Making breakthrough innovation

In 1996, the forty year old Bhopal-based newspaper group Dainik Bhaskar had a circulation of
350,000 copies per day in Madhya Pradesh. By 2004, this had grown by more than 1000 percent
to 3.5 million (2.3 million in Hindi and 1.2 million in Gujarati across six states in India: Madhya
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh and Gujarat), making it one of the top
twenty-five dailies in the world. In a little over ten years, Bhaskar has achieved circulation
figures that others in global newspaper business taken nearly a century to achieve. Today
Bhaskar has a collective circulation of a approximately 4.4 million across its titles Dainik
Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar, Saurashtra Samchar, Prabhat Kiran, Business Bhaskar, DB Star and
DNA.

Bhaskars rapid growth has occurred in an unlikely setting. All the large, powerful media groups
in India are based in the English language. Although Hindi is the most widely used spoken
language in India, the vernacular press is highly segmented with small, regional papers holdings
sway. No local language newspaper has been able to cut across states the way English newspaper
have.

Further, the newspaper business was, and still is, a game of slow growth over generation of
readers. People dont easily change newspaper-reading habits and if they do, it takes several
years of persistent wooing to get them to shift.

But consider this: In Jaipur, its first city of launch outside Madhya Pradesh, Dainik Bhaskar
entered the market as number one with 172,000 copies on 19th December 1996. In its next new
market, Chandigarh, it was again number one with 69,000 copies when it launched in May 2000.
In its third launch - the state of Haryana - it entered as number one with 271,000 copies in June
2000. And in its fourth launch, in Ahmedabad on 23 June 2003, it entered as number one with
452,000 copies - a world record. It expanded into Gujarat in a matter of fifteen months, entering
the two other major cities of Gujarat - Surat and Baroda. It currently has nine edition in Gujarat
and is the largest circulated Gujarati daily with 11.5 Lakh copies according to the Bureau of
Circulation. It continued this in Punjab in 2006, launching simultaneously from Amritsar and
Jallandhar with 178,000 copies. These are result that make one sit up and say Wow!

The usual question is: How did the Dainik Bhaskar Group increase circulation by a factor of ten
in such a short time in such a hostile environment? The larger questions are: What did these guys
do differently from the others in the newspaper industry? What is replicable in what did and what
can organizations in other industries learn from them?

To understand the nature of Bhaskars achievement, you have to understand industry dynamics:
Any industry is made up of a leader and followers. The leader is there by virtue of some
outstanding strategy or because it began the industry. The followers try to emulate the leader but
since the latter has enormous advantages of efficiencies and market share the former never quite
catch up, though they keep him on his toes. This pattern persists across industries and this state
of affairs continues for years.

But one day: a Radical Innovator arrives who thinks differently. Who thinks big and thinks big
and thinks hungry and finds a brand-new way of doing things and ruthlessly implements his
vision. When that happens, the comfortable industry equations change and become topsy-turvy
and the entire industry undergoes a rapid restructuring. The Dainik Bhaskar Group is one such
radical innovator.

You may have heard about Bhaskars achievements before and may also have learnt how they
did it. You may even have thought that what the Dainik Bhaskar Group did was interesting, but
not quite relevant to your industry. After all you are in oil or FMCG, or garments or whatever.
And what those guys did cannot happen to your industry. If you believe that, you are in trouble.
Radical innovation like Bhaskar is becoming the norm rather than the exception. And if you are
not one, you can become irrelevant very, very fast.

We are going to delineate the Dainik Bhaskar Groups approach step by step to highlight what
radical innovators do. We urge you to look beyond the actual mechanics of each step and into the
essence of what was done. Reflect well: like you other people reading this. And one of them
could be the next radical innovator in you industry.

