Tastebuds in the Cloud

Preface: There are just so many awesome and ground breaking business ventures around us that we couldn't have imagined 10 years back, but today, they have totally transformed consumer market. Business has always been about 'Demand & Supply', and business model is everything between the 'Demand & Supply', its all about connecting the dots. In my view, business model evolution has always been directly aligned to change in consumer requirements, some industries foresee the requirement and evolve early while some hesitate and evolve slowly, but never the less all adapt to suit consumers. 

We all being consumers, have always had a moment of - ‘but why cant this be delivered, xyz / abc way?’. Businessmen or not, Venture Capitalists or not, we all have an inquisitive mind with loads of stupid and maybe few interesting business ideas. Through this blog I thought of flushing out some business ideas that i keep coming up with. We may not have time or more importantly $$$$ to evolve them further, but who is stopping us to write about them? I invite all to collaborate, share feedback and suggestions. I might not become a Billionaire but at least wouldn't regret claiming that I thought of the idea first!!!

Amazon + Netflix + Dabbawalla = Tastebuds in the cloud!

OK, before we get into the details of the proposed business model, let me first brief on the components of Amazon, Netflix & Dabbawala that I want to bring together to solve my tastebud problem, to help understand the model better. 

Amazon: Amazon, Amazon online marketplace in particular, solved a fundamental issue of  retail business - store to consumer outreach ratio. If seen, Amazon has always been a cloud provider:

• Shared Infrastructure (read warehousing): All Amazon Prime products, irrespective of brands, share a common warehouse, bringing in supply-chain efficiencies. 
• Zip-code = WWW: While ‘legacy’ retail stores are dependent on your zip-code to identify (rather limit themselves) consumer reachability, Amazon uses zip-codes to calculate taxes! 
• Elastic Supply: There is no limit to supply of product, logically Amazon has unlimited supply of every product, unlike your local retail store in the neighborhood. 

Netflix: First, let me confess, I love Netflix, period! As Onion News put it recently, I might have spent my last few months, just browsing the titles and not watching anything, I still support and admire Netflix and hope it always beat Amazon instant video, iTunes etc. 

Components of Netflix that I want to utilize:

• Licensing & Copyrights: Netflix buys streaming and DVD licenses/ copyrights from Media Houses in bulk for a limited period and shares them with a large pool of consumers paying a fixed cost. 
• Pre-defined user packages: Unlike the legacy Dish TV/ Time Warner on demand business model, Netflix has pre-defined user packages - Streaming only, DVD only (1/2/3 etc.), and few other mix-and-match. Pre-defined packages and subscription model help Netflix forecast consumer demand better, utilize the large subscription consumer base to negotiate with media houses and ultimately lower the monthly costs. 

Dabbawala: For the novice, Dabbawalla is one of the most talked about unique business models out of India. I do not think I need to expand further on Dabbawalas other than the fact that they signify - fresh tasty food, on time delivery and are a case study with likes of Harvard.

Tastebuds in the cloud!

How about you get onto an Amazon like online portal to subscribe for a Netflix like service to get Dabbawalla like lunch delivered every weekday?

Let me expand:

Amazon: McDonalds & BurgerKing might be the biggest competitors but they sure source the same ingredients to run a restaurant - Meat, bread, cheese, ketchup etc. Its just the style of cooking that vary. How about building large ‘Warehouse style kitchens’ in target neighborhoods with a common supply (read cost efficient) of food ingredients, sourced locally - vegetable produce, meat, bakery supply, dairy, oil, cooking gas etc? Provide ‘shared kitchen space’ to various Brands to cook food in their proprietary style and then provide an online marketplace to consumers to order food. 

Netflix: Consumers to pick a pre-defined lunch package - for example, two appetizers, one main course package. For me that could be  - PF Chang’s Lettuce Wraps, Olive Garden’s Minestrone Soup and Noodle’s and Co. Mediterranean Penne Rosa one day while Wendy’s Fries, Panera’s Garden Veggie Soup and Chipotle’s Burrito the other day. 

Dabbawala: Consumer to pick options as per the package subscribed in advance up to a day to get it delivered hot and fresh to your workplace/ home in a customized lunchbox that needs to be returned through the logistic provider. 

Problems addressed: 

• Conventionally, the only way for a brand to expand consumer base is to open new restaurants in new neighborhoods. Opening a new restaurant is expensive and hence limits brand expansion. Unlike McDonalds, Cheese Cake Factory can not open new restaurants next to every gas station. But utilizing common shared large kitchens, cost efficient supply of ingredients, large online consumer subscription and efficient delivery logistics they can expand consumer base to areas which might not be viable to open a new restaurant. 
• Consumers like me are not limited to a single brand and have access to mix and match favorites. Also, are not limited to restaurants available nearby.
• Once successful ‘Tastebuds in the Cloud’ can start developing products in-house - Netflix style home productions (House of Cards, Orange is the new Black etc.) or Amazon branded Burgers and Pasta (HDMI cables, Flash drives etc.).

P.S. will expand on this using flow diagrams, margins and P&L descriptions in some time. But hope you got the basic business idea!