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Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket

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Saying No to Jugaad is a riveting account of how the start-up ecosystem in India evolved rapidly in the last 10 years. Ushering in a new turn in the country's economy that shook up existing ways of doing business, start-ups brought together investors and a rare breed of entrepreneurs to create a set of unicorns focused, for the first time, on solving the country's problems. The book busts some of the common myths around e-commerce businesses and describes the evolution of grocery as the mother of all categories in this sector. It also is the story of how start-ups go through different distinct stages as they evolve and mature. The courage needed to hold your ground when the world seems to have a contrarian view, the relentless focus on customer centricity and the emphasis on foundation-building are illustrated through lucid and stirring stories. Entertaining and anecdotal, the book is not a panegyric about the founders or the company but is the story of real people and a real company with real flaws but also several great ideas and moments. Saying No to Jugaad vividly captures the vision, culture and commitment to values which has made Bigbasket one of India's most successful start-ups.

194 pages, Hardcover

Published October 10, 2019

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610 people want to read

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T.N. Hari

9 books5 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
1 review
October 9, 2019
Powerful Book and must read for every Indian entrepreneur especially those looking to start-up. This book gives the real journey of a Bigbasket start-up, an extraordinary company. It points out to everyone in the start-up ecosystem i.e., Founders, Leadership Team, Investors, Employees, Internal and external Customers, Vendors, Farmers, Customer experience executives, etc..

In this book, Hari and Mani narrates the inspirational story of people and processes they followed over the years in the company, challenges they faced to overcome the difficult situations and the reasons behind the success of bigbasket.

Some of the key elements explained in this book are ,
1. History of Bigbasket, its founders and leadership-team,
2. Monthly and annual Rewards & recognition's for top performers,
3. Attendance management system for blue collar employees for on-time and correct salary payments,
4. Focus largely on customer delight by No questions asked return policy, Delivery guarantee, no call from delivery executive to customer for understanding the route, ticket based folder development to maintain customer history, etc..
5. Supply Chain Management to minimize the waiting time for suppliers and farmers during receiving at warehouses, managing 100% fill rates, Wide Range up to 30000 SKU's, Hub wise segregation, On-time slotting deliveries, etc..
6. Importance on Culture and Values even at rapid scaling,
7. Introduction of Innovation function to address painful areas and improvements in existing processes ,
8. Introduction of farmer connect program to motivate farmers to get right cost for the right product and to sell fresh produce to customers,
9. Making a Company Tech-Enabled with latest features like "Locus" for auto routing which uses Artificial intelligence technology, "Kapture" for customer relationship management, App and website design management, etc...
10. Acquisition of Delyver, Rain-can and Morning cart companies and its founders resulting in entrepreneurial spirits in express delivery, BB Daily, and BB Instant business,
11. POSH policy implementation across the locations and women's empowerment,
12. Training and development of all processes followed in bigbasket for CEE's, Employees and leadership-team with best content management,
13. Adoption of correct marketing strategies and finalization of Brand ambassador for bigbasket,
14. Some of the Success stories of blue collar employees,
15. Reduction of attrition by on time salary payment, helping them and their family with the Trust for education, Health insurance, Training programs, etc..
Profile Image for Nikhil Saha.
51 reviews
May 16, 2021
As a loyal user of the brand, it was enlightening to know the kind of decision making that goes behind making the user experience so favorable at Big Basket.

Mostly relate with their ideas of frugality, humility, sharp customer centric focus entrenched with a high value driven approach- the kind of startup attribute big organisations should replicate and I personally really appreciate. Once you read the story you will know why big basket has grown the way it has and my sense is- it is poised for further growth in the coming years.
Profile Image for Bhumin.
5 reviews1 follower
July 30, 2020
A very different read from other business books.Written in a very simple language and throws a light to some unknown and interesting facts about big basket and Indian startup eco system
Profile Image for Venky.
1,048 reviews423 followers
January 9, 2021
big basket is India’s first comprehensive online megastore that has under its umbrella a gargantuan portfolio of more than 20000 products spread across more than 1000 brands, all of which cater to a burgeoning number of 4 million customers. In their book, “Saying No to Jugaad”, authors Hari and Subramanian, both of whom are also employees at big basket, dissect in a succinct manner, the growth, hits as well as misses experienced by the company during the course of its spectacular rise. The key victories and vicissitudes that charted the trajectory of big basket’s growth are captured in a refreshingly candid manner that is totally devoid of either chest thumping or finger pointing.

