/Rs 30
MARCH 2010
Vol 3 / Issue 06 / Mar 10
DL(S)-17/3314/2008-09-2010 DARE
RNI No.DELENG/2007/22197. Posting Date: 5th & 6th of every month. Posted at Lodi Road HPO.
Subscriber copy. Not for sale
HOW TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY WHY INDIANS IN ANY AND PAKISTANIS MUST ORGANIZATION BE FRIENDS BUSINESS USING WORKFLOW EXCHANGE WASTE FOOD REDISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS CHAMAK LAUNDRY SERVICE HOW TO BE A GOOD CLIENT
HOW TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY IN ANY ORGANIZATION USING WORKFLOW ANALYSIS
REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT GET YOUR COMPANY ON SOCIAL MEDIA THE BUSINESS OF HEALTH CHECKUPS Tyre Recycling: The New Biz In The Block Business Of Prefabricated Structures The Growing Business Of Oilseeds
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 06
Building An Enterprise Through An Idea Standing Out In A Crowd Of Similar Biz The Coming Of Social Commerce Websites
entrepreneur of the month/
Mitesh Gajera, Cygnus Fine Jewellery investor of the month/
Sandeep Aneja, Kaizen Management Advisors columns/ Brands With Feet Of Clay What do I Do With The Money Now? Who Really Owns Your Company? 92 pages including cover
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50 tech entrepreneurs will compete and collaborate to start two startups in one Weekend! iWeekend Bangalore : 12-14 March, 2010 iWeekend New Delhi : 19-21 March, 2010 iWeekend Ahmedabad : 26-28 March, 2010 For more information, visit www.iweekend.org
Delhi Delhi
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BOARD OF ADVISORS C K Prahalad
University of Michigan
N R Narayanamurthy
Chief Mentor, Infosys
Kanwal Rekhi
46 strategy
Chairman, TiE
How to
Romesh Wadhwani Chairman & President, Wadhwani Foundation Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande
Chairman, Sycamore Networks
Improve Productivity
Saurabh Srivastava Chairman, Indian Venture Capital Association Kiran Mazumdar Shaw R Gopalakrishnan
Chairman & MD, Biocon
in any Organization
Executive Director, Tata Sons
Philip Anderson
Professor of Entrepreneurship, INSEAD
Using Workflow Analysis
Shyam Malhotra Editor-in-Chief Abraham Mathew President Krishna Kumar Group Editor
Workflow techniques are typically used in large organizations with repetitive tasks, clearly defined roles and interactions. However, simple workflow management techniques like the ones discussed here can help improve productivity and reduce skewed workloads in any type of organization.
ANALYSTS Abhishek Chanda Aman Malik Binesh Kutty Nimesh Sharma Shivani Singh Vimarsh Bajpai Vivek Kumar OPERATIONS Ajay Dhoundiyal Product Manager Prasanna Srivastava Product Manager VIjay Rana Design Anil John Photography SALES & MA Jaideep Mario Gabriel Ankur Kalia Abhinav Trivedi Baijau Abraham Kingshuk Sircar
MARKETING Associate VP West North North South South-East Asia
PRINT & CIRCULATION SERVICES Rachna Garga VP T Srirengan GM, Print Services Sudhir Arora Senior Manager Circulation Pooja Bharadwaj Assistant Manager, Subscriptions Sarita Shridhar Assistant Manager, Reader Service Printed and published by Pradeep Gupta. Owner, CyberMedia (India) Ltd. Printed at International Print-O-Pack Limited, B-204-206, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi-20 Published from D-74, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi-17. Editor: Krishna Kumar. Distributors in India: Mirchandani & Co., Mumbai. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission. BANGALORE 205, 2nd Floor, # 73, Shree Complex, St.Johns Road, Tel: 43412333 CHENNAI 5B, 6th Floor, Gemini Parsn Apts, 599 Mount Road, Tel: 28221712
25 blogs Reasons Why You Should Not Get Your Company On Social Media You need not be present on many social media platforms to be looked upon as a social media savvy company.
KOLKATA 23/54, Gariahat Road, Ground Floor, Near South City College, Tel: 65250117 MUMBAI Road No 16, D 7/1 MIDC, Andheri (East) Tel: 42082222 DELHI D-74 Panchsheel Enclave Tel: 41751234 PUNE Flat No. 9, F Block, Popular Heights 3 Koregaon Park Tel: 65000996 SECUNDERABAD #5,6 1st Floor, Srinath Commercial Complex, SD Road. Tel: 27841970 SINGAPORE 1, North Bridge Road, # 14-03 High Street Center Tel: +65-63369142 CORPORATE OFFICE Cyber House, B-35, Sec 32, Gurgaon, NCR Delhi-122001 Tel: 0124-4822222, Fax: 2380694
92 pages including cover 4
sector 26 Business of Oilseeds Unbranded players dominate the edible oils market even as branded players are trying to tap into high consumption areas.
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opportunity
56 investor of the month
Tyre Recycling: The New Business 18
Sandeep Aneja
The Business of Prefabricated Structures 62
Managing Director Kaizen Management Advisors
strategy Building An Enterprise Through An Idea 36 Smartphones: Ads comparison 44
Aneja speaks about investing in the education sector
innovation Chamak Laundry Service 42
50 unique idea
The coming of the social commerce websites MyDala.com is among the first to roll out the concept of group buying in India.
blogs How To Be A Good Client 24 The Business Of Health Checkups 40 Ideal Model For A 'Health Focused NGO' 70
columns Rupin Jayal 16 Anurag Batra 29 Vijay Anand 68
events Sahas II – The Movie 30 Startup Saturday 88
others Exchange 8 Feedback 14
32 entrepreneur of the month
Mitesh Gajera
Cygnus Fine Jewellery
CORRIGENDUM DARE - Feb 2010 ISSUE On Pg. no: 30. In the interview of Dr Krishna Ella, Entrepreneur of the month, there is a mention of a Dr. Paul of DBT - which is incorrect. The correct name of the referenced person is Dr. Bhan of DBT.
Gajera shares his insights about the jewellery industry. DARE.CO.IN | CONTENTS | MARCH 2010 5
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blogs/edit
Functional relationships and many minor miracles
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ome where in my early youth, I developed this theory (Ok, I know that is high sounding, but I would like to call it a theory), of functional relationships. My
argument was that all relationships were functional and that when the function ceased to exist, the relationship also ceased to exist; unless a new function was brought into the picture to prolong the relationship. Look a sales relationship for example. Unless you build a long term relationship with the client, with new functions (and meanings) built into as it evolves, you will end up doing only one deal, and you will have to start the effort afresh, selling deal to deal, campaign to campaign. Great, but how can you avoid the functional nature of relationships? To answer this question, I came up with what I called minor miracles. My argument is like this, if you are able to reach out and make small positive changes in some one’s life, without that person expecting it, or even paying for the miracle (they may be paying for something else), then you can transcend the functional nature of relationships. Later on I learnt that they had many other names for it – customer satisfaction and customer exhilaration, among others. But I would still like to call them minor miracles. So, how many minor miracles did you attempt today? Or are all of your relationships purely functional?
/Krishna Kumar
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Exchange Submit exchange requests at: website: http://www.dare.co.in/ marketplace.htm OR email: dare@cybermedia. co.in or SMS ‘DARE <your msg>’ to 56677
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want to start automobile components manufacturing company. I don’t have any prior experience in business. Neither have I worked for any automobile company. However I have educational background in Automobile Engineering. I need a mentor who can guide me regarding the scope, best place to start, financial availability, getting workforce. Amit Dharmale
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opChalks.com is a property of Catura Broadband Systems, a 3 years old company. It is funded by Draper, Fisher & Jurvetson (DFJ) who have also funded companies like Hotmail, Skype and Baidu. The market opportunity for supplemental learning and coaching/tuition is extremely large in India driven mainly by inadequacy of our school system in providing quality education and also due to severe competition in getting admissions into higher educational institutions. Offer to become a state level franchisee for www.topchalks.com − Opportunity to monetize the huge potential in educational sector − Connectivity through CD Rom & Multimedia − ATL and BTL support. − NASSCOM has listed TopChalks as top 50 private emerging companies. − Listed in Always On Top 250 – private global companies creating new business avenues. − Patent Pending Technology. − Partners – DFJ, INTEL, CAREER LAUNCHER, Eros InfoTech Education Ltd. etc.