THE ORBIT - SHIFTING CHALLENGE

From 1992 to 1995, the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper was the undisputed leader in Madhya
Pradesh, displacing, they say, the newspaper Nai Duniya. Having become number 1 with some
distance between them and their competition, members of the Agarwal family that controls the
group - Rameshchandra, Sudhir, Girish and Pawan - were now restless and were seeking the next
challenge.
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The spoke about entering new markets in new
How do you plan your organizations
states, as most directors of organization would
future? In our experience, most
do; and they even began exploring potential
organizations work strategy forward. They
markets, as the market with the highest potential
think up an outstanding strategy and, based
markets. They identified Jaipur, Rajasthan, as the
on this, work out future projections of
market with the highest potential and began to
milestone and goals. But radical innovators
discuss the mechanics of entering it. One day,
like Bhaskar do the reverse. They first have
they were discussing their hopes and aspiration
a dream; an impossible aspiration and then
for future and the mood was quite upbeat
work back from there, devising a strategy
nothing different so far from what a thousand
that can deliver on that dream.
other managers and directors do every day.
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But then the Chairman, Rameshchandra Agarwal, remarked: It sounds as if your aspiration is to
reach the heavens. The sons said yes. Do you know what you have to do to reach heaven?
Pause Die? Yes. Are you willing to die for this aspiration? Think carefully. Because if you
are not, we are better off here in MP where we have reached comfort zone. If we want to grow
and expand, we will need to become extremely uncomfortable. We will be the target of every
newspaper group that is threatened by our aspiration. If we want to go ahead, we go ahead
completely and hold nothing back. Are we prepared to disrupt our personal lives, our families,
and go there into the market and battle like we have never battled before? It may take years. If
you are willing to do that, we go ahead. Otherwise we dont. The sons said they were ready and
committed to doing whatever was necessary to make it happen.

So they decided to go ahead with Jaipur and Rajashtan. And since they were going to go all out,
they decided that they would aim at being number 2 on the day of launch. It didnt make sense to
them to aim any lower. After all, if you are going all out why aim at a piddling target? They
would go in as clear number 2.

It wasnt just something that was nice to aim for. It was a clear intent: be number 2 on the
day launch. Weve rarely seen companies bold enough to enter a new market with a clear,
pre-declared intent of being number 1 or 2 at launch, For instance, when your company
launches products and services in a new market, does it enter with aspiration to become
number 1 or 2 on the day of launch, or does it just aim to get an initial toehold and then
slowly expand? How would your entry strategy be different if you entered with the clear
intent to be number 2 from Day One? And by the way, are you willing to die to achieve
your dream? Die is also a metaphor; what, in your current ways of thinking and working,
has to die in order to give birth to something remarkable?

When the Agarwals articulated their aspiration, they had no idea how to achieve it. They had no
strategy or plan in place. All they had was their commitment that if they were to expand, they
would go all out and think big.

For Bhaskar, it certainly wasnt an easy goal. Newspaper takes decades to reach any sort of
leadership position. And incumbent newspapers often enjoy a brand loyalty that other industries
would kill for. Newspapers are perceived to be a morning habit and part of a persons morning
ritual as much as tea or coffee. An added difficulty is that newspapers lose money in operations.

The more newspapers you sell, the more you lose money until advertisings revenue catches up.
But this often takes a long time. So the usual strategy is to grow a bit, wait for ads to come in,
grow a bit more, and so on. A hugely painful process. But thats the way its always been.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE HEAD-ON

When Bhaskar began with the aspiration of entering Jaipur as number 2 with a print run of
50,000 copies of demolishing all the industry entry and growth barriers. Every industry paradigm
would necessarily have to be rethought.

Every industry has its entry barriers and its growth barriers. And everybody in the industry
operates within them. The entry barriers keep newcomers out and the growth barriers
 maintain the status quo. If you are number 1 or 2 thats a very comfortable situation. But
sooner or later along comes a wild-eyed orbit shifter who refuses to play by the rules. And
suddenly all the barriers that you thought had foundation in concrete tumble like a house of
cards.

Therefore the group decided to go in for a truly in-depth understanding of the readership patterns
in the city. Unlike a conventional survey that takes a random sample size and tries to extrapolate
information into a broad need or trend, the Dainik Bhaskar Group decided to meet a whopping
200,000 potential newspaper-buying household in Jaipur!