As the authors reveal in a matter of fact vein, big basket in its nascent phase was given the cold shoulder by the much vaunted venture capital behemoth Tiger Global Management. Lee Fixel, the highly rated and touted partner in Tiger, subsequent to an interview with the founders of big basket decided to concentrate his investments in a rival grocery outlet Grofers instead. Softbank and Sequoia Capital also choose to place their bets with Grofers. But, yet in spite of the monetary backing and the reputational glitz, Grofers could not succeed, courtesy unsatisfactory customer experience.

The authors distill in a lucid manner the key principles that form the uncompromising edifice behind the functioning of big basket. The overarching values that underpin each such principle is customer satisfaction. In every key meeting that is held at the organisation, a pair of shoes epitomizing a standing customer is placed in the room. Decision makers place themselves in the shoes of the customer prior to arriving at any choice, conclusion, or verdict. It is this maniacal focus on the customer that has driven big basket to promulgate three seemingly incredulous principles, that are innovative in their conception but at the same time risky in their outcomes considering the nature of the business. A “no questions asked” policy for granting customer refunds in all cases of quality dissatisfaction; a 10% cash back on the entire value of the customer order in the event the delivery is delayed even by a minute; and instructions to the delivery personnel not to contact the customer for last mile navigation or for any other reason. The delivery person has to seek assistance from either the operations controller at the transshipment hub or an agent at customer service. The fact that big basket is not just successfully functioning but also thriving in an intensely competitive low margin battleground bears monument not just to their principles but also their processes.

As the authors painstakingly illustrate, the process aspect of business is accorded a lodestone status within the company. Whether it be the use of third party technology for optimizing the delivery routes so as to minimize the time taken for deliveries (big basket has a tie up with a Bangalore based technology firm Locus for route optimisation), or spawning a state-of-the art Data Analytics ecosystem that brings niche analytical expertise which can then be swiftly deployed to address pressing problems at scale, big basket is a continuously evolving, experimenting and experiential hub of ingenuity that always strives to add value to its customers.

As is the explicit commitment to serve the customer better, so is the preternaturally reclusive nature of the founders. As the authors inform the reader, only one of the founders is active on social media, and greatly reluctant to position themselves in the arch lights of fame. Their substantial contribution to the company emanates from their shadows. But as the authors articulate in the book, the founders always stick to the basics and there is absolutely no splurging of monetary resources in a flamboyant manner. Every acquisition is a well thought out outcome and every new policy a bedrock of long term solutions thinking. For example, the company had realised that in India a bulk of the grocery purchases (70–75 per cent) was planned at the beginning of the month. Around 20 per cent represented “top-up” purchases mid-month or mid-week. And 5 per cent of the purchases were from local specialty stores. Bigbasket had been servicing the planned monthly purchase and had been contemplating catering to the top-up requirements through an express service. And that is how the company ended up acquiring Delyver, a firm specializing in catering to the top up and exigency purchase requirements of the customers.

Another aspect of big basket that has endeared the grocery chain to its customers, is the attention bestowed on maintaining and enhancing quality. When big basket decided to deliver freshly cut vegetables to the customer, not only was the pricing kept very reasonable, there was also substantial back end research as big basket tied up with the Central Food Technology and Research Institute (CFTRI) at Mysuru and signed license agreements with them for usage of relevant technology. As a result, big basket now has over 100 SKUs for just cut vegetables now. Similarly, when big basket made their foray into climacteric fruits (a stage of fruit ripening associated with increased ethylene production and a rise in cellular respiration), it introduced mechanised grading and BRIX—sugar acid ratio testing—for most of the fruits to ensure a consistent size and taste experience. The company also established an integrated packing house at Ananthapur, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in September 2017 to aggregate the fruits and ship them across the country.

At the beginning of the book, the authors warn the readers that the book is “not a panegyric about the founders or the company”. True to their assertion, little to no effort is spent on waxing eloquent over either the achievements or expertise of Hari Menon, V S Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari, and V S Ramesh, the founders. Instead the book concentrates on the milestones, management and measures that have made big basket the organisation this it is today.

Saying No to Jugaad – a rousing read.
Profile Image for Ajay Kumar.
22 reviews
January 3, 2021
It's a decent read and chronicles the Big Basket story in a subjective manner. I would have liked it if they had gone into further details about some of the aspects of the company building process, like how they got investors and raised money, how they structured their 4 acquisitions, etc.