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opchalks gives you a way to participate in the high growth segment with the potential to generate higher returns. Visit our website to contact. We are looking for individuals & firms who are passionate about innovation and are into innovation consulting. We are proposing to form a biggest consortium of innovation consultants under one platform across the world including India for collaborative innovation. The platform we have launched allows our partners to leverage wisdom of crowd using online feature packed platform specifically designed to collaborate to innovate. We are planning to go to
market primarily using the partner network, as our partners understand the domain and the innovation landscape, while we provide the online technology. The Software as a Service (SaaS) platform is delivered via secure cloud and can be exclusively used with the respective branding by our partners and partners clients. You can also choose to use our brand to go to market. We also provide an innovation marketplace for open innovation and co-creation. We call it - power of social networking shifting from instant gratification to sustainable value creation, open innovation is the fastest growing buzz across the word. If you are into innovation business, or planning to be in innovation business, you must look at this opportunity. Jayesh Badani, Founder & CEO, ideaken
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vinash Kulkarni would like to have the list of suppliers of “Waste Tyre Pyrolosis” Equipment. Can anyone help him? Response Please look up samkigroup. com. Please write to me for further information. I can help you in this matter. Vijai Bhaskar
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am a fresher in BE (electrical and electronics), waiting for my TCS call letter. My aim is to start a company based on white LED and solar cells with my friend after three years. I want to meet somebody who can give me a clear picture about the sector and how to start my work. Civaraj Response We are professionals based in Mumbai (operating in most Indian states) who assist entrepreneurs to setup their businesses. You can request a free brochure on Company formation at our email id. Bhavesh Savla
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e are a company engaged in transporting, construction, consultancy and education. Presently we are looking for investing partners for our project to be implemented in state of HP. The project is of making luxury cottage(around 10-12) and apartment. The location has been identified, surveyed and verified
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which is ideally located near to Shimla. Its also in close proximity to Kufri which is very famous tourist spot. Persons or firm who are willing to join us as our partner can get in touch with us. More details will be shared when satisfied. Only genuine person in capacity of investing 50 lac to 1 cr, mail us or can call us. Deepak, J.B. Group
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e are a team of professionals planning to start up a business school with a vision to deliver quality management education. We have high value human resources in academics, training and placements. We have initiated the affiliation procedure also and we have registered 70 students for admissions also. we need start up funds close to 15-20 lacs. We need investors who can fund us and be partner in profit and will also be part of the business schools management. Please contact as its a noble project with good ROI. Interested investors can contact. Saugat Bose
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e are a 1.5-year old company working in the solar energy space. The company has started generating revenues now. We are looking for an enthusiastic entrepreneur to drive it aggressively to the next level. Here are the required qualities: 1. Based out of Bangalore 2. Ability to drive execution by spending full time 3. Electrical (engineering) background and passion in the (solar/wind) energy business 4. Long term and high goal commitment 5. Ability to contain costs Raghavendra Ijjada Responses I am glad to introduce myself and wish to be a part your Solar mission. Having served
the industry for nearly 20 years, I wish to go the Solar way. Please let me know how would I contribute. Manoj Machave, Bangalore Contact me on my email id. Onkar Jathar
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indly assist us for the fund raising activates and projects for which we can opt for. We are newly formed NGO and want to work for the rural sector. Ujala Gram Uthan Sanstha Atul Kumar Singh
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am a Mumbai based pharma professinal have started pharma business and would require working capital of Rs 8 crore. Very good returns assured. Anybody who can invest above mentioned amount with T&C may contact on my email id. Subhash VK
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here will be a huge market for a website catering to the family tree for the Indians wherein they can find their roots from where they have originated. People are always anxious to know where are the roots they are roots coming from, especially the NRIs who are staying abroad and want to know about their ancestors. The site should not only be a simple family tree but also be able to create a social links between the users just like other social sites (facebook, orkut etc.). The friends from different family can also be linked and share their views. The site should also be able to create a matrimonial forum wherein eligible bachelors can post their biodata for interested brides/ bridegrooms. The site can also be partly used by the user to post their items which they want to offer or vice versa that user can post his/ her requirement if someone in the link can help for the requirement. There are so many things which can be merged and the site is not only a social chat place but a useful interaction place catering to many of the social needs which are expected from a family. Skandoi
I
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am looking for individuals, private or public limited companies who would like to get involved with me in doing bamboo business on a large scale. I am based in London UK and
have access to UK and EU markets. Jay Prakash Response Pls forward me some details on the same, I am very keen interested to go with it. Anand
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am planning to launch a start-up, which is into Retail services or Consulting. Are there any companies or individuals in this business in India? If you are interested to send me suggestions or want to partner, please get in touch. Sriniwas Response We are a UK based educational consultancy with a network of more than 40 colleges and universities. We have many branches and agents in India working for last 6 years with us. We are looking to expand our network. Please contact for more details on my number or by email. Kiran Chandok
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ARE is one of the most encoring magazines I have ever read for entrepreneurs! I am a social entrepreneur and founder president of Milaan, an organization working for quality education and vocational training in rural India from 2007. Now, I wish to scale up the project from around 100 children to 1,000 children and youth by 2012. I am looking for investors, partners and mentors for the project. Response Can you please send me details about your project, scope, area of operation and future plans. I can be of help by working as a partner, post evaluation of your project brief. Ashish Mehta
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OOD..AINTAINMENT - Looking for a partner thinking on the same lines. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m planning to open a concept restaurant in NCR. It will cater to the consumers, basically working professionals & students. Its basically a mix of daily food/ meal needs and entertainment along with few services. This concept can be added with supplying/ delivering of food directly to end consumer. I may not be able to share the details here. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m looking for interested persons
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who want to be part of the venture, passionate about food business along with right attitude is needed. If our frequency matches, we together may move ahead... Mohit Mittal
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am interested in fish farming. Since I am a fresher, I am looking for people who can guide me. Yogender
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aj Kishore is currently working on a plan to set up an e-waste management project in Bangalore. If somebody is interested and would like to join him, kindly contact him giving brief details of your experience and strengths. See pillarworld.com and contact Response I am interested in knowing more about the project and how would I contribute to the project. Experience: 20 years. Profile: Presently serving in the Railway Signalling Domain, we provide turnkey solutions to the Railways, particularly the Metro projects. An Electronics Engineer as profession, presently in the Engineering services. Wish to do something different than the routine. Manoj Machave, Bangalore
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ohit Bhat along with his friend, is running a food catering company called “Sakkat food”. After launching their catering ideas successfully, they are planning to start an outlet here. They have a very special, unique and “one of its kind” concept about the outlet. They are looking forward for a right investor to be a part of their business journey. Response Lets discuss about the concept in detail & see how viable is it. Mohit Mittal
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come from an institutional background and have experience in managing a school.
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I plan to open a school in either Lucknow (surrounding areas) or in around Ghaziabad which can later on blossom into a chain. I am looking for investor who can partner me and is willing to invest a minimum of Rs. 20 lakhs. I also appreciate and laud the effort by DARE to come up with this unique platform and to create an opportunity where entrepreneurs, investors and key market players can interact and share ideas and partner ventures. Manish Lal
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plan to set-up an advertisements space selling agency (print media) in Delhi/NCR region. I have good contacts with both publishers and ad agencies. I need angel funding/ investing partners who can invest between Rs 5 -7 lakh. Manish Lal
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e are in the process of starting a low cost 120 bedded hospital chain along with nursing colleges in south India. We are in the design phase of the first project at present. We are looking at energy efficient green buildings. We plan to plug the shortage of quality affordable healthcare facilities in various district headquarter towns with clear emphasis on gynecology, paediatrics, cardiology, urology, neurology and emergency medicine. We are looking at project partners for funding and other related consultancy. Dr. Zahir Ali, COO Allied Health Systems, Kerala Responses I am interested in providing assistance to Zahir Ali in providing related consultancy for his projects in health care S.M.Hasan, Harvest Infotech Need contact information CellNext
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tart-up funding required for product based accounting softwares, We’re a team of 5 professional from different fields. I’m a marketing professional and a real estate agent. The other three members are one aspiring chartered accountant, two software developers. We’re planning to start a product based accounting software company. Although the entire operation will expand gradually with time, we
need funding to start up a company. We’ve already developed and tested a distribution based software. If you’re a serious investor then please mail us your details to the below mentioned contacts. Supriya Dutta, Kolkata, India
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am working in Common Wealth Games OC and have wide contacts in govt. and wish to start a pre-school in Coimbatore. I do not have the time to get involved in it in a big way right now. I need some lady with experience to join as the Head of the school in Coimbatore. I know the ropes of starting the school as I have wide contacts both within and outside the govt and am willing to invest what it takes to run a reputed play school. Indu Anand
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ood given to fishes - Just want to ask that what should I do if my fishes are not growing as they should as there is a huge amount about Rs. 3,00,000 in my pond. So please I need a suggestion from you. Bharat Singh, Shishodia Motors
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ear All, we had our Information published under ‘Exchange’ in Sept 2009 issue of DARE (Soya Health Foods Franchisee), and have received some positive responses. One of them, from three Entrepreneurs from Bangalore has matured and this franchisee will start operations in early March 2010. We have noticed some more responses in February issue of DARE (Pg 79, from Pardhasarthi and Hari Krishna). We write this to request you to convey us their mail IDs and telephonic contacts so that we can get in touch with them. Kindly also intimate if we could also access such responses directly without referring to you every time. Meanwhile, our new business model has received good support from the business press and our article was also published in the last issue of ‘Franchisee Plus’ Magazine. Warm Regards JS Sandha
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e are the Regional Coordinators of C-DAC GIST PACE, a Multilingual Computer Training Programme of the Scientific Society of Ministry of Communications & Information
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Technology, Government of India. We are looking for expansion through Franchisee model called “Authorized Training Centres” across India. C-DAC GIST PACE has always been at the forefront of the Multilingual revolution in IT education. GIST PACE Multilingual training programmes have carved deep inroads into this niche area. C-DAC multilingual software is being used by a large number of Governmental institutions as well as organizations. Multilingual computing offers exciting career opportunities in the field of Desk Top Publishing, Programming, Web Publishing, Office Automation and so on. We provide complete support to start ups viz. town/area/location selection, site selection, training etc. Interested entrepreneurs can contact us for this lucrative business opportunity on our email id or log in : http://bit.ly/bzLvyu M. Natarajan, Regional Coordinator
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e are a company presently engaged in field of transportation,materials supply, construction. We have experience of handling small scale consignment with some of reputed companies like L&T ECC (TISCO, Jamshedpur), IVRCL pipeline (Bihar), BSCC&C (Earthwork) etc. Presently we have our own crusher in Jamshedpur for supply of stone chips with L&T ECC. At present we are running out of finance in order to proceed in good pace with L&T ECC for fresh contracts and other companies also. We require a person who can help us in providing financial assistance. It’ll be pleasure if the same joins hand with us to groom our work and expand as there is lot more better opportunities in growing Tatanagar and some other place. We are waiting for a reply and assistance. Deepak
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have been involved in evolving and running several businesses that have a wide social (especially rural) footprint. My present venture is a project called ‘SoyFit,’ under which we have established a complete system of decentralized production of Soya based health products in geographically spread out microindustries (called ‘Franchisees’), under the same raw material, quality standards and brand. Extensive
training, technical support, marketing support and hand-holding is available. The project in its simplest form, requires an investment of Rs 6-8 lakh from a franchisee in typical B level cities, and gives back a net profit of Rs 1 lakh if operated on 30% installed capacity. We currently have five units operational in North India and are expanding to another ten by November 2009. We wish to scale it up to forty units across India by December 2009. The whole project is bankable and especially designed with youth employment in mind. Health foods have a good future and present market due to rising health awareness. At a later date, we intend to involve more youth for marketing of this product line under micro-financing project ‘Kaamyaab Yuva’. We would like to get in touch with small entrepreneurs willing to set up franchisee units in their areas, enablers of youth employment, angel investors, and NGOs who think they can carry this project further. JS Sandha Responses I would like to have more details about this opportunity. Can you please send your proposal on my email. I am starting my business in Madhya Pradesh (near Bhopal) from next month. Bhagwati Sharan Sharma I am Kalyan Rao, an electrical engineer by profession. I read your post and am very much interested in this project. I live in Nirmal which is located in Adilabad District of Andhra Pradesh. Soya Bean is vastly cultivated in this belt so I think there won’t be any problem in the supply of raw material. Also, we have previously planned to set up a soya mill for extraction of oil and cattle feed but our plan did not go ahead due to some reasons. I request you to send me the details of this project to my mail. Also incude the cost of the equipment and the scope of the product (Soyfit). Eagerly waiting for your response. Kalyan Rao Contact me on my email Id. Rajiv
related to next generation weapon systems. I am looking for investors to present my idea and make my dream venture come true. Please help me on the same. Rajkishor Response I am currently pursuing M.Sc. (I.T) from Mumbai University. I’m very much interested in Defense Industry and would be happy to work with you. I have some basic knowledge of Microprocessors and I have worked on them. I will be learning Robotics and AI in the next academic year. Please let me know if you are interested. Hanoz Morawala.