The intent behind the massive consumer contact programme was to personalize the newspaper.
As Girish Agarwal, director of marketing and member of the core team, says,
buying newspapers is a personal habit and little influencing takes place. We are very independen
t in buying a
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When was the last time you actually listened newspaper. Therefore it makes sense to talk to
to 200,000 of your consumers in one city? the customer as an independent entity But
No organization that I know of has done then buying a soap and mobile phones and
this. Most surveys are puny affairs using underwear are also personal habits. And how
representative samples and statistical many consumers do the manufactures of those
variances conducted by market research produces meet? I dont know about you, but no
companies, at the end of which nobody one has met me. As the Bhaskar bigwigs began
knows whos been met and who hasnt. But to immerse themselves in the mechanics of the
reports are churned out and the will of the survey, given its scale, it quickly became an
consumer is presented to senior integral part of their strategy. They decided not
management with bugles blowing and flag only to find out more about the customer and his
fluttering. needs but also to make
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it an experience enhancing contact with the consumer so that everyone surveyed felt good at
the meeting with the Bhaskar surveyor.

We love that term Experience Enhancing! So different from customer feedback or

satisfaction survey or (yawn) client servicing. How does your organization Enhance the
Experience of your customers? Actually, think about the Customer Service Department that
most organizations come up with. The term itself throws up images of someone being taken
somewhere to be serviced much like a car or a two-wheeler. How would the department
function if its mandate was Experience Enhancing?

Something so important could not be outsourced to any market research company. It had to be
finely controlled and therefore done in-house. The survey was becoming the cornerstone of their
strategy. They set up a team of 700 surveyors from scratch.
During the survey, an idea emerged: they would finish the survey and go back with the result to
the households already met. From there, the next idea was: If we go back, can we ask them to
sign up for an advance subscription? This was a radical question. They were thinking of asking
customers to pay upfront for a newspaper they hadnt seen. Rather than dismiss this as too
radical, the team began working back from here.

They did their thinking in detail. Working back from customer from the intent, they asked, If we
do ask the customer to pay upfront, what comfort zone do we need to create within the
consumer? This threw up two follow-up questions: What are the major consumer concerns and
forces of gravity on doing this? And. How can they be overcome?

The team realized that there were two major fears that customers had: the fear of being taken by
surprise and getting something he/she didnt want, and the fear of losing money in a bad deal.

To overcome the first fear, the team hit upon the idea of evolving the product with customer. So
they went to each customer and asked him/her question like: What are you getting in your
current newspaper that you would like to get more of? and What would you like your
newspaper to do for you? Then based on the feedback, the survey team went back to all 200,000
households to show them what they had created based on their feedback.

The entire survey team of 700 surveyors was highly trained in engaging with the consumer.
Experts in the field taught them marketing and member of the core team, says,
buying newspapers is a personal habit and little influencing takes place. We are very independet
in buying a
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body language, grooming, posture, approach
Most surveys we know are superficial, methods, social norms and rules, and how to
insipid to engage with the customer. Both the engage and converse with consumers.
surveyor and the customer are intent on just
getting it over with. You can see it in the This triple whammy of engaging with the
apologetic way the surveyor approaches the consumer, involving him in creating the product
consumer. Imagine actually meeting your and making multiple visits to him sharply
usually faceless customer face-to-face and reduced his fear of being taken by surprise. It
then allowing the meeting to go downhill got the customer thinking: I know these guys,
What a huge opportunity loss. theyre pretty friendly. Also I have played an
------------------------------------------------------- important role in creating the product and for
once I know just Im getting.

This set the stage for asking for the advance subscription of six months/one year. To overcome
the consumer fear of losing money in a bad deal, the surveyor signed and gave the consumer a
guarantee bond that promised the consumer a subscription price of Rs 1.50 as against the
newsstand price of Rs 2 and an immediate refund if he wasnt satisfied with the product. The
bond also guaranteed that no matter what the fluctuations in newsstand price, the advance
subscriber would get the newspaper at Rs 1.50. The consumer now had no reason not to
subscribe and subscribe he did.

Dainik Bhaskar launched in Jaipur with 172,347 copies. Not as number 2, but as leader from Day
One. The erstwhile leader, Rajasthan Patrika, which has assiduously built its leadership position
over thirty year and which had a circulation of 100,000 copies, was overthrown overnight! By a
raw upstart.

As Girish Agarwal says, Always challenge conventional wisdom-the Pandavas did, and won the
Mahabharat.

