The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1452

To be honest, Ves did not possess that much exposure with regards to the running of other mech companies. He only vaguely kept track of the rise and fall of the ventures of other mech designers when he spent some time on an industry news portal.

What he was teaching right now to the Rawlings mech design students ought to be part of the businesses courses in their curriculum.

However, even if they already learned these lessons in class, Ves believed that it might be different when it came from the mouth of someone who recently went through the startup process.

\"Starting a mech company to compete in a market environment that is already flooded with the products you want to introduce is difficult. Immensely difficult.\" Ves smacked his hand against his palm in emphasis. \"The basic question that should be roiling in your heads as you invest a fortune in a mech workshop or a larger production facility is what value you are bringing to the table. What distinguishes your mechs from the mechs designed by people who are older, more skilled, more experienced, more famed and more entrenched in the market?\"

Some of the students began to absorb his words. They were getting absorbed in his train of thought.

However, many others still remained unaffected. The lesson wasn’t catching on to them, either because they had no intention of going independent or they possessed too much confidence in their abilities.

Evidently, Ves had to work harder to pop the bubbles surrounding the latter group of students.

\"In the mech market, the bigger fish such as the Journeymen, Seniors and the huge trans-galactic enterprises already capture the bulk of each product segment. The good news is that Novices and Apprentices are still able to earn a decent living between the cracks. The bad news is that the amount of Novices and Apprentices competing over these tiny spaces in the market is enough to form a new black hole! Can you imagine such a sight?!\"

The strange analogy sure caught the attention of a few more students.

\"Maybe I should put it in clearer terms. Imagine a round pie where a dozen Seniors each divide the cake equally between each other. They’ve cut the cake so well that only crumbs are left behind. Now imagine you, the other students in this hall and multiply that by a thousand fighting over the crumbs that can barely fill your belly, let alone stimulate your taste buds! Does that sound great to you? Does that seem easy to you?\"

The gravity of the dire situation of startups became more evident when put in this way.

Ves smirked. \"Certainly, the crumbs of the pie is actually enough to sustain plenty of mech companies during their startup stages, but there is only so much hunger they can sate. Imagine all of you Rawlings students competing over a single crumb. Who gets to decide which mech designer gets to pop this crumb in their mouth?\"

He pointed at a random mech designer!

\"You?\"

He shifted his finger towards another mech designer?

\"Or you?\"

He let out a laugh.

\"The mech market isn’t a lottery. Relying on random chance won’t secure a place in the market for you and your business venture. You have to fight for it! Now, some of you may think that you are beyond such concerns because you enjoy advantages that others don’t. Perhaps your family or noble house is willing to dump a lot of money on you. Perhaps you have a generous mentor who is willing to prop you up.\"

Quite a number of mech designers nodded as they did indeed enjoy certain advantages.

\"Well, while enjoying solid backing guarantees that you can get a foot in the door, entering the building is another matter! The inside of the building is already bursting with other mech designers, and it is extremely selective of which mech designer is allowed to enter! Backing means nothing if your products and your mech design abilities are merely average!\"

For emphasis, Ves raised his hands. The main projection came to life again. Unlike the vivid footage from before, now the projection depicted several choice statistics in the form of giant graphs and tables.

Every mech designer was versed in statistics. They each took in the statistics and grimaced.

This was because Ves chose to project the figures of the survival rate of mech company startups in the Sentinel Kingdom in the last couple of decades!

Not only that, but he even chose to depict a graph that displayed the success rate of mech companies founded by mech designers of different backgrounds.

All of the figures were abysmally low and all of them reached the single percentages!

The other notable finding of this graph was that the background didn’t matter!

Mech designers with an ordinarily middle-class commoner upbringing succeeded just as much as those born with silver spoons in their mouths!

While there were some mild variations in the success rate of each different category of mech designers, the differences weren’t statistically significant!

\"Second, the independents among you with access to easy money and powerful backing frankly overestimate the role these advantages grant you! All the money and connections in Sentinel won’t help you sell more mechs if you suck! Forget your pride and birthright for a moment and make an honest assessment of yourselves! If you aren’t ranking in the top of your classes, what makes you think you will make it past the stupendously high cut-off point of the brutal mech market where you are competing against mech designers who are vastly more competent than your classmates?!\" _{fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓}

The mech market wasn’t fair! Huge trans-galactic enterprises headquartered in the galactic center regularly publish stupendously-optimized and nearly flawless mech designs that capture the bulk of the galactic mech market!

The smaller the mech designer, the less chances they had to survive on their own!

\"The true worth of a mech designer is locked within yourselves.\" Ves tapped the side of his head with his finger. \"Your design abilities are the basic foundation that determines your right to capture one of the crumbs of the pie.\"

Ves then swept his hand up in the air!

\"However, this is not enough! It is not enough to be decently good at designing mechs! You also have to present something of value to the mech market! This is where the ambition I spoke about earlier comes in! Maintaining a foothold in the market requires you to prove that your mechs are sufficiently different from the competition! If you fail to differentiate, then what gives you the right to capture the market share claimed by more established rivals? As long as they can do the same as you do but ten times better, there is no reason for your mech companies to exist!\"

Ves gestured towards one of the professors who spoke out earlier during the guest lecture.

\"One of your teachers mentioned that competing by price is a valid way of surviving in the mech market. But that is barely enough for you to maintain a meager and barely profitable existence. I don’t think any of you with aspirants to become independent are okay with settling for a marginal existence! To grow your mech company and attract more sales, differentiation is the key. Only by releasing unique products that showcase your distinct specialties will you be able to get past the startup stage and become a major force in the market!\"

His words tied into the subject of ambition that Ves brought up earlier.

\"Boring ideas won’t cut it in the mech market. The mech market is already filled with mechs designed in the lines of almost every standard design philosophy out there. This is why it is important to be bold and ambitious in setting your goals! Only by developing a novel, exciting design philosophy will you be able to justify why you deserve a place in the market!\"

Competing over price was a dead end as far as Ves was concerned!

\"Of course, this is easier said than done. Some of you have the capability to do well, but not the ambition to guide your growth. Others have the ambition, but not the capability. If they failed to assess themselves honestly, they will just join one of the many failures projected onto this graph. As for those who possess neither the capability or the ambition, I’m sure they know themselves well enough that they have no place on the market.\"

This was why it was important for the students to reflect on themselves before they embarked on life-changing career decisions.

Ves could tell that his words had truly caught on by now! A lot more mech designers began to fall into thought as his lesson encouraged them to look at themselves.

Not everyone liked what they saw.