shopping cart, our inspiration

at the intersection of behaviour, business & innovation

If you look at the origins of the shopping cart, it's a fascinating journey and it reflects the work that we do.

The shopping cart is now ubiquitous, but it was not the case when it was launched. Sylvan Goldman, the inventor of the shopping cart was perplexed. He had created the cart with an intention to increase the number of products customers would buy based on the convenience the cart provided – in turn leading to more sales at its stores.

When it was launched back in the day; the only people interested in using them were the elderly. Men were too proud to admit they needed help carrying a basket, and women had similar reasons too. What he did next was interesting.

Shopping cart – at the intersection of behaviour, business and innovation

He hired attractive men and women to push carts around inside the store and pretend to shop. When real customers came through the doors and refused the cart, the young woman at the entrance looked back into the store and said, “Why? Everyone else is using them.” This simple act of asking triggered ‘peer pressure’ that changed the entire game..

As we look into the emergent reality, organisations are actively looking at developing capabilities that help them in navigating the dynamic world that we live in. One of the key need is of institutionalising ‘failure’ as part of the DNA. 

A case in point is the debacle of the Amazon Fire phone. It is a great example of how failure can be embraced in organisation culture. 

Bezos shows a better way to handle failure by being willing to quickly let go of the ones that don't work instead, following a portfolio approach. It's the opposite of how leaders often confront failure. They continue to devote energy and resources to bad ideas that end up dragging down their team and their business (world knows the case of Nokia). 

The mount provides a great vantage point for a multi-dimensional perspective

It is easier said than done, as organisations continue to tread a fine line between short-term goals versus long-term foresight. There are plausible ways through which organisational culture can be built upon. This is where the interplay of Business Thinking and Design Thinking comes to the fore. 

Monturé means a 'mount' in French and is derived from the word 'Aiglemont', which means 'the mount of eagle'. Through our vantage point, we are able to have a multi-dimensional perspective that allows us to improve the efficacy of the outcome and drive value for our clients.

A multidisciplinary team with cross-domain expertise

Sajid Khetani

Founder & Managing Partner

Sajid is a Strategy Consultant, operating at the intersection of human behaviour, business design & innovation strategy. He has in-depth cross-domain experience spanning over two decades across Fortune 500 & startups alike. He is an alumnus of the University of Wales with a PGDBA in Finance.

He had spent the first decade of his career in the BFSI domain working as an equity research/investment banking analyst tracking the developing & frontier markets. In 2013, he shifted to the strategy consulting domain focusing on business design & innovation strategy. The methodology deployed is a blend of human-centred design, data analytics & mapping of business realities with emerging trends to craft meaningful products/solutions. 

He has led research & strategy engagements for Google, Samsung, Principal, BPCL, Mahindra Group, Aditya Birla Group, Business Finland, India-EU Innocenter, German Entrepreneurship & Virtua Research with outcomes spanning customer experience (CX), service design, innovation roadmaps, India-entry strategy to name a few. 

He regularly speaks and conducts workshops on business innovation and strategy at various forums and engages with educational institutions in the capacity of an industry mentor.  Along with it,  he shares his thoughts and perspectives that intersect between behaviour, innovation and economics on his blog "SK Notes"

Know more about him here.

Zubin Khetani

Creative Strategist

Zubin is an enabler of creative and cultural strategies that are rooted in performing arts and entrepreneurship, to promote conviviality at the work-place.

A liberal arts graduate from FLAME, India and an entrepreneurship post-graduate from Goldsmiths, University of London; he has spent close to a decade working with artistic ensembles and business organisations, in India and globally. blending his expertise in creativity with business intelligence.

At Le Monturé Strategy, Zubin works with startups across the European Union with a focus on enabling strategies that suffuse cultural sensitivity with hard skills forming the keystone for efficient localisation and longevity in non-native markets.

Know more about him here.

Since 2013, we have worked with corporates, small businesses, startups, social impact organisation, and ecosystem partners on some interesting mandates over the years.