BANGALORE, INDIA: In order to make their mark in the world map as a successful 'Made in India' brand, product companies need to generate that killer idea and draw a strategy/plan to implement it.

Speaking at the NASSCOM  Product Conclave and Expo 2009 here today, Rajesh Hukku, senior VP and GSM, FSGBU, Oracle, said that in the journey of building up their business and taking it to greater heights a company should follow four stages starting from an idea to further improvement on that idea.

He said, “Every product company should follow the four levels of development namely idea, execution, perseverance and improvement.”

He elaborated that an idea might not be a fundamentally breakthrough, but could also be an enhanced version of the existing products. It also needs to be checked with the reality, understanding the customer behavior.

Taking examples of Apple, he said, “Apple was not among the first products companies to introduce PC, but they were the first one to introduce the user experience of a transparent PC and also the music players as iPod.”

Furthermore, he added, “Apple continued to improve their products by introducing video and touch capabilities.”

Talking about planning and execution, he said that execution of the business plan is as important as the idea. Instead of chasing bigger markets like US/UK, companies should try their hands on domestic market and also on other market which are very challenging but rewarding at the same time.

He said, “Like in I-flex, since Indian market was still under government legislations, we started our operations in Africa. We continued it for three to five years, until in 2005, we bagged the leadership position in banking and financial solutions. This reference worked to our advantage, when we moved out to the US and other developed markets.”

Apart from choosing the right market, startups should also look at business sustainability with options for revenue generation.

Hukku said, “Small companies depending on venture funds should work on side business to ensure cash flow and avoid long gestation period until they start gaining profits.

He added, “I-Flex started with banking and financial products, but was also providing services. Over a period of time, this proportion of the products verses services business changed from 40 per cent of product and 60 per cent of services to present 70 per cent of products to 30 per cent services. This helped the company maintain positive bottom line right from second year.”

Concluding the session, he added that a lot of changes and dynamism has come from past years, building growth platform for the products companies, but the companies should never forget the thumb rule of evolving and improving with time, with the best idea.