Adaptability is the name of the game

We all need it as soon as we get up in the morning. Its essential to keep us fresh. Iam not talking about the newspaper or your first cup of coffee. Iam referring to the toothpaste. For past so many years Colgate has been ruling the oral care segment leaving the competition scratching their heads.The trend continued for a while as they dished out various products under varied names like Active Salt, Pro-Gum Health , Advanced Whitening etc etc. Until recently they decided to change course and introduced a new tootpaste called Swarna VedShakti. The name caught me wondering what was an MNC company doing with such an Indian name.

On closer introspection I observed that trends in the FMCG space began undergoing a major shift once Patanjali made its presence. Patanjali Ayurvedic Limited is one of the fastest growing Indian FMCG company which was established in 2006 by Baba Ramdev along with Acharya Balkrishna.A fact that was ignored  for a while until this year when the sales began getting impacted of the most dominant company, a household name in  oral care was soon loosing its position amongst the masses.For the first time in 10 years, Colgate recorded a sharp share fall of 1.8 percent and a 4 percent decline in its sales volume forcing their global CEO to remark that “Patanjali’s ‘nationalist view’ in business works in local markets “.Today, Patanjali’s entry in the oral care market has forced Hindustan Unilever, Dabur, ITC, Colgate – Palmolive, and Procter & Gamble to rethink their strategy making them revisit their product strategy and give it a more Indian / Desi touch to make connect with the masses better.

So, what we learnt from these developments in the FMCG space is that we need to adapt continuously irrespective of the situation. Drawing parallel to the markets we are now observing that the current market scenario is not giving us a similar opportunity to participate unlike what we experienced in October. With the rampant volatility in play it has become quite evident that we need to revisit our strategy. Has the trend changed ?  Yes. But that does not mean we need to immediately become contrarian. No! The best approach to any situation especially a live market , is by adopting different methodologies.

Markets reward those who are willing to participate and go the extra mile to find out how to correct their existing situation. Small tweaks can help you plug a disaster. Even today many people seek different methods to spot opportunities. This is why Dr C K Narayan our mentor and Chief Trainer at Chart Advise has devised several webinars that can help you sharpen your existing skillsets and then approach the markets in a more reformed manner. His wisdom and years of experience has now provided many lost souls in the market the perfect balance. Do check them out on our website.

Talking about adaptability there is a very beautiful quote by Charles Darwin , ” It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive , it is the person who can best manage change.” A quote which we at Chart Advise wear it on our sleeve.