It would also have been good if they had talked about the mistakes they had made in building this company as well, but unfortunately, they haven't.

Although filled with insights, the book comes off as a PR piece for the company.
Profile Image for Saransh.
18 reviews
November 2, 2020
Chronicles of BigBasket - some nice insights into how it scaled it's product, it's operations and it's employees and happy customers!

A good and a quick read for someone exploring startup.
Profile Image for Megh.
9 reviews2 followers
July 20, 2020
Great read to understand the basics about grocery e-commerce start up.
As rightly explained in the book, Big Basket is “Tech-Enabled and not Tech-First.”

The chapter I loved the most was about keeping an extra pair of shoe in every board meeting and putting customers in that shoe and then taking the decision.
Indeed, it is true. Every customer centric start up focuses on customer and aims to make their life easier.

Book rightly explains how Big Basket moved from asset light model to inventory led model. In the early days, Big Basket lost Tiger Global as an investor just because BB had asset light model. Later on, Tiger Global invested in Grofers.

Book also explains, how a company needs to find a perfect partner with same fire in belly for M&A.

For M&A, BB also tried to find the synergies between the to be acquired start ups and then took their decision.

Also explains how UI-UX are important but not everything.

Also tells how Hiring from top B-School does not make sense every time. Hiring people from modest background and then making them starts is also the solution.

With the launch of Jio Mart in India now(20/07/2020), it will be interesting to see how it will give BB run for it’s money.
Profile Image for Abhishek Arora.
10 reviews1 follower
August 18, 2021
Refreshing read for one and all

Enjoyed reading. Having right process >>> jugaad. Fits well in all possible contexts. The entire journey of BB is succinctly explained.
Profile Image for Vignesh ವಿಮರ್ಶೆ.
36 reviews
November 29, 2022
This Book captures the reasons for few business decisions that BB had taken in its initial years.
Authors have narrated certain basic sector level practices as something which is followed by BB alone. In certain chapters, you’ll definitely get the reason for BB’s acquisition from its work culture point of view.
Profile Image for Natarajan Mahalingam.
59 reviews6 followers
December 10, 2021
A straight-forward, chronological, and business model-attribute based write-up of BigBasket. The authors have done a commendable job of capturing almost a decade plus of BigBasket's growth across 160 pages. If there were to be a category of books for biographing a company's life, this could be BigBasket's life until its teens! The authors have also shed light on an otherwise publicity-shy organization, founders, and the rockstars making BigBasket a success day-in and day-out

Given that BigBasket is the market leader in retail e-commerce for groceries, essentials, and fruits, vegetables & meat delivery companies, it is interesting to note the play of several success factors that have gone into making BigBasket what it is today!
Profile Image for Sanjana Koul.
18 reviews
June 22, 2020
3.5/5. Best thing about this book is that the authors of the book has been the part of the bigbasket journey and have mentioned each process in depth. Starting from the customer's perspective about buying the groceries online to delivering them, bigbasket has come a long way! One of the best quote from the book "technology does help in increasing reach, but as long as the reach does not translate to visibility, discoverability and real transactions, it is of no use."
Profile Image for Abhishek.
48 reviews3 followers
March 1, 2021
A very very relatable read. The book beautifully describes the zero to one to ten scaling journey of Big Basket, the struggles, triumphs, introspections and continuous business pivots. A must read for anyone who's especially been or is associated or keen to understand the inner workings of the broader e-commerce spectrum. Nicely distilled life lessons out there as well.
Profile Image for Vartika.
99 reviews
August 30, 2020
Some good facts and behind the scene stories.
Overall, could have been narrated more coherently and chronologically. The facts and business tips shared don’t make up for what the book lacks in storytelling.
Profile Image for nishanth.
25 reviews
June 16, 2021
It's an inspirational read, which talks about the values that BigBasket was built on and how the founders and management ensured that these values are followed in every step they make.

In a simple world, Big Basket is an old-school startup in the digital world. Its founders are meticulous, customer-centric, and frugal. These aspects shaped the success of the firm even while employing an asset-heavy business model.

Another thing I learned from the book is that in an acquisition, the valuable asset can sometimes be the talent pool & founders. In the case of Big Basket's acquisition of Delyver, the firm benefited most of Delyver's founders who built new express services in Big Basket.

