Bhasmasura was a demon, born from the ashes on Lord Shiva’s body. Hence the name —> Bhasma (ash) + Asura (demon).
He worshipped Lord Shiva for years, and as is the Dharma of the Gods, Shiva granted his devotee whatever he desired. Bhasmasura wanted the power to turn anyone to ash simply by placing his hand on their head. Tathastu (so be it).
Bhasmasura became a menace to everyone, and Shiva overlooked this until the day, drunk on this power, Bhasmasura decided to test his power on Lord Shiva himself.
Lord Vishnu had to intervene. He assumed the form of Mohini, a breathtaking beauty, who mesmerised Bhasmasura into dancing with her. Mohini twirled, Bhasmarua twirled. Mohini put her hand on her head. Bhasmasura touched his head.
And that was the end of Bhasmasura. Destroyed by his own power.
This is sort of what happens to big brands
The infrastructure that makes them invincible becomes the hand that rests on their own head.
As a brand develops a category, it simultaneously spends decades building an enabler ecosystem of copackers, packaging and ingredient suppliers, research and communication agency partners from the ground up.
Startups no longer need to build from scratch. This ecosystem of co-packers, distributors, and R&D labs works like experienced mentors and helps launch within months. The added advantage of a readymade e-commerce go-to-market has further reduced entry barriers.
As per a Tracxn article, there have been 13,120 consumer goods startups in India since 2016, the highest in India’s history!
The biggest flex is tacit knowledge
This ecosystem is just half the story.
The biggest flex that startups in trouble can buy off the shelf is employees with their heads full of tacit knowledge and trade secrets.
Mama Earth did this, and now Sugar Cosmetics follows when they are in trouble.
One of the most important changes though—and a lesson that is par for the course in almost every startup’s trajectory—is bringing in experienced professionals. In February, the company appointed Naveen Bhadada (formerly at L’Oréal) as chief financial officer. It also has a new chief business officer, Siddartha Vachaspati (from P&G) and supply chain officer Siddhartha Roy (who previously worked at Subway)
https://themorningcontext.com/internet/the-surprising-decline-of-sugar-cosmetics
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This is history repeating itself.
Globally. Xerox invented the graphical user interface, the mouse, Ethernet, and laser printing in the 1970s at PARC. Steve Jobs learnt from Xerox and built Apple. The PalPal mafia went on to launch a clutch of unicorns. Today, AI pioneers from Google and OpenAI are in demand everywhere.
And in India. Senior HUL leaders are sliding into CEO positions. FMCG managers from established companies are walking into startup roles, and oldies like me are taking on fractional CXO assignments.
Tacit knowledge is often a blind spot.
Tacit knowledge is knowledge you take for granted because you absorbed it through experience.
Back in the day, an investor looking to start a plant-based meat brand in India got in touch with me. He asked me what flavours of plant-based meat he should launch. I told him there are many ways to skin the cat.
If he wanted to go national, he could not afford to be super innovative. Plant-based was enough of a leap for the consumer, so the flavours needed to be familiar. He could launch established flavours that all of India eats – malai tikka, seekh kebab, etc., and he could reverse engineer masala mixes from successful national packaged food players – Licious, Meatigo, McCain, Maggi, Kurkure, etc.
On the other hand, if he wanted to go hyperlocal, he could add ethnic flavours like Chicken 65.
This was a 2-second job for me (this, in my opinion, was not even particularly insightful). But for him, it was an aha moment because he knew this saved him months of experimentation, after which he would have arrived at this same conclusion!
Thanks for reading and I will see you soon.
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