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have an optical shop in my city and dream of making it into a retail chain. However, due to lack of funds, I am currently trying to open an online store for my business. Since I have no experience in this, can somebody help me with this? R Krishnan, Amaskus Global Response I can help you in this and for any association we will discuss. Currenly I am running a web development company but majorly focus on online services and buy and sell. Some of the in-house domains are: www.webinfoedge.com www.flowers24x7.com www.edmshoppingmall.com www.flowers2010.com www.chandnichowkmarket.com and other n number of clients too. Now working on www.gifts24x7.in which will be launched soon. Dhirendra Kumar Contact Me Naresh Choksi
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am working as a software engineer in Bangalore. I have a aspiration to become an entrepreneur. I have ideas in the aerospace sector for defenserelated applications. All my ideas are
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Online mobile recharge Facts of Recharge Business: Practically the margins in recharge business are as low as 1.5% to 2.25% (except BSNL which gives 4%). Opportunity is very high in this business, but the customer support, in the case of wrong recharge, server problems, scheme knowledge, scheme updates and many more problem; is also very essential. To lose Rs 50 in a recharge is very easy for a retailer or seller, but to earn Rs 50 in recharge business is a all day process. Each and every customer have
a wrong impression that the retailer is keeping the money and the retailer is the one who operates and modifies the schemes. But the customers don’t know that the retailer is just a mediator, who invests in recharge vouchers and e-top up balance in advance and gets hardly 2% margin. Customers are not ready to help in the cases with problems. In more than 95% of the recharge cases, the retailer does not do the mistakes. It is the mobile operators who send sms of different schemes to different customers, which results in a confusion to the customer. I have seen most of the customers who come for a recharge are confused, and blame the retailer if they get a wrong scheme or recharge. Very sad but true. Pritesh Parikh magazine
Chauhan sisters: Entrepreneur of the month: Oct 2008 The story - “Schauna Chauhan, Alisha Chauhan, Nadia Chauhan - Parle Agro” is proof that the Family still holds, no matter what modern times make us believe. Congratulations to the Chauhan’s parents on their growing such charming daughters and proactive businesswomen. Giovanni F. Oddone
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10 things CEO’s should know about social media and online communities Is there a formal company that works for improving online image of its clients on social networking sites? If not than it is an opportunity for those who social networking enthusiasts who start their day by posting a tweet or scribbling that he/she is awake. Imagine a job in which you get paid to do what you do anyways. Nimit Popli 10 things CEO’s should know about social media and online communities I have to admit that this surely is an interesting topic and understood by very few if at all. There are people who claim to be experts but I am personally yet to meet one. Though I am sure there are people who are experts,.questions on social media and how to use it, are asked very often and I am going to agree blog
magazine
magazine
Online mobile recharge How do Online Recharge Portals manage schemes? Usually each and every mobile operator have everyday offers and schemes for recharge. Offer is different for every customers. Even a wrong recharge by Re. 1 results into big difference in talktime or scheme. How do the online recharge portals guide the customer with the best effective scheme and what about the wrong amount recharge? I have seen many people who faces such problems due to several schemes, some effectively applicable and some not to their number. Do the online recharge websites have the solution for them? Pritesh Parikh magazine
www.dare.co.in | email: dare@cybermedia.co.in | SMS ‘DARE <your msg>’ to 56677
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Daring Guys So, you may have thought of some business to start or you have 2-3 business ideas. Now, how to find out which business will be good for you? Just list down the ideas and think think think everyday for atleast 2 hours. How can you create assets or the business without investing anything? Keep on thinking... You will get an answer or atleast will get an answer to start the same at only 10% of your original cost... I assure you that you will get the answer if you keep on challenging yourself. Will write again. Actually I hate writing. Nothing happens by theory. Everything happens by action. Just act. Bye. Sachin Gupta
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magazine
Govt funding under TePP After reading Abhinav’s letter on the subject in Feb issue I would like to share my own experience on this topic. I am a graduate engineer working as a manager in a public sector undertaking in the 1990s and due to fire in the belly of the innovator, took on the challenge of finding an alternative to the conventional reciprocating IC engine. The conventional IC engine which is serving humanity well over a century looked primitive to me. Well due to the aforementioned fire in the belly, I started developing an alternative in the form of rotary IC engine for which I had a patent way back in 1979.The idea was to obtain a compression ratio of 10 through rotary motion to run a petrol engine. I used up all my resources
from my job, savings, other assets and achieved the objective. The compression ratio achieved was more than 10 and I had 2 four stroke engines running in a cylinder separated by 180 degrees. The outcome was very satisfactory to me as it addressed the problems faced by the earlier Wankel i.e., peculiar geometry of the chamber and wearing out of rotor tips. Enticed by the attractive advertising of the Deptt of S&T, I left my job under VRS and submitted the relevant papers under TePP in 2001. As no reply was received after several months, I visited New Delhi and was surprised to know that my papers were not traceable. I personally searched and located the missing file in the inward section. After submitting the papers and meeting several ‘concerned scientists’ I returned to Hyderabad and nothing has come out of it so far. Then I started another greatest project - that of finding a job. Having missed the software bus and swallowed by the giant snake in the
career game of snakes & ladders, I am back at square one. Competing with thousands of young engineers entering job market every year is not easy and at an age one should have been a chairman of an organisation, I have become a foreman in a SSI surviving on basic technical skills. My advice to Abhinav is to find a job quickly and delegate the liasoning to someone else. G Parashuram Social Currency of an Entrepreneur Role of an entrepreneur: Banks and Insurance companies already rely on a highly invasive “Credit Score” to establish financial risk profile as a means of protecting their selves and their other clients. Why wouldn’t an airline use a social credit score to establish a social risk profile as a means of protecting their selves and the lives of their other clients A Blogger magazine
to the points mentioned here. I like the way it has been explained here - simple steps on how to look at social media. Shalini, Galvanise PR
Form IV (See Rule 8) Statement about ownership and other particulars about newspaper DARE to be published in the first issue every year after last day of February • Place of Publication
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New Delhi
• Periodicity of Publication
:
Monthly
• Printer’s Name Whether Citizen of India Address
: : :
Pradeep Gupta Yes D-74, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110017
• Publisher’s Name Whether Citizen of India Address
: : :
Pradeep Gupta Yes D-74, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110017
• Editor’s Name Whether Citizen of India Address
: : :
Krishna Kumar Yes D-74, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110017
• Name and address of individuals who own the newspaper and partners or shareholders who hold more than one percent of the total paid-up capital. Cyber Media (India) Limited D-74, Panchsheel Enclave New Delhi 110017 Shareholders holding more than 1% of the paid up capital of the company as on 11th February 2010. Pradeep Gupta, Sudha Bala Gupta, Dhaval Gupta, Anuradha Gupta, Kriti Gupta, Yukti Securities Pvt Ltd, Quantum Securities Pvt Ltd, Book Wise (India) Pvt Ltd, Full Ford Vinimay Private Limited, SAL Real Estates Pvt Ltd, Prenita Dutt, Swarn Kaur, Navin Bhagat, Archana Saluja, Ashish Dhawan, Jagdish Pershad Gupta, Deepa Agarwal, Vijay Mahajan, Anoop Jain. I, Pradeep Gupta, hereby, declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Sd/Publisher
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blogs/opinion
Brands with feet of clay T /Rupin Jayal
The first and the most important lesson is to avoid hype without substance. The end is coming for brands created by hype alone.