Conventional wisdom dictated that armies won wars and what they should have taken Krishnas
army when it was offered. Instead, they refused the army and asked for Krishna alone-and that
too as a non-combatant.

Dainiks success at Jaipur is remarkable in itself and many organization would have rested on
their laurels, wallowing in self-congratulations. But the Dainik team went full steam ahead and,
in keeping with their commitment to their chairman, Chandigarh, Haryana, Ahmedabad and
Gujarat. Number 1 on the day of launch each time!

In Chandigarh, Dainik took on a city where English newspapers outsell Hindi ones by a factor of
six! Selling Hindi newspapers in Chandigarh was considered impossible. But where others saw
problems, this amazing team saw opportunities. So they hit the streets again in January 2000, this
time in Chandigarh, and contacted 220,000 households. And they did so, they found insights that
nobody else in the newspaper business had, because no one had met the common man!

They found that every household in Chandigarh was comfortable with Hindi and in many cases
more comfortable with Hindi than with English. And that they brought English newspapers not
because they preferred the language, but because the quality was better.

For thirty years, more English newspaper sold in Chandigarh as compared to Hindi ones and
everyone assumed thats the way the market was. In reality it was the quality, stupid. It was
about design and content. It was about giving the consumer a newspaper he feels good holding.

Once Dainik realized that designed mattered, they not only made design the king, they went a
step further and incorporated the local Chandigarh dialect in the design. The mixed both Hindi
and English in the newspaper, making it a true Chandigarhi Newspaper.

This was awesome! At a single stroke they had created uncontested market space. You had
English newspaper competing with each other and Hindi newspapers
----------------------------------------------------
We tend to think in terms of identities. We competing with one another. But you didnt have
are an English newspaper company or a a Hinglish newspaper. It stood alone.
Hindi newspaper company or a Hindi The result was that Bhaskar was the leader on
newspaper company or a mobile or a watch Day One in Chandigarh. The erstwhile leader,
manufacturing company or a mobile or the English language Tribune (50,000 copies),
watch manufacturing company. These was replaced by the Hinglish Dainik (69,000
identities trap us in words of our own copies at launch). Today Dainik is at 100,000-
making. A Hindi newspaper doesnt do pluscopies. Another impact was that while the
English. A mobile phone doesnt do total readership of Chandigarh was 54 per cent of
cameras or music or TV, a watch company the population before Dainik, today its 61.4 per
doesnt do jewellery until some come cent. Dainik expanded the market.
along who does, and you get done in.
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Thats what radical innovators like Dainik do. They expand the market. Incremental
innovators focus in trying to grab market share from the competition and fight within the
existing market space. But radical innovators go a step further. They create a brand-new space
for themselves and bring in buyers from two streams: existing and brand new. Whats your
company doing? Batting harder and harder for customers who are getting fussier and
finickier? Even thought of looking outside your existing customer base? And if youve
thought about it, what have you done about it?

After Dainik had stormed through Jaipur, Chandigarh and later Haryana, it zeroed in on
Ahmedabad and decided to launch in Gujarati! What was a Hindi newspaper doing thinking of
Gujarati?

The Gujarati-language newspapers in Ahmedabad though they were safe and isolated from
ranging maniacs like the Dainik Bhaskar group (thank goodness they are a Hindi group). You
see the identity barrier kicking in again? And sure enough, they got Bhaskared! Dainik Bhaskar
launched in Ahmedabad as Divya Bhaskar with 452,000 copies a world record. And as leader
form Day One. Naturally.

As we said at the beginning of this chapter, you may think that your situation is different and that
your company or industry would react differently and not get Dainik Bhaskared by a radical
innovator. You would be dead wrong.

