National Clothesline

ver heard of a “dhobi-wallah?” Dhobis are the human washing machines of India. They get up early every morning and head for the dhobi-ghat where they spend the rest of the day stomping around in vats of sudsy water and dirty clothes, laundering everything clean with their feet.

Where do the clothes come from?

Other dhobis do the pick-up and delivery. They begin at dawn, heading in all directions on bicycles to collect or deliver their customers’ laundry in big bags tied to the back fender. This is how is it is and how it’s been done for centuries (maybe not with bicycles, though).

They bring the clothes in and after cruelly stomping on them they punish the clothes by scrubbing them with stiff brushes. Next, they flog them against cement walls… just to make sure they’re really clean. After that, they use heavy irons loaded with live coals to press out any stubborn wrinkles.

Why should we care about the dhobi-wallahs? Because they’re becoming extinct. They are being forced out of business by a tough competitor — the washing machine. You and I got one years ago, but the average Indian didn’t. They couldn’t afford one. It was cheaper to hire a dhobi. But today, Indians are buying washing machines by the thousands and the cleaner is losing his job.

While attending the last industry trade show, I was attracted to a number of inventors and entrepreneurs. Like any trade show wanderer, I made the fatal mistake of “pausing” at a particular booth and in no time was literally sucked in by the salesman.

Within 10 minutes I got the whole story. This company runs a maid service, sending thousands of maids into high-income homes throughout America everyday, cleaning, dusting and vacuuming… making strong ties with the homeowners. They feel that once they have the customer’s confidence, it becomes easy to sell them other services like grocery shopping and drycleaning. And they’re right!

Here’s the question. Where will the next challenge to your business come from?

Andrew Grove, the CEO of Intel, wrote a book entitled Only the Paranoid Survive.

He believes the prime responsibility of a manager is to be on guard. Grove, himself, admits to worrying constantly. About products getting screwed up, about hiring the right people, about morale slacking off. And, of course, he worries about competition — someone learning to do what Intel does better and cheaper, thereby capturing the market.

But his greatest paranoia comes from what he calls strategic inflection points. Simply put, a strategic inflection point occurs when the fundamentals of a business are about to change. This change can signal either a rise to new heights or the eventual demise of a business.

A strategic inflection point for Intel occurred in the mid 1980s when the Japanese effectively took them out of the memory market.

This strategic inflection point forced Intel into the new field of microprocessors. In time, the company so dominated the microprocessor industry that they, in turn, caused the mother of all inflection points for those companies in the mainframe computer industry.

We’re living in an age of change. It’s technology driven and the pace is frightening. The waves of change will touch all industries. They will affect our industry, as well. Just exactly how and when remains to be seen. But new competitors will come — some from “out of the blue” with new ways of doing things.

The demographics are shifting also.

For example, my son at college gets his homework assignments off the network computer on campus, does classroom research on the Internet and arranges his weekend activities by e-mail.

AOL has long emphasized the fact that, among other things, you can do your banking, go to the museum and calculate shipping rates through the post office, all without leaving the comfort of your home. And an increasing number of people are beginning to use this type of technology to complete their daily tasks.

Studies show that more and more Americans today are “time starved.” They don’t seem to have sufficient time to complete their daily tasks. And they also want to be relieved of pain.

One of the biggest pains is suffering through traffic, whether it’s going to the bank, the grocery store or the drycleaner. Many are willing to pay to have this pain relieved. They want more time to do the things they choose, whether it’s fishing, skydiving or sitting in front of their computers.

So what happens when some highly organized, aggressive company with deep pockets offers to pick up and deliver drycleaning for some of your customers along with their grocery orders? Not just any customers, though, I mean your top ones… the ones that bring you the bulk of your business.

Soon you will be relying on a new generation of young people to become your customers and to sustain your business. You should be concerned with how this generation is now living their lives, generating information and transacting their business. It may help you determine how best to give them what they want and how they want it.

There’s no need to be paranoid but it’s wise to keep your eyes open and to be aware of the changes that occur almost daily. Read as much as you can. Join your local trade association and become active in it. Attend some trade shows that have nothing to do with drycleaning. You’ll learn a lot by getting a fresh perspective.

The very last thing the dhobi-wallahs expected was a strategic inflection point but it happened anyway and few of them, if any, will survive it.

Bill Bishop has been a consultant with the Golomb Group for the past 12 years, designing marketing and promotional programs for drycleaners. He can be reached at the Golomb Group at (800) 679-5856 or by e-mail at billbishop@golombgroup.com.