In an earlier note I wrote about my first DSM field visit in 2007 and the lesson in jugaad it left me with. There is a second story from those same weeks that took me longer to understand, and it has shaped how I think about market entry ever since.
We were sitting with a group of female dairy farmers. Our business case looked clean. With improved feed, daily milk yield could move from roughly seven litres to fourteen. On paper, the proposition was obvious: better nutrition, more milk, more income.
The model started to unravel
The moment we began talking with farmers, the logic broke. Many stopped feeding their cows when the milk cycle dipped. The reasoning was rational on its own terms: no milk meant no income, and no income meant no feed. But it was disastrous for the underlying biology. Proper nutrition during the low cycle is what restores fertility and starts the next cycle. The farmer’s short-term economics were quietly killing the long-term yield curve our model assumed.
Through conversations with cooperatives and NGOs we realised we were solving the wrong problem. This was not really about feed. It was about continuity, animal health and the cash-flow rhythm around the farmer.
Together we shaped a different model. A small portion of milk revenue was set aside so feed could keep flowing in the low months. The proposition shifted from selling animal nutrition to supporting livestock health. DSM later piloted it.
The pilot worked, but not for the reason we predicted
A year after I had moved into another role, I asked colleagues in India how the pilot was going. They had just come back from the field. The farmers were enthusiastic. Not because milk income had risen — although it had. Because the cows now had shiny skin. Their ears stood upright. They looked healthy.
In rural India the cow is part of the family. That mattered more than the litres. It stayed with me.
We had built the case around output. The customer felt the value as animal wellbeing. Two different propositions, sharing one input. The lesson has travelled with me far beyond agriculture.
So what
However elegant a business case looks in Excel, the value the customer cares about is sometimes a different value entirely. You will rarely find it in the spreadsheet, and not always in the boardroom. You find it on the ground.
For European companies entering India today, that lesson is still the right starting point. Market entry is not only about sizing demand or sharpening the proposition on paper. It is about testing whether the customer defines value the way your model assumes. Often they do not. And sometimes the right response is not to push harder on the original proposition — it is to redesign the business model around the value the customer actually feels.
If this resonates, let’s talk.