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In Ahmedabad, the competition was not caught
napping. They didnt underestimate Dainiks
capability once it became clear that they were
going to enter the market. The leading Gujarati If theres one thing the Dainik story tells us,
newspapers came together and held discussions its that the writings on the wall? Do you
with their Dainik Bhaskared counterparts in see the writing on the wall? It reads:
Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Haryana to Arriving soon in your industry-Radical
understand how Dainik Bhaskar operated in Innovators. Starring hungry, radical, orbit-
order to pre-empt them. For instance, they came shifting non entities nowhere on your
up with colour pages once they realized that current radar. Do you see it the newspapers
Dainik Bhaskar had done this in both Rajasthan in Ahmedabad didnt?
and Chandigarh. They even responded with price
reduction and several high-value consumer
offers. But it was too little too late.
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They seemed to be just responding to Dainik Bhaskars initiatives. And if I were a Regular buyer of
these papers, that would make me mad. All these years I had been taken for granted and expected to lap
up whatever was
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dished out because I had no choice. And when
someone comes along who has not only visited
Are you taking your customers for granted?
me at home and asked me what I wanted but also
Are you only giving them what you can get
co-evolved my newspaper with me, my existing
away with and what the industry norms
newspapers have suddenly woken up and started
prescribe? Or are you giving them what no
giving me colours pages and freebies. Do I feel
one else can? If a hungry radical innovator
loyalty towards them? No way! I would march
were to come in today, what would he give
with my chequebook. And apparently thats just
your customers thats different form what
what many readers did. Divya Bhaskar, the
you are giving? Different enough to cause a
Gujarati version of Dainik Bhaskar, launched
large-scale migration? Having reflected,
with 452,000 copies and their collective Gujarati
what are you going to do about it?
circulation is now 11.5 Lakh. Divya Bhaskar
----------------------------------------------------
both expanded the market as well as took the
competitors buyers away from them.

THE MECHANICS OF THE DAINIK BHASKAR SURVEY

The Dainik survey is a remarkable undertaking, they build their own team of part-timers from
scratch. For instance, at Ahmedabad, where they surveyed (and enhanced the customer
experience of) a titanic 12,00,000 households, they used 1050 surveyors, 64 supervisors, 16
zonal mangers, and 4 divisional managers to run the show. It is possibly the single biggest direct
consumer contact programme in history. And they met each household twice!

The people for the survey were gathered largely through posters at colleges and by world-of-mouth
as the print advertisement channel was not available to Dainik Bhaskar and TV ad sports were too
expensive. College campuses were targeted as well as graduates and first-time job seekers. The benefits
promised were exposure to a truly unique real-time work experience, fun and where possible, induction
into the organization. For example, the Sikar unit head in Rajashtan was recruited from the survey. He
was a surveyor in Jaipur . Nearly 40-50 per cent of surveyors were absorbed in Dainik Bhaskar or Divya
Bhaskar based on merit. The rest were given a certificate of appreciation that stated their contribution in
this massive effort.

The surveyors also knew that they were part of something unique - a mammoth experience that
would look good on their resumes.

Intense training was conducted on their grooming, present ability, etiquette, body language,
social skills and method of engagement. The training ensured a standardize contact method as
well as standardized appearance and behaviour of the surveyors. Tracking teams were formed to
ensure that the highest levels of engagement and social norms were adhered to. The surveyors
did so well that when they went back for the second round, they were greeted like long - lost
friends and welcomed back and often offered refreshments. Now thats what we call customer
engagement and experience enhancing.

The survey team had a time frame of forty days in which to reach out to eight lakh households in
Ahmedabad (plus four lakh in the adjoining district). This gave the team a daily target of 20,000
households, with each surveyor expected to make a minimum of twenty productive calls. The
primary respondent was identified as the chief wage - earner of the family.

Imagine if you will, typical morning in Ahmedabad that begins before dawn before dawn with
batches of around 200-300 surveyors in blue, cream and yellow congregating in the parks and gardens
of the city. Their morning begins with prayer and hymn from the film Ankush: Itni shakti hamay dena
daata, mann ka vishwas kamzor ho na. With over 200 people in straight lines, singing in unison, its a
sight that gives one goose bumps.

This exercise makes the group feel that they are going on a mission to achieve something
spectacular. Then, after a short briefing, they hit the road for their 20,000 productive calls for the
day. They knock on doors and are supported by supervisor who closely monitor success, failure
and behaviour aberrations and coach on the spot those surveyors who need help, or send them
with others more successful to observe how they do it.

After the surveyors knock on the doors and get feedback, they give the resident a thank you gift
of a handbook on Ahmedabad and a calendar-panchang.

