Last week, we gave a warm welcome to VB18’s latest members of the family — Benjamin and Pamela, who would be joining the new batch of ideasinc veni January 2021 cohort on their lessons. As the new year readily ticks along, we refocus back on one of our perennial favourite teams — OMG Coating, consisting of Hansen and Vanessa. This feature article today shall elucidate their challenges, journey and epiphanies.
To recap, OMG Coating is a water-resistant anti-microbial coating. Since the formation of the team nearly 4 months ago, the team had tried their hand with applications in the maritime and construction industries, with varying results.
Hansen recollected that the maritime industry barrier to entry was not only very high, but very competitive as well. Maritime coating is highly regulated that needed lots of certification that the team was not able to afford due to cost and time. In addition, most dry docking vendors were able to provide an “all-encompassing” coating service, including inside out coating, functional coating, and even cosmetic coating. Whilst keeping the maritime industry as a temporary afterthought, the team then moved on to explore the construction and waterproofing industry.
However, similar to the maritime industry, the construction and waterproofing industry too needed its fair share of certifications. Although this industry is still considered commercially viable, the team decided to put it on the backburner again while they turned their eyes to a less certification-rigid industry — the sanitation and kitchen industry.
The team is currently in the midst of working out a way to lower their cost to be more competitive. Such examples include finding a potential engineering company to provide labor and raw materials. This partnership helps reduce lead time as well as provides a climate-controlled storage for materials.
Vanessa reminisces on the core competencies she learned. Firstly, she talks about the importance of fit — finding out the underlying needs of consumers is tough, and to develop a viable business out of it, it is even tougher.
There’s this concept of the “lowest hanging fruit”. There’s so many fruits on the tree, but to find one within reach is hard. Even after reaching it, the lowest fruit may not be the sweetest fruit. Likewise, while entering the lowest market, it’s nerve-wrecking to think that all these efforts may lead to nothing in the end. But we just have to trust the process.
She also recognized that she may not be much of a structural person, but she promises to work hard on it.
Now with the proliferation of the coronavirus, many companies have stepped up to do such coatings as well. I have also learned that it is OK to do the same as everyone else. We just have to consider the different ways of entry into the market. The “how?” of each project is crucial.
Finally, she touches on how good communication is key in any team — with the plan in place, it is up to the people in the team to execute it.
With different backgrounds, different experiences and different education systems, it poses a challenge to any team. How do we then go about to untie the knots in our understanding of each other?
As we spoke to a F&B manager last week, he mentioned that the biggest pain point has to be managing the staff. Humans.