The author is Director-Strategic Planning at M&C Saatchi.
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he year 2010 is turning out to be a bad year for brand icons. Not a day passes without the news of some brand icon stumbling. There are some very simple but important lessons to learn from these recent brand debacles. The Democrats in the US lost a senate seat that they held since 1952. This is regardless of the fact that the “we can” brand icon is in office having succeeded one of the arguably most unpopular presidents in recent US history. It was a senate seat held by another icon, Ted Kennedy, who despite being encumbered by scandal was able to build resilient bipartisan respect and regard. Although the electorate was considered to be strongly Democratoriented and knowing that the Republican winner could possibly hobble healthcare reform, one of Mr Kennedy’s most cherished goals, Republicans still chose to elect him. This was not just a “local” election but has been treated as a referendum on Obama as evidenced by analysis and commentary that followed this stunning result exemplified by Time magazine’s cover story entitled “Now what?”. How could a brand called Obama, who just a year ago had unprecedented approval scores, suddenly stumble so badly and witness a precipitous decline in popularity? An automobile brand that stands for reliability suddenly faces the prospect of having to recall millions of products either due to a design deficiency or a manufacturing defect. Unfortunately, rather than immediately face up to that fact and express unconditional regret, the brand then proceeds to act coy
and seemingly grudgingly accepts the problem. The issue is so huge that The Economist devotes a cover to it entitled “Toyota slips up”. This isn’t just a case of an automobile brand facing a hitch or a hiccup. This is the world’s largest and the most respected automobile brands failing its customers on the one single attribute that forms the backbone of the brand. This is like Apple producing an impossibly complex product, Rolls Royce scrimping on quality or a fashion brand creating an outdated collection. In a world besieged by uncertainty Toyota has been a bulwark of reliability. This value was so powerful that it could even get away with some rather boring models because of the sheer peace of mind owning a Toyota brought with it. That is what makes this recent brand debacle so acutely dangerous for the brand. Golf—supposedly the game of the gentlemen with a powerful icon who has probably done more to widen the appeal of the game than any other legend preceding him. His brand stood for much more than just sporting success. It stood for the growing confidence of a community as they move into spaces that seemed to exclude them in the past. He represented inspiration for possibly millions of youth who felt that they could achieve their dreams; that it was all possible. Such a powerful icon stumbled on the same lack of self-control that almost brought down an icon resulting in endorsement contracts being publicly withdrawn and a storm of disappointments. These are the three cases of iconic brands stumbling. Other brands have
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exhibited feet of clay in the past. So what makes the failure of trust of these brands so noteworthy? The first is the context. Trust is a value that is under grave threat today. The greatest attack has been from the financial service brands that once used to represent the ultimate guardianship of people’s trust but have now been rapidly transformed people’s perception into money hungry villains. Many of these legendary guardians of wealth and trust made choices driven by profit and greed that gambled away both the people’s trust and their wealth along with it. Given the scale of bad decisions and the impact it had on the global economy this was no ordinary denting of trust, it was the whole scale erosion of it. So this is the time when people are seeking brands and entities they can believe in and ones who they believe will shelter them from the storms of uncertainty that besiege them. In this climate of uncertainty brands have an even greater responsibility to safeguard the trust that people repose in them. This isn’t just a matter of good business or governance—it could impact the future of how people treat promises and the sheer amount of effort it will require for any brand or entity to gain the trust of people. The first and the most important lesson is to avoid hype without substance. The end is coming for brands created by hype alone. The current President of the United States was buoyed by irresistible promises illuminated by the kind of oratory that had seemed to pass with the passing of an earlier generation of legendary global leaders. It is ironic therefore that the same “great communicator” who was able to capture the hopes, aspirations and yearning of an entire nation in just two simple words, has seemingly failed so completely to articulate his most important and ambitious policy initiative. At every occasion the hype seems to have overshadowed substance. The advertising seems to have been better than the product.
The second lesson to be learned is that just because you have convinced people of your message does not mean that you own them. As the victor of the recent huge upset in Massachusetts said “With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy seat and it’s not the Democrat’s seat, it’s the people’s seat.” No brand “owns” its audience though some behave as though they think they do. People own the brand and nowhere has this become so apparent as in the rise and fall of the Obama brand. Has he displayed incompetence? Has he displayed arrogance? Has he been ineffective in tackling the horrific economic conditions bequeathed to him by the previous administration? The fair answer to all those questions is “not really”. However, by seemingly taking his worshipful base for granted and the power of those who hadn’t supported him too lightly, Obama faces plummeting approval. Toyota, by first failing people in its backbone value of trust and then handling it in a less than forthright way risks losing a reputation and the erosion of a customer base that has taken years to build. Increasingly iconic brands that fail to match expectations that they themselves create will be granted less and less latitude and their promises will be treated with greater scepticism. And the interconnectivity, through the Internet, of increasingly active consumers will only strengthen this. Today the laudable reaction of Johnson & Johnson when faced with the Tylenol crisis would no longer be considered praiseworthy; it would be a question of brand survival. Brands are “elected” by people and just as in a healthy democracy, can be voted out of the market irrespective of how long they have been around or how exemplary their past record may have been. The third lesson is that seemingly unrelated issues can derail a brand. Tiger Woods is still arguably the best golfer today which is the reason why he has become such an icon in the first place. The problems that have damaged his iconic status are unrelated to
his game. Similarly brands have faced challenges not just from a benefit poorly delivered but from areas unrelated to their main function. Hence manufacturing practises, social impact, employee and work related issues (discrimination, harassment, etc) can today bring down an iconic brand. To remain a powerful brand means ensuring that the brand and every stakeholder upholds and continually reinforces its core values. Nothing is unrelated if it can create an adverse climate for a brand. Just like people are today quite willing to accept unrelated product offerings from brands that they respect deeply, they can lose that respect for reasons that could be unrelated to the brand’s main function. The final lesson is that most brands cater to people who do not belong to the minority elite and rarefied empowered strata of the society but represent the hopes and aspirations of a much larger and often, less empowered part of the society. They have to be even more cautious of delivering on their promises because this majority, comprising the largest “consuming” population, understands that their wallets are their most powerful weapon. Today they know the power of that weapon and they use it mercilessly. Even the Obama miracle was fuelled by the wallets of millions of ordinary people who believed in his “brand”, rather than just the massive vaults of big industry. Today his seeming inability to deliver on his promises has resulted in a significant number of this group using their power ruthlessly. When brands depend on people for whom the “cost” of misplaced trust is high and fail them, the resultant backlash is swift and often irreversible. Hence promises must be made with great care and assiduously maintained. As Jerry Della Femina, author of “From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor” says, “There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster.” R DARE.CO.IN | COLUMN | MARCH 2010 17
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Tyre Recycling: The New Business on the Block The number of vehicles hitting the roads is increasing everyday and so is the number of tyres. There is a business opportunity up for grabs and it’s in recycling them. /Nimesh Sharma
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ith more than 33 million vehicles added to the Indian roads in last three years, can you guess the other items that would have increased manifold leading to some grave problems? Well, one of them is the tyre, one of man’s most useful inventions. Most useful, but if the increasing numbers are not managed it can be dangerous. About 80 million tyres are a part of these 33 million vehicles, which include two, three, four and six wheelers, and pose a potential threat to the environment. However, companies have innovated ways and means to curb this menace which has led to the evolution of the huge tyre recycling industry. When we had started working on this article, we thought we could count the recycled tyre uses on our fingers; which included cushioning on boats, burning for warmth in winter, swing ride seats (in rural Indian
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context) and at the most land-filling. However, further research and talking to industry people revealed startling facts about the uses of old tyres, which we had never imagined. In fact, in India, even the tyre recycling industry is not aware of all these uses. It’s a business opportunity glaring in front of us. In this article we have tried to find out the ground realities of the tyre recycling industry and we have also taken inputs from Dr. S N Chakravarty, KPS Consultants & Impex who is a consultant in tyre, rubber and allied industries with 40 years of experience.
Tyre composition and stages in recycling A tyre is made of natural rubber (also called virgin rubber), Styrene-Buta-
diene Rubber (SBR), Polybutadiene Rubber (PBR), Carbon black, Nylon tyre cord, rubber chemicals, steel tyre cord and Butyl rubber. Stages in Recycling: 1. Crumb: Rubber Crumb is the material resulting from granulating scrap tyres into uniform rubber granules. It can be mixed with asphalt for road surfacing and making children’s playgrounds 2. Reclaimed Rubber: Reclaimed Rubber is the recycled old tyre rubber. It can be used as a substitute of natural & synthetic rubber. It is mixed with virgin rubber to further make new tyres of automobiles, bicycles and other lowcost products like footwear and mats. Virgin rubber, 90 percent of which is produced in Kerala is sold for as high Rs 140-150 per kg. Reclaimed rubber is sold for Rs 25-30 per kg and
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India being one of the voluminous reclaim rubber producers, the production is growing by ten percent per year.
