<div>A few weeks ago, my driver made the unfortunate mistake of taking himself off on leave. I objected: too many leaves, too long, who’s going to get my shopping done, etc. That fell on stone deaf ears and knowing there was little I could do about it, he evaporated away to his hilly home. I was miffed. But then, with no one to fetch and carry for me, here was my chance to dive head-first into the on-demand economy.</div><div> </div><div>I soon found myself traipsing all over town in Uber and Ola cars, feeling independent and liberated not to have to keep someone waiting and sweating out in the sun or grumpy about setting out in the evening. I filled my phone to the brim with shopping apps and began to check out each grocery service, one by one, adding exotic fruits and imported goods to my list, I called for someone to polish my woodwork, fetch dinner for guests who dropped in, pick up herbal juices from a hospital, send me health-friendly snacks — and finally, the ultimate self-indulgence, I asked a concierge service to fetch me a Rainbow pastry, a fat colourful sweet delight that would make my diabetologist faint in shock.</div><div> </div><div>Practically everything you’d want is suddenly available without you having to lift a finger. Well, or lift it a little to tap a button. But there’s a difference between promise and delivery. Trying to emulate the Uber model, on-demand startups put in the technology (Uber insists it’s a technology company) but find the logistics and quality of service needed are quite another matter. And yet, they still set up shop by the droves, figuring out slowly that the technology also means accountability and transparency and a poor tolerance by customers, of failure to deliver to standards.</div><div> </div><div>The explosion of startups catering to your every need has been sudden, as explosions tend to be, and are quickly filling a space that is becoming confusing, though interesting. There are too many players with too slow adoption by the masses. For a culture that has been accustomed to kirana shops, long-time relationships with everyday home service providers, the vegetable vendor who bellows on the street outside each morning, and nicely troublesome domestic help, this push-button instant meeting of needs is a shock. The more traditional won’t even try it. For workers like my driver and my fuss-budget of a carpenter, it’s disruptive – they won’t even know what hit them.</div><div> </div><div>Undoubtedly, new jobs would be created from a new economy, but the transition will be long and painful for many, such as regular taxi drivers who suddenly find their value plummeting. But the newcomers should watch out, for the disrupters can themselves be disrupted as new models completely overrun previous ones. With the focus being on acquiring customers rather than making money from them, the funding will one day run out, forcing these new services to shut down, or consolidate. And yet, having once tasted blood, those who sample on-demand services won’t want to settle for anything less going forward.</div><div> </div><div>Meanwhile, I ran up quite a bill and was enjoying the last of my Rainbow pastry when the doorbell rang and who should be standing there but my driver, back four days early from his vacation. I stared at him in dismay and he looked back at me in surprise as I wondered what jobs I had for him to do the whole day. </div><div> </div><div><div>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)</div></div>
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