Both the writers, being the inside employees, were able to add emotional details making the book humane.
28 reviews1 follower
August 15, 2020
Loved it!

Not a writing marvel by the author but the sheer honesty of writer in exposing the vulnerabilities that Big Basket had and what all they had to do to overcome the same is something that kept me going.

Right from their approach of being tech enabled and not tech-first to solving perfecting the minute details and keeping the culture and values intact of the company while scaling the org is a delight to read.

This book makes me realise that sometimes we don't want a fancy narrative while reading business books. All readers need is how transparent the writer can be in pointing out the problems and how future entrepreneurs can tackle/solve the same problems learning from the experiences of the big players.
Profile Image for Darsh Shah.
1 review
October 3, 2023
As somebody who’s worked in the Bengaluru startup ecosystem, this book reminds me of my experiences. And I can attest that it captures the journey of building a billion dollar venture uniquely, in the Indian context.

It does talk a lot about the things that BigBasket got right, and one could argue it maybe turns a blind eye to what it didn’t get right. It’s been written well, and uses crisp language and descriptions with occasional references to the pop culture or popular business principles and quotes in an attempt to explain things that a non-business person may not fully understand or be able to appreciate.
Profile Image for Gaurav Pandey.
3 reviews
July 22, 2020
Story on journey of big basket from a only Pan Bangalore online grocery delivery to now operating on 20+ cities in all over India including tier-2 cities. Some parts explained the scaling of intricate supply chain in complex grocery delivery well and how some of the employees including the blue collar acted as knights in this journey.
3 reviews
August 26, 2020
If you're expecting some inside scoop you'll be disappointed for the absolute lack of it. The language was very amateur and is more of a running commentary than an engaging story. One can sense that it was just written to explain some events in the journey of how Big Basket became big.
Read this book if you just want to know the journey of Big Basket. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Profile Image for Gowtham Arumugam.
3 reviews
August 21, 2021
A must read for any entrepreneur

I recommend this product to any aspiring entrepreneur or eh have just started his entrepreneurial journey. Big basket as a company didn't focus on valuation when every other company was running behind valuation. That's one of the point every entrepreneur should consider when he/she starts up.
Profile Image for Ajay Bhat.
83 reviews2 followers
July 17, 2022
Third class book! There is no logic or flow to the book. Just some random info about big basket and its operation. Being a leader in India's e-commerce space, I am sure that the same info could have been crafted into a beautiful story highlighting big baskets challenges, achievements and area of improvement. Better to avoid this book...
Profile Image for Manan Singla.
5 reviews
April 5, 2020
A thorough articulation of the journey of Big basket alongwith mamy interesting stories. Somethings maybe exaggerated about the BB culture but overall the book kept me intrigued, interested and inspired.
Profile Image for Ashwin Agarwal.
25 reviews1 follower
May 16, 2020
The book had randomness written all over it. At one point it was talking about the growth of e-commerce and suddenly it skips over to how BigBasket is the best firm ever. The two stars are credited to the authors' efforts for explaining the different verticals of their company.
Profile Image for Nauman Mohammed.
25 reviews
September 13, 2020
Although this books sounds more like a PR for big basket. Learned an insider point of view on culture setting and hiring (most promising hires from big basket is not from IIT'S) and building india's most famous grocery store.
Profile Image for Senthil  Ganesh.
119 reviews8 followers
November 21, 2020
This book was supposed to be a business biography on Big Basket.However, upon reading, I felt that only a tiny fraction of this book could actually be considered as insightful.
Rest is pure drivel! ...self-congratulatory and self-promotional content, laden with unsought personal stories!
20 reviews
December 27, 2020
Fantastic book and a must-read for wannabe entrepreneurs. There are a lot of anecdotes that inspire you especially the story of Mr. Gopala Krishna. And also the common mistakes made by founders and VCs. Hope the authors write a sequel to this!!
Profile Image for Sidhant Jain.
18 reviews
April 5, 2020
Few chapters are good and helpful to understand complexities of supplychain and relationship with customer. Otherwise a story of how BB started, and how it grew to such scale.
20 reviews
October 11, 2020
It was like a journey with Bigbasket from start to the current successful day. My takeaway is ready to learn, unlearn & re-learn.
8 reviews3 followers
November 17, 2020
An interesting read on how Big Basket nailed it end-to-end in delivering the entire basket to customers!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews

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