Size of the business opportunity A typical passenger car tyre contains 24-28 percent of Carbon black, 40-48 percent of natural rubber (NR) and 36-24 percent of synthetic rubber including Styrene Butadiene Rubbers (SBR) and Butyl Rubber (BR). These need to be recovered back from tyres lest they are wasted away. Currently, India produces 90,000 metric tonnes (MT) of reclaimed rubber, which is sold at Rs 25-30/kg but does not produce Carbon black, Butyl Rubber and oil from used tyres. Now the Indian tyre industry (specifically) imported 39,000 tonnes of Carbon black and 54 percent of its Butyl Rubber requirements in 200809. If we could produce even a small amount of that import ourselves, we would be saving a huge amount for the exchequer. Current tyre production stands at 11.75 lakh MT for the year 200809. With the projected growth of 50 percent, you can easily estimate the potential of the opportunity.
Present scenario Even though it’s a 40 year old industry in India with the oldest player being Gujarat Reclaim, the number of players nationally is very small, approx 15-25 tyre recyclers in India, compared to 36 tyre manufacturers. The major players number only about four or five. They are mainly located in North India and Maharashtra. Prominent names include Gujarat Reclaim, ELGI Group, Balaji Group, Rishiroop and Swani. Gujarat Reclaim has an annual turnover of over Rs 15 crore from its Haridwar tyre recycling plant, with a production of 20 tonnes of reclaim rubber per day. However, none of the recyclers in India are full-fledged recyclers, and most of them use the
“WITH 20000 TONNES OF TYRES BEING BURNT, THIS IS THE MOST PERVERSE USE OF OLD TYRES CAUSING ONLY POLLUTION” Pan method for reclaiming rubber. They operate by outsourcing part of their work to each other. 3.
Various Uses of Old Tyres Excluding the use of whole tyres, we can categorize the uses of tyres in the following way: 1. Rubber Crumb - floor mats, belts, gaskets, shoe soles, dock bumpers, seals, muffler hangers, shims, and washers 2. Reclaimed Rubber in Vehicles: a) Automotive Industry - Crumb (three to five percent) and Reclaimed rubber (up to ten percent) is particularly used in automobile tyres. However, since the volume of tyres is very high, the quantity of these rubbers used also goes up. New tyre industry uses approximately 58 percent of the natural rubber of India, including imports of more than 80000 tonnes (according to ATMA figures) b) In tyre carcasses in substantial volume and other automotive parts c) Bicycle tyre industry produces a massive 6-7 lakh tyres/day, out of which more than 80 percent are produced in Ludhiana. Ralson
4. 5.
6.
is the major company here with a production of one lakh bicycle tyres a day and 1.5 lakh tubes a day. Molded products – These include mats, hose pipes, conveyor belts, v-belts, footwear, tiles, adhesives, sound dampers, rubber sheets, battery containers and other rubber molded goods Footwear industry - Shoe soles Cement Industry - “This is the most perverse use of old tyres causing only pollution”, says Dr. Chakravarty . However, in some countries, respective cement industries have developed technology where the tyre is burnt at a temperature that destroys most toxic emissions, the exhaust is scrubbed and filtered and little escapes the cement kiln. The usage of tyres for burning in cement kilns in India is up to 20000 tonnes per year, according to Imbrose, a small tyre trader. Retreading – Tyres in India are retreaded as much as three to six times. One thing to note here is that it’s the truck tyres that are retreaded, and not the car tyres. There are 100-odd firms engaged in
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tyre retreading in India with prominent names being MRF, Apollo, ELGI, Midas and Indag. 7. Whole tyres are used as highway crash barriers, furniture, boat bumpers on marine docks, etc but it is a negligible amount. Land filling or burning tyres for energy has limited prospects as environmental authorities are acknowledging the need for its greener alternatives. On the other hand, mass-market end products like continuous rolls of cost-effective recycled rubber used for noise insulation now complete the 'big picture' for investors to consider recycling tyres commercially.
Where to procure old tyres? Old tyres are procured from tyre dealers across the country and tyre associations. The market is concentrated in the trucking centers of India.
What technology is available? There are three methods for reclaiming rubber: 1. Pan Method – It is the oldest and highly labor-intensive and causes huge water and air pollution. 2. Digestor Method – It is a costlier method and used by some recyclers in India. 3. Reclamation Methods – It is a very costly method and is only used for very large-scale production. None of the Indian firms use this methodThe minuter processes include mechanical shredding, mixing, pressing, pyrolysis, etc.
Would I be making money through this or saving the environment? The attraction factor towards environment can be served if better
technology and systems are used which would reduce pollution. Besides, there would be huge savings on oil imports. The existing companies are surely making money with a profit margin of 10-15 percent. If the issues of energy cost, collection of scrap tyre and various clearances required for environmental pollution can be handled, money will follow and flow in.
Investment required
Can I import used tyres?
No reports or data?
“Despite the ban on import, used tyres are imported in a clandestine manner, sometimes as new tyres at low value; since there is no restriction on import of new tyres or as tyres under the “others” category. Many countries such as Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Kenya, South Korea, etc. have either put a complete ban on import of used tyres or have placed stringent conditions on such imports”, says Sundarrajan of PrimaryInfo. Chinese tyres whch are as cheap as 30% to Indian tyres dominate the market in spite of the antidumping rules.
The rubber bodies must commission a proper study to gauge the current scenario and potential of tyre recycling industry by involving technical experts. The Rubber Board, which is a cash rich organization, can offer incentives of various kinds to the recyclers to start and expand the business and start exporting.
How big can the industry grow? With the right initiatives taken by the government, there is a possibility of 50-100 percent growth of this industry including export options (of the good quality reclaimed rubber). India is currently the second largest reclaim rubber producer after China. Statistics project a mammoth potential increase upwards of Rs1.13 billion in the industry. Countries in Middle East, Africa, Europe and other Asian countries form the export market.
“DESPITE THE BAN, USED TYRES ARE IMPORTED CLANDESTINELY, SOMETIMES AT LOW VALUE, SINCE THERE IS NO RESTRICTION ON IMPORT OF TYRES UNDER THE 'NEW' OR 'OTHERS' CATEGORY.” 20
For the Pan method recycling, the plant can be set up with Rs1 crore. However, a plant of Digestor method recycling, producing 5 MT/day shall cost Rs 3-10 crore depending upon the source of the machines and level of automation. A fully automated plant would cost about Rs12 crore. Reclamation method is not used by anyone in India.
Starting Up So, now if you want to start up a tyre recycling industry, you need to buy a tyre recycling plant with judicious combination of machinery from India and China for effective investment control, conduct feasibility studies and market survey, and then make sure that both the supply of old tyres is controlled and sale of by-products is maintained continuously. Regarding things to be careful about, Kumar says “Entrepreneurs should focus on quality product, selection of suitable machinery, cost-effective capacity choosing and environment protection, all of which are very important.” In UK, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched an initiative to encourage businesses to recycle more tyres. It is estimated that 100,000 used tyres are removed from UK’s vehicles each day, amounting to 40,000 tonnes of waste rubber each year. Under the scheme, the EPA and the Waste and Resources Action Program(WRAP) plan to create guidelines for the collection, transportation, storage, recycling and reuse of the rubber tyres. R
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A Good Time to Try out an Agro-processing Unit? Posted by: Vimarsh Bajpai in Ideas on Feb 11, 2010 Tagged in: opportunity, IBEF, food processing, FICCI, agro-processing
R The Indian packaged processed foods industry is estimated at US$ 10.87 billion– US$ 13.05 billion, including biscuits, chocolates, ice-cream, confectionery, snacks, cheese and butter.
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s 30,000 crore is an alarming figure. And this is not the size of a scam or the allocation the government is making to any of its social sector schemes. If industry chamber FICCI is to be believed, Rs 30,000 crore worth of fruits and vegetables are wasted annually due to glaring holes in the supply chain and storage facilities. Only around two percent of fruits and vegetables are processed and the figure stands at 26 percent for marine, 6 percent for poultry and 20 percent for buffalo meat, as against 60-70 percent of the overall food production in the developed countries.
While jam and sauce have been on the dining table of millions of Indian families for a long time, there are many other processed foods that are also making way to Indian households. Food habits are changing as a result of lifestyle changes and this is leading to increasing demand for processed foods. According to an update by IBEF, the Indian packaged processed foods industry is estimated at US$ 10.87 billion–US$ 13.05 billion, including biscuits, chocolates, icecream, confectionery, snacks, cheese and butter. It has grown at a healthy pace of 14-15 percent over the past two to three years and major players in the sector include Britannia, Nestle, Amul, ITC Foods, Parle, Kellogg’s, GlaxoSmithKline, Wrigley and FritoLays, among others. So, not a bad time to look at the opportunities in the agro-processing sector. If so much of raw material, fruits and vegetables, are going waste, it only makes sense to put them to better use while availing the benefits of cheap labor, some good incentives from the banks and make an entry into this sector. The growth of business depends a lot on the nature of the produce and processing methods. The food quality should be top-class, and therefore, procurement of superior quality of raw materials becomes imperative. This industry is labor intensive, providing employment at each step—production of raw materials, processing at various units in organized and unorganized sectors, packaging of end products, transporting and selling at retail stores.
