franchise scam should vent their frustration here. But I can see how so many people are frustrated with a complete unprotective and unregulated system at the moment and they don't find a place to vent their anger or advice other people about the scam. I just say that something need to be done, and maybe all franchisees who have been victims of this kind of fraud should come together in some way. I shall look into this idea and see how this could be done. There are TV programs today that put rough trader on the spot: people watch and love this kind of contribution from the media. But there is not talking about franchises frauds at the moment and yet still there is an awful amount of people falling into these traps! Think how good would be to have a TV program "franchising from hell" with all these companies put on the spot: that would be my dream come true!! For anybody looking into buying a franchise for now I would say, don't even trust comments made by existing franchisees if they are not old enough (they must be in the business from 6 year at least!). Also value the market: is it competitive or saturated? Value the franchisor experience and the franchisor brand, as the most important requirement. If there is not franchise brand or you have to operate with your own name there is not point in buying a franchise. And most importantly: do not trust anything else than complete honesty and trasparency from the start (i.e. full list of existing franchisees always required, take care of veryfing their feedback and don't stop with 2 or 3, just try to get the full picture, at least 6 franchisees I would say to play safe!! If the franchisor is mysterious about it, then it's a clear sign of scam and you'll trow your money away). I am now trying to get an article published at the moment, it will certainly helps to raise awareness. Anybody who want to get in touch with me about any negative experience with franchising just email me please . The more contributions the better! Keep smiling Sabhajit yadav

partnership

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:14:52 -0400

Dear Sir/ Mam I wish to be a part of ur social responsiblity. I am based at Delhi. Pls give me details of the business, and how can i reap breakevens and profits. How much investment and staff do i need to maintain. Regards T Shah

Sehat Video

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:06:02 -0400

Dear Rob, Thanks for writing about Medicine Shoppe and the Sehat project on your blog. Here is a video on the Sehat Project that we just made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK9AH_wzCMU Regards, Nadaa

Roundup: Medicine Shoppe; A "Poor" Market

Rob Katz — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 11:39:03 -0400

A couple of quick reads, especially if you're recovering from Independence Day celebrations in the United States.

First, over at Acumen Fund blog, Fellow Nadaa Taiyab writes about her experiences working with Medicine Shoppe India and its new spinoff, Sehat Clinic. The post is a fascinating take on what BOP business models mean from the ground up. For instance, Taiyab reflects on the tremendous change a business model undergoes from concept to launch:

When I arrived in December, we opened the first Sehat Clinic. Last weekend we opened the seventh, with an eight shortly underway. The model has undergone a tremendous evolution in the past six months. We shifted our site selection strategy from relatively affluent areas with a slum nearby to locating the clinics right inside slums. We redesigned the process through which we recruit doctors and created an employment package that allows us to hire experienced doctors at a salary we can afford. We also implemented an entirely new concept for Medicine Shoppe called community marketing outreach. Through this program, we hire local women in each area to make daily home visits, refer sick patients to the clinic, spread health education and awareness, and promote our free health camps and health clinics. In the past four months we have held over 35 health-plus-vision-testing camps, serving over 4,000 people. We have also made some changes to the look and feel of the clinics and shops and put all our marketing materials in local language, to make our services more appealing to low-income markets.

Second is an article in the Business-Standard by BOP critic Aneel Karnani. He writes that the BOP market is overestimated by C.K. Prahalad and by WRI (full disclosure - WRI runs NextBillion.net, and many of the authors of this blog authored the report that Karnani calls into question.) His argument is worth reading - I'm working on a formal response, and can't say more at this time. Regardless, read it. An excerpt:

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)