The day ends with an evening sit-down review where successes are highlighted, songs sung, and
a general review and sharing of the high and low points of the day takes place, as well as a
sharing of observation by the computer operators for keying in. Throughout, the focus is on
focus is on fun and enjoyment along with learning and results.

At frequent intervals throughout the survey period, there are parties and functions with
celebrities invited for the surveyors to interact with, as well as reward programmes for individual
and teams performing well. Fun is neglected part of most organizations. How much fun do your
people have at work? What do you do to ensure they have fun?

At every stage theres inspiration and complete equality. The person in change of the city, the
core team member, is always on the field every single day with surveyors, moving from area to
area, talking to them and solving problems on the spot. For instance, in Ahmedabad, the survey was
done during summer and the surveyors were getting dehydrated. Instantly, glucose packs and water were
organized for the 1000-odd surveyors even though it was not a part of the plan or budget. There were
several such instances of caring being displayed and problems being overcome that built huge ownership
among the surveyors.

By the end of the survey period, a total of twelve lakh household has been contacted and
feedback taken from them. This feedback was summarized and analyzed by the core team, the
editorial, reporting and feature teams and conclusions were drawn about product content and
layout. Now they were ready for the equally challenging next phase that involved going back to
the same households.
Think about the awesome scale of this and the 50,000-megapixel detail they go into. These guys
paint a very rich canvas.

SUMMING UP

The Dainik Bhaskar Group is a fast mover. On an average, after the decision to enter a city,
Bhaskar rolls out within nine to eleven months and reaches leadership or close to leadership
position in launch after launch.

These guys are formidable, larger - than - life competitors. They moved in on Mumbai with the
newspaper DNA through they werent number 1 because, according to Sanjeev Kotnala, vice
president and national head, MARCOM, Dainik Bhaskar Group, they had made a strategic
decision to enter as number 2 and grow from there. As Sanjeev says, it wasnt quite viable to be
number 1 in Mumbai because to be number 1 they would to cross five-lakh plus circulation. And
given production costs, this would be a challenge. Therefore, he says, it was a strategic business
decision to launch with three lakh copies, occupy a number 2 slots and grow from there. Today they
are at 4.18 lakh copies in Mumbai. In the meantime, the English-language DNA has expanded into
Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Jaipur, and on 14th December 2008, it entered Bangalore.

Sometimes an orbit shifter doesnt need to become a leader. The job of an orbit shifter is to shift
the dynamics of the industry.

Look at what these guys did systematically:

1.They set a quantum challenge to be number 2 on the day of launch, thereby challenging the
long-standing industry paradigm of slow incremental growth.
2.They challenged the industry paradigm of waiting for the customer to come to them and
instead went after the customer one-on-one. Lakhs of them.
3.They challenged the paradigm of the editor knowing better than the reader what the reader
should reach and instead involved the reader in creating his own newspaper.
4.They broke the impossible-to-break-morning-habit paradigm overnight.

Today the Dainik Bhaskar Group has come a long way from being number 1 in Madhya Pradesh
to becoming the largest read newspaper group in the country. It now has eight newspaper group
in the country. It now has eight titles in Four languages across nine states (Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Rajashtan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra) and
the Union Territory of Chandigarh, with a mammoth 4.4 million or 44 lakh copies
(approximately) being printed everyday.(Note that all numbers in this chapter, except where
specifically stated, are provided by the Dainik Bhaskar Group.)
In the final analysis it doesnt matter who us the exact undisputed leader in X market in Y year.
What matters from an orbit-shifting perspective is that heres an organization that has shown us a
possibility. It has shown us that generation of collective wisdom on how to grow a newspaper brand (or
any other brand) can be overturned overnight when you challenge and rethink all that has been taken for
granted. And that is perhaps, Bhaskars greatest contribution. It has shown us, no matter what our
industry, just what can be done if we only consciously seek to shift orbits.

Decades of incremental growth can he eclipsed by six months of radical innovation. Are
you part of the former or the latter? If your growth has been incremental, what are you
going to do about it?
Today, competition is no longer between products. Its between business models. Is yours
radically different?
Organization and people often mistake the unusual for the impossible. Just because
something is unusual doesnt make it impossible. Where are you mistaking the unusual for
the impossible?
Are you challenging conventional wisdom? Do you choose Krishna or His army?