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Some Tips for Interacting with the Media for the First Time Posted by: Binesh Kutty in the news on Feb 10, 2010 Tagged in: tips, preparation, media, journalists, interviews, entrepreneurs, coverage
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n our line of business, we happen to contact several entrepreneurs who have not interacted with any journalist/media house before us. Because these are not media-savvy people, they turn out to be extremely cooperative and/or way too skeptical. Now, no one is blaming them for being like that. However, these are some pointers that can help: Begin with understanding certain things for your knowledge Ask about the publication/station/ channel that the story is being done for. It is imperative that you understand the positioning of it for you to answer in the right perspective. Now, do understand that even if it is a publication/station/ channel that you have not heard ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it does not necessarily mean that someone is trying to scam you. Ask for a website, sample of the magazine, and so on for verification. Also ask for a deadline and get an idea about the story, so that you can prepare yourself for the interaction. Get the contact details of the journalist you are interacting with (email address, office phone number, cell number, etc) Please do not keep postponing the interaction As mentioned above, you did ask them for their deadline, yes? You might have genuine reasons why you cannot make it for the interaction on the set day/time. But the journalist has to file the story on his deadline. It will be nice if you at least give them a heads up about this well in advance, and
reschedule the interaction some time within the set deadline. Speak in the language you are comfortable interacting in It is the information and the content that matters; not your fluency in English. Please do not feel pressurized to speak in a language in which you know that you will stutter or stammer in the major portion of the interaction. Request the journalist to facilitate the interaction in a language that is comfortable for you and at the same time can be understood by the journalist. This way, you will be able to get things across in much more lucid way. The journalist can always seek help in understanding the jargon later. Pay attention to the questions and stay focused when answering Hear out the question, take a breath and channelize your thoughts before starting to speak. Yes, we understand you are excited about the interaction, and you want to use this opportunity to talk about the latest things you are doing at your company. However, if the question does not call for it, refrain from dragging unwanted information about your products, services, and other pros of your company. There are only a handful of entrepreneurs who do not meander away while answering. In my personal experience, NR Narayana Murthy is the best example I can quote. He is as crisp as it can get while answering a question asked. The interview he gave us is transcribed in verbatim.
Also, since this is your first interaction and in your excitement you might have ended up saying something that is better left off the record. Do not hesitate to request the journalist to not quote or print it. Contrary to the common belief, journalists do have ethics. Do not hesitate to give away your photographs If asked for photographs, please provide them. The reader/viewer can connect to what is being said if there is a face that he/she can see. DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | MARCH 2010 23
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No one is asking for a professionally shot passport photo; give some photo which has you more in a relaxed or candid pose; trust us, it looks good. Provide photographs that are of good quality i.e. decent digital camera quality, at the least. Also, if you are not asked for photographs, do not force/request them to carry one. It is perhaps a story that is not being designed to accommodate certain/any pictures. While talking about pictures, we understand the zeal to be on the cover of the magazine. If you are worth it, it will be published just there. Do not ‘demand’ for your photo to be published on the cover.
Please do not overdo the hospitality The journalist coming over for a meeting or for an interaction is just doing his/her job. Do not overdo the hospitality part, in the hope that he/she will give you better coverage. Simply be courteous, do what is necessary.
of the story if it has been published in the print medium. You now have the contact details of the journalist you interacted with. Every once in a while, why don’t you drop a line on email, text, or a call perhaps? It always helps to remain in touch—both ways.
Follow up and keep in touch Once the story is published, ask where you can find the copy of the magazine/newspaper/journal/ webpage address, etc. If you want extra copies for the record or distribution purpose, request for it— it is likely that it will be arranged. You can also try requesting for a PDF
Publicize the coverage in various mediums Congratulations on being covered by the media. Now, publicize that coverage. Include links to the coverage web page/ website/ video in your email signatures, your email newsletters, on your website, on your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.
How to be a Good Client Posted by: Binesh Kutty in the news on Feb 09, 2010 Tagged in: strategy, relationship, provider, how to, client
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es, this is a topic worth thinking about. Don’t we all seek services from some provider at some point in our business, mostly for activities that are not your core competency? Then, don’t we all cuss the provider for not doing the job as required? Have you stopped for a moment and thought that maybe the problem is not with them, but with you as a client? Being a good client is pretty much an ‘ask-yourself-first’ project. Here are some self-questionings that can help: Sure it has been a long time and there is no pilot ready yet.
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Have you been dillydallying about the basics? Make up your mind first! Sure they messed it up. Does your ‘brief’ to the client explain each and every requirement clearly and in detail? Sure you need it done fast. They are slacking! Are you giving the provider at least the minimum time required to do it? Sure the coordination is atrocious. Do you have too many people coordinating a deal which requires only a few people involved? Sure they are demanding more/ extra monies. Are you demanding for elements beyond the scope of the original deal? They say the website/ creative, etc looks just fine. It is not! Not on my computer. Have you checked your system for problems? Please open the stuff on some other computer(s). We had had 100 meetings and yet
this is going nowhere! Did you really need to call them over for those 100 meetings? You are wasting time, you know. They just won’t listen to me! Are you listening to what they have to say first? Keep the communications going both-ways—one at a time? I do not understand why they won’t talk to me directly? Are you rude, angry, or frustrated in most of your conversations? Many elements are missing. How many times do I need to mail them to get it done? Have you provided them with all the resources that they need from your end? I don’t like the grumpy faces they carry around! When was the last time you appreciated them for any work done? I appreciate them all the time. They still are grumpy all the time! Are you paying them on time?
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Reasons Why You should not get Your Company on Social Media... Posted by: Binesh Kutty in the news on Feb 08, 2010 Tagged in: YouTube, Whitepapers, Twitter, strategy, Social Media, SlideShare, Scribd, Presentations, Orkut, Metacafe, LinkedIn, Forum, Flickr, Facebook
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et me begin with listing down some reasons why you should not get your company on social media: • You want to be on it because everyone else is • You do not understand the ‘purpose of being’ on social media • You do not have a ‘minimum time to spend’ that you can dedicate on a daily basis • You do not have the ‘bandwidth’ to interact with people following you • You do not have enough ‘thoughts’ (content) for the sake of updating • You do not understand (and do not intend to understand) the difference between a blog, a forum, a micro blog, social bookmarking, social networking, professional networking, etc • You want to simply sell/advertise your products/services and make fast money
It is imperative to understand that you need not be present on many social media platforms to be looked upon as a social media savvy company.
Having stated the above, this list is by no means an exhaustive list and is not necessarily in an order of importance. The word ‘You’ is used to collectively term you as a person, as a company, and as a team. Not so long ago, I received an email from an electrical equipment manufacturing and distributing company. The email was meant to announce their foray into the social media. The spectrum of social media here was eleven different platforms viz. Forum, Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, YouTube, Metacafe, SlideShare, Scribd, Flickr, etc. I said to myself, “Interesting! Let us see how they manage to pull off their existence in all of them.” Few weeks down, I visited all the Websites individually, only to find few (and different ones at that) of their employees ‘following’ each of them. While the Websites showed a decent number of updates in the initial days of the launch, the frequency had gone down to no updates in just two weeks on some of them. The updates in the initial few days were only about products that their company sells. Few weeks more and I found out that the person who was running the show has quit. Result: The Company has redundant presence on 11 different social media platforms—and it is out there for the world to see (whenever it does). Need of the hour is for companies such as these to understand the whys, whens, whats, and hows of the social media. It is imperative to understand
that you need not be present on many social media platforms to be looked upon as a social media savvy company. If you want to be known as that, please take some effort to understand the difference between a blog, a forum, microblogging, social bookmarking, social networking, etc. Once you understand these, you will realize, for instance, that if you have a forum running on your website, you DO NOT need a Facebook group for discussions to take place. In fact, please try and understand the difference between a Facebook profile, Facebook page, and a Facebook group to begin with. Ask yourself questions such as, "What purpose will updating on Twitter serve for my company? Drive traffic unto the Website? Keep them posted about all our activities? Do some promotions? Should my Website have buttons to enable posting content onto social media instead of just having button that leads to my social media pages?" For the sake of understanding, at least look up online for whitepapers and presentations about social media. There is a nice presentation by Olivier Blanchard about Basics of Social Media ROI. There is another presentation by Yongfook. Do some research, talk to people who are already doing it, "SOCIALIZE" and then do it right! The value of identity of course is that so often with it, comes purpose - Richard Grant Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time - Timothy Leary R DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | MARCH 2010 25
From the blogs Mar10.indd 25
2/27/2010 1:14:15 AM
The Growing Business of Oilseeds While India produces major oil seeds but the demand has been rising considerably over the years. Unbranded players dominate the edible oils market even as branded players are trying to tap into high consumption areas. /Vimarsh Bajpai
I
t is not mere coincidence that the Rs 2,500 crore Emami Group is all set to launch its brand of edible oils in the country. The group is eyeing Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 14 million tonne per annum edible oils market in a big
way. The company will launch varied packs of oils of Sunflower, Mustard, Soybean, Palmolein, etc. Unbranded players dominate the market and Emami wants to make a dent into it. The company is hoping to grab a
10 percent market pie by 2015. India is one of the largest oilseed producers in the world. In 2007-08, the country produced 28.21 million tonnes of nine cultivated oilseeds. India produces six to seven percent
NINE MAJOR OILSEEDS
Groundnut Mustard Sesame Safflower Linseed Niger seed Castor seed Soybean Sunflower 26
MARCH 2010 | SECTOR/OILSEEDS | DARE.CO.IN
Oilseeds.indd 26
2/27/2010 12:49:21 AM
(In lakh tones)
OILSEEDS PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION
of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oilseeds. In 200607, 7.3 million tonnes of oilmeals, oilseeds and minor oils were exported, as against 5.06 million tonnes in 2005-06. This was exports worth Rs 7,997 crore, as against Rs 5,514 crore. According to the Department of Food and Public Distribution System (PDS), Groundnut, Mustard/Rapeseed, Sesame, Safflower, Linseed, and Niger seed/Castor are the major traditionally cultivated oilseeds. It says Soybean and Sunflower have also assumed importance in recent years. Among plantation crops, Coconut is most important. Efforts are
Oil year (Nov-Oct.)
