question hour

The pre-school potential

Many edupreneurs are thronging the pre-school segment. Is the current euphoria justified?

Tas Jawaharlal Nehru

Coimbatore

TJN, this sure is interesting space. Two good things about it: It fulfills a societal good. It helps build the future. And second, it has plenty of monetisation potential.

The pre-school segment is a valuable space that young and educated parents look at. Parents, especially working couples, are unable to devote enough time to the early developmental needs of their kids. The pre-school is seen to be manna from heaven for such parents. It fulfills a valuable need.

This is a tough terrain as well, as pre-schools come under deep parental scrutiny all the time. Parents understand the valuable role these establishments play, and they are keen to get the best. They are known to go stingy on much else and pay hefty fees for a pre-school experience. They know what exactly counts. This space is bound to boom as more and more working parents come into the market. A good space to be in, for sure!

This business of training, particularly in brands, seems to be a bit of a con. What say?

New Delhi

Naresh, that’s contentious.

The brand is a weapon. A piece of cutting-edge stuff that helps your business stay ahead of the marketing curve. And just as a knife that has been used a bit too often gets blunt, branding as a science has the habit of blunting its edge. Sharpening the cutting-edge keeping in mind new realities is a business imperative.

This sharpening the blunted edge is relevant to businesses old and new alike. Standing apart from the clutter of it all is the imperative of the retail brand, as it is the imperative of the product or service offering. It is as relevant to businesses in e-commerce and hyper-local deliveries as is it to businesses that reside in the cloud.

Sharpening the cutting edge is the objective of training and re-training. If that is met, not much of a con, really. Touché.

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