Italian companies in India sell high quality men?s shoes that lace up elegantly through 16 small eye-holes. If inevitable wear-and-tear breaks the metal edges of these stylish, rounded laces, you?d be hard pressed to locate laces this long and thin, as I found out the hard way.

In Italy on work last week, my first agenda was buying such shoe-laces. Store after shoe-&-accessories store I trudged in Rome, to ultimately find a pair in a lingerie shop. The shopkeeper hesitated, then from some inner recess, emerged with tightly-sealed, dark blue, flat cotton laces. I had no choice but to spend two euros for the trial. I forced in the new laces, but bad luck! They were too short. The shopkeeper shrugged. I struggled to weave back my old edgeless laces, but again no luck. On the street again in this awkward condition, a Bangladeshi small grocery retailer pointed out a Chinese store. It was a veritable Ali Baba?s treasure trove, with baubles, perfumes, plastic buckets, skipping ropes to shoe-laces all available. A blister-pack had four different colour and size laces for 80 cents. The point of this story is how exceptionally the Chinese are on their toes to deliver customer satisfaction and connect to local requirements in different countries.

Taking an obvious market gap and making it your specific business opportunity is the way to go. Young experienced professionals, most with MBAs, often come to me to bounce ideas about opportunities and their future. They talk of opportunities, are fascinated by foreign players, the lifestyle and luxury market which actually touches just 2-5% of our population. It?s often difficult to guide them that opportunity is not readymade like fish in a pond where you just lower a net for your catch. This ?opportunity? jargon learnt from the media has no concrete base in reality until identified and meticulously converted to business.

Take Topy, for example, a French shoe repair shop set up 77 years ago. Today Topy is a sophisticated franchisee level business, also exporting shoe repair material to 50 countries. Even in France?s consumer society, Topy has given people the habit of keeping their expensive leather shoes for 10-15 years through repair. Full or half soles can be changed, heel height adjusted. Topy organised retails throughout the country give customers the exceptional comfort and guarantee of an expert service they 100% need.

Similarly there?s Speedy for car tyre replacement, servicing, air conditioning, mechanical or electronic problems, accessories or glass. For driving 600km from Paris to Grenoble, I recently rented an almost new German car, then got a tyre puncture. The rental agency directed me to any of Speedy?s 450 car repairing centres in France. You can take an appointment through phone or their website or just drive in unannounced, as I did. I was surprised how Speedy, a non-company-owned garage, has tie-ups with car rentals, insurance companies and different manufacturers for servicing even during the guarantee period. For customers like me stuck mid-journey, Speedy brings a sigh of relief. In a jiffy Speedy replaced the tyre and sent me on my way.

I was curious about the mechanics here having total knowledge of so many vehicle makes, and enquired how they keep pace with technology. ?Speedy franchisees have access to a training centre. We regularly send our mechanics to acquire skill and knowledge,? said the in-charge person wearing blue overalls. What?s incredible in this hassle-free service available in most cities is that customer expectations are met in the same way everywhere, and it costs less than a normal company garage.

Topy and Speedy saw the gaps in customer requirement and plunged into the opportunity to create businesses that have prospered. Do our young professionals or companies spot such grassroot-type opportunities? Perhaps India?s rote learning education system does not adequately equip them to understand beyond the generic. Building on this example, India has millions of garages and skilled mechanics that can enable a Speedy-type of auto repair business. This can solve multiple needs like unemployment, making the working class highly skilled and productive, and satisfying all customers not getting this unexpressed need fulfilled. The obvious opportunity of a bonafide garage charging lower than auto company garages would benefit everyone involved in delivering and receiving the service. But do MBA professionals who study entrepreneurship see it as such? On the other hand Indian companies always consider cost as the strategic factor rather than transferring opportunity into business reality. India?s corrugated diversity does throw up unusual opportunities. These can be spotted and converted, not by sitting in air-conditioned offices, but on the roadside, in social living spaces, in traditional work practices.

In the same way, look at our cobblers (mochis) who get no dignity in society. Everybody requires shoe repairs, yet where in a city can you find a trained mochi when you need one? Most mochis are itinerant craftsmen with no access to technology beyond knowhow handed down from their fathers. Won?t it be great if such requirements and opportunities can be translated to uplift the life of working class people, create great business and attain high customer satisfaction? India has so many other unseen, untapped domains that are real opportunities to drive businesses. If only our young generation and corporate houses practice disruptive ideas, they can grab such opportunities. The crux in delivery is that consistent coherency is required for all-time execution excellence.

Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com