Production of Oilseeds
Net availability of edible oils from all domestic sources
Consumption of Edible Oils (from domestic and import sources)
2000-2001
184.40
54.99
96.76
2001-2002
206.63
61.46
104.68
2002-2003
148.39
46.64
90.29
2003-2004
251.86
71.40
124.30
2004-2005
243.54
72.47
117.89
2005-2006
279.79
83.16
126.04
2006-2007
242.89
73.70
115.87
2007-2008
297.55
86.54
142.62
SOURCE: Ministry of Agriculture
DARE.CO.IN | SECTOR/OILSEEDS | MARCH 2010 27
Oilseeds.indd 27
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(In lakh tones)
IMPORT OF EDIBLE OILS (IN MT)
Nov. ’09 to Jan.’10 Month
2009-10
2008-09
%
Edible
Non-edible
Total
Edible
Non-edible
Total
Change
Nov.,09
712,677
41,289
753,966
519,032
36,310
555,342
+ 36%
Dec.’09
761,835
25,588
787,423
719,125
26,438
745,563
+ 6%
Jan.’10
827,182
45,213
872,395
856,690
31,412
888,102
- 2%
2,301,694
112,090
2,413,784
2,094,847
94,160
2,189,007
+ 10%
Total
SOURCE: Solvents Extractors Association of India
being made to grow oil palm in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu in addition to Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Among the nonconventional oils, Rice bran oil and Cottonseed oil are the most important. In addition, oilseeds of tree and forest origin, which grow mostly in tribal inhabited areas, are also a significant source of oils, it says.
Growth drivers India is among the largest vegetable oil importers in the world. The demand for edible oil has been going up considerably for several years now, around Seven percent annually. The demand is picking up fast in small towns and villages. Rural consumers that now have deeper pockets are spending on this 28
commodity. Government’s schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) have handed more money in the hands of those living in rural areas. According to the estimates, by October 2010, vegetable oil imports by India could rise to 9.5 million tonnes, which would be around nine percent up over the previous year. Indonesia and Malaysia sell Palm oils while Soy oil is being sold by Brazil and Argentina. According to the figures by the Solvents Extractors Association of India, the import of vegetable oils during January 2010 was 872,395 tonnes, compared to 888,102 tonnes in January, 2010, consisting of 827,182 tonnes of edible oils and 45,213 tonnes of non-edible oils.
The overall import of vegetable oils during November 2009 to January 2010 is reported at 2,413,784 tonnes compared to 2,189,007 tonnes i.e. up by 10 percent. The Union government set up a technology mission to boost the oilseeds sector in 1986. This has led to an increase in the area under cultivation, with increase in production to 24.8 million tonnes in 1998-1999 from 11.3 million tonnes in 198687. The production of nine major oilseeds is estimated to be about 28.21 million tonnes during 2007-08, according to the estimates of Ministry of Agriculture. The government’s liberalization policy has made the sector competitive and has seen several Indian and foreign players in the market. R
MARCH 2010 | SECTOR/OILSEEDS | DARE.CO.IN
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blogs/opinion
What do I do with the money now? The dilemma of an entrepreneur when he or she raises money from investors after ten years of creating and running a great business
/Anurag Batra
I
have not won the lottery or mar-
height of market, got a fantastic valua-
ried a rich man’s daughter. I am
tion and raised almost $10 million. That
talking of the dilemma of an entre- has been lying in his bank and though
preneur when he or she raises money
he has tried acquisitions and new
from investors after ten years of creat-
forays, he has mostly been extremely
ing and running a great business.
conservative.
As an entrepreneur you know that to scale up your business to the next level
for funding the next level of growth why
you need capital. The capital will be
are you not doing it? What is the value of
needed to fund the ideas that probably
cash sitting in the bank?
will take you to the next level of growth.
If you raised the cash for funding the next level of growth why are you not doing it? What is the value of cash sitting in the bank?
Two weeks back I met a highly successful internet entrepreneur who early last year raised almost US $10
In the last 15 to 18 months the market offered good valuations from an acquisition stand point. The questions that probably the
million from VCF to fund the next leap
entrepreneur is thinking are:
for his business. I have known this
1. What if I get the investment wrong?
entrepreneur since the time he started
2. What should I invest in-People up-
out almost 11 years ago. I have had an
gradation or technology or infra-
admiration for him and his business for
structure?
the last five years as I probably share the
3. Should I dream big?
two credos he runs his business on—you
4. If I am doing something that is
have to make money and spend money;
working, should I expand that or buy
as the body needs to create its own
other business that could have a bet-
blood, your cash flows should manage themselves, and you have to create value
ter future? 5. What will my investors think if I do
for your customers and your business
not use it fast to create sustainable
and not necessarily valuations. Valua-
advantage and value?
tions will follow this creation of value. I Anurag Batra is real life, first-generation entrepreneur who is Much Below Average (MBA) from the prestigious Management Development Institute, MDI. When he is not busy writing such columns, he can be reached at anuragbatrayo@gmail.com. Anurag is the founder and editor-in-chief of exchange4media group which includes exchange4media.com.
My point is that if you raised the cash
I hope all entrepreneurs who are
as an entrepreneur believe in these two
sitting with money in their bank remem-
credos and live by them and have learnt
ber this French proverb:
them the hard way. I also remember a fellow publisher’s dilemma who, two years back at the
“It’s a wise man who lives with the money in the bank, it’s a fool that dies that away.”
R
DARE.CO.IN | COLOMN | MARCH 2010 29
Anurag Batra column Mar10.indd 29
2/27/2010 12:18:02 AM
a movie on how to succeed in entrepreneurship
30
MARCH 2010 | EVENT | DARE.CO.IN
Sahas Movie event.indd 30
2/27/2010 1:15:54 AM
We have successfully concluded the screening of SAHAS II - a movie on how to succeed in entrepreneurship. This was done in six days between February 17 - 26, 2010 across 25 cities in India - Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Nashik, Hyderabad, Surat, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Agra, Gurgaon, Rajkot, Jalandhar, Varanasi, Delhi, Patna, Nagpur, Noida, Faridabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Indore, and Jaipur. This is the second movie coming from DARE. Last year, our first movie, SAHAS won the Asian Multimedia Publishing Awards 2009 for most outstanding multimedia advertising delivery, competing against 74 projects from 9 countries.
DARE.CO.IN | EVENT | MARCH 2010 31
Sahas Movie event.indd 31
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entrepreneur of the month
Cygnus comes from the house of Laxmi Diamonds, a DTC sight holder and a company founded by Vasant Gajera with a turnover in excess of 1500 Crore. Mitesh, who runs the show for Cygnus, talks to DARE about how this segment of business operates and shares various other insights about the industry.
Mitesh Gajera Cygnus Fine Jewellery
32
MARCH 2010 | BIO | DARE.CO.IN
Entrepreneurs of the month Mar1032 32
2/27/2010 12:37:03 AM
In the jewellery segment weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen a lot of brands come and go because of the same reason that they were thinking of achieving short term goals and aspiring to get successful in a very short period of time.
enesis of Cygnus Fine Jewellery Being a major manufacturer in diamonds, we have always known that going down right to the consumer helps in maximizing growth. Besides this, we also saw the opportunity in Indian retail which was slowly and steadily getting organized. The economy too was looking good. Hence, this whole idea of creating a brand in India evolved. This is how Cygnus came into being in 2003. It has been in business for 7 years now and has become one of the largest distributors brand and leading brands in terms of departmental stores. We currently have around 150 outlets currently standing around 46 cities and showrooms across India.
G
Where do you get most of your business from? Cygnus as a brand gets most of its business in the Multi Brand Outlets (MBO) i.e. the shop-in-shop format because of the already set vast distribution chain. Its availability in stores like Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle, etc
which generates a good number of footfalls helps in keeping the conversion rates higher. In the case of Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBO) i.e. stand alone show rooms, there is a maturity level period wherein when we operate for 3-4 years after which we see that the awareness for that showroom rises. How would you define the demographics of the typical Cygnus customer? I would say our customers are the youth and the working class between the age of 20 to 40 years, who are buying on an impulse. Since we are present in departmental stores, with products in the price range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000, people tend to go for our products as gifts rather than a planned buying like for a marriage. How do you differentiate Cygnus from other brands out there? What differentiates the brand is the product on offer, the quality, the customer service, after sales support, etc. In terms of product
the differentiator would be that, on a regular basis we have theme based collections being launched. One other the crucial thing being where the product is sourced from. Since we are a whole channel brand, because the diamonds are sourced and manufactured by our parent company Laxmi Diamonds â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A DTC Sight holder, the confidence level of the consumer rises in that itself. How do you spot trends and then actually create trends? Since we are a widely distributed brand, we have first hand experience shared directly from the consumer. We receive a lot of feedback from the consumer on what kind of jewellery are they looking for, what kind of and colors of stones are they are looking for, etc. Also, being a B2B company, the wholesalers also get us a wide range of inputs which they get from the jewelers to who sell our products. All this feedback is analyzed at our head office, which is then worked on and future trends are derived.
DARE.CO.IN | BIO | MARCH 2010 33
Entrepreneurs of the month Mar1033 33
2/27/2010 12:37:08 AM
e Surrounded by competition how to grow and maintain your market share? Competition is healthy for any business. We believe that more the number of competitors, more the business that will be generated. To maintain a lead, it is important to train your staff well so that the conversion rates are higher than the other brands. Also, your product line should speak for itself. The quality maintained by the brand, after sales support, customer service etc should be checked upon time and again. Finally, one has to regularly innovate products. What is the scope of innovation in this category of business? Innovation comes in terms of merchandises only - the product that you are offering. Jewellery is something that needs to be innovated every day to create new things. Design element is a major factor while a consumer is selecting a product. The customer who wears my products should feel that the design is very good and is generating added value too. How do you retain your workforce? As the age of my sales staff is between 18 to 25 years, there is always a chance that these people after 25 years of age will move on to something else. We generally don’t hire someone who is above 25 years as he/she would not fit into our brand as a sales person on the counter. We always look for young people and are not bothered about attrition as much. 34
Cygnus as a brand gets most of its business in the Multi Brand Outlets (MBO) i.e. the shop-in-shop format because of the already set vast distribution chain.
What is the scope of expansion and diversification in this category? The scope is wide. How you grab the opportunity is up to one’s portfolio. As far as business expansion goes, we are focusing more into stand alone show rooms in the next 5 years. The shopin-shop format will grow as the departmental stores and the chain stores grow. So, if a Shoppers Stop opens 15 new stores we will also open 15 new outlets with them. On the other hand we are going to target the tier 2 and tier 3 cities where the markets are and the brand awareness is growing slowly and steadily. So, there we are targeting stand alone stores. As far as diversification is concerned, I would say that once we reach to a certain level we would diversify into accessories along with the jewellery.
say because it’s only been 4 or 5 years while I’ve been engaged in the retail market. I’m still in the ways of achieving my goals. But as a small milestone I think making Cygnus a success story within the past 4 to 5 years is quite special for me.
What are the channels you employ to spread brand awareness? First of all you need to identify the target audience for your brand. In terms of Cygnus, we have very less presence on TV. For instance, If I’m not present in South Mumbai and I advertise there, there is no point for me. But as a brand we do a lot of PR activities and select area marketing where we hit hard on the target audience around the store. Besides this, we do a lot of national level radio spots, print ads, movie theater ads also tie-up with magazines.
What according to you should an aspiring entrepreneur avoid if he is getting into the jewelry business? I would say do not hurry into anything when you are getting into retail. The most important aspect of retail is to have patience in yourself and the investment that you have made. In retail one needs to invest and wait for a period of 5 to 10 years. If you are looking for a short term goal I would say it is a very negative approach. The same goes for the industry too. In the jewelry segment we’ve seen a lot of brands come and go because of the same reason that they were thinking of achieving short term goals and aspiring to get successful in a very short period of time. R
What was your first big success after you ventured out on your own? As of for now it’s too early for me to
In terms of setbacks, were there any from where you got to learn a lot? I would not say that there have been huge set backs as I think as of now Cygnus is growing on a day to day basis. There have been times when we had o9pened 2 to 3 stores and felt that those were the wrong decisions, we closed them down. We learned from this mistakes and applied that while opening and operating new stores. We also got to know what are the things that goes in selecting a location.
MARCH 2010 | BIO | DARE.CO.IN
Entrepreneurs of the month Mar1034 34
2/27/2010 12:37:11 AM
sphotoblogs Construction Industry and Equipments
H
ave you seen those lengthy, sleek and almost imbalanced-looking tower cranes adjacent to buildings that are rising up in big cities? Yes, the increase in demand of constrcution projects has increased the demand of machinery to be involved. Dependence on manual power can't ensure the time-line for which these projects are meant. Often, advanced machines and equipments are imported from foreign countries and there is always an opportunity to tap into this market. Are you looking to construct your business around this idea! (Photo taken at Safdarjung Railway Station, Delhi) Author: Vivek Kumar
Building Maintenance and Cleaning
B
usiness towers, corporate offices and buildings require maintenance/repair and cleaning. Often, builders have their own workforce who performs these tasks. If you see this picture, you will notice a tiny rope that is holding two people who are performing the cleaning task for window panes. This service is required if a pane is broken and needs maintenance and repair. Providing these services could be an area to tap provided you have right kind of workforce, infrastructure and expertise. (Photo taken at Nehru Place, Delhi) Author: Vivek Kumar
DARE.CO.IN | PHOTO BLOGS | MARCH 2010 35
Photo blogs Mar10.indd 35
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The
Million Dollar
IDEA
Building an Enterprise through an Idea /Manav Garg
“I
nnovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower,” said Steve Jobs, and went on to create Apple Inc. Entrepreneurship is not about being original but being innovative enough to find a right gap and to be able to have a perfect solution to match the gap. As a young student, I always found myself inclined towards starting something I could give shape to and nurture as my own. It was this feeling which I realized is the first step to recognize a budding entrepreneur inside you. Unlike what most people believe, one does not have to be from a business family or have the prior knowledge of setting up businesses to be able to grow into an entrepreneur. Till his retirement, my father served as an engineer with a big multinational, but once I passed out from my college I immediately tried to set up my own business. My first venture failed, but I never stopped dreaming of creating a business someday. Someone said “Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.” 36
And I was very sure my goal was to establish myself as a successful entrepreneur. “If you nurture your mind, body and spirit, your time will expand. You will gain a new perspective that will allow you to accomplish much more.” One failed attempt to start my own business led me to the doors of GP Group, where I joined as a trader. Coffee trading wasn’t really easy to manage. I was travelling every two days and trying to up the sales. The trading job involved creating contracts, managing risks, accounting for the stocks and much more. I realized that not only were the processes time-consuming, but in the absence of adequate technology, the growth of the business was not
to its optimum level. Delayed decisions and unmanaged risks would often obstruct business operations bringing the growth rate down. I saw a gap that technology could fulfill and that is what I learnt from my job, , to recognize a gap. For an entrepreneur, the key to entering any new venture is to assess the need for it. And the gap led me to the idea for my new venture. I was once again ready to transform into an entrepreneur. If your business is going to be an enabler to create more wealth at a faster rate for your client, then there is every chance that your business will grow to be profitable. But the explanation should also come with an essential ingredient—a risk-taking appetite.
MARCH 2010 | STRATEGY | DARE.CO.IN
The million dollar idea.indd 36
2/25/2010 10:26:46 PM
This is one disposition which is common to all entrepreneurs. Golden rules for every new entrepreneur to succeed: 1. Learn to take and manage risks. A person who wants to play it safe always will not be able to start his/her own venture ever. Risktaking ability is not about being reckless but about being able to foresee a difficult phase ahead and plan to live with short term inconvenience to benefit in the long term. It is also about moving out of the comfort zone to pursue something 2. To take risks, keep your personal expenditure at minimum. The more liabilities you live with, the less you will able to focus on your core purpose that is your own venture 3. Living with uncertainties: This is little different from a risk-taking ability. While taking risks can be based on certain business intelligence and analytics, living with uncertainties is more about a mental make-up. It’s an attitudinal need to be able to cope with adversities and living with minimum resources. 4. Ideas matter. It’s important to work on a grass root level idea. Ideas that work in one geography may not work in another part of the world. When starting out, it’s important to see the need and viability of your business proposition for your audiences. Knowing the needs of your target audience is most critical in all cases. Do not be led by success in another part of the world. I considered all the above factors when I started Eka Software
Solutions. The gap in the commodity market was huge and still is. There are very few technologically advanced products available that understand the dynamics of this industry. I saw a huge need for Eka products. I also realized that the Indian commodity market was still not organized enough to derive higher profits from technology enablement through an Eka product. Even though we had the right product for a more organized global commodity market, the challenge was to convince the world about India’s ability to build a world-class product. It’s good to know your audience and your challenges—that gives an entrepreneur an edge when defining his strategy. A good strategy and a well-defined plan is only the framework. For your business to breathe, the oxygen is certainly the funding.
Finance: The key component to sustain a business Availability of capital is the most restricting factor that disables any project from furthering its growth. However strong the idea may be, it’s important for an entrepreneur to partner with a good investor. The investor not only should believe in the project, but his funds should be able to take the project through to all critical stages of growth. Most good ideas don’t materialize into a business because of unplanned financial support. Today when the investor market is opening up again, one should be quick enough to take advantage of the available resources. Whether a loan, venture capitalist or an angel investor, you have to build a valuable relationship with your funding partner. The relationship has to benefit both and yet the bigger goal for both parties should always remain the venture itself and not individual gains. When your investor is qualified, it always value adds to the business, as
together the USP of the venture can be better nurtured.
USP – the big idea – the key differentiator If the market demands, then multiple vendors of the same product can co-exist and the challenge is lesser to manage such ventures—retail being one example where the business is purely defined by the market demand for a category of product. However, when the offering is for a niche audience, then the stress on specifics of the offering has to be high. The product differentiators in such products are its additional/unique features. More the distinguishing features, higher are the values of the product. Therefore, when starting a business based on technology, one has to consider future technology advancement and especially invest in research and development to ensure the product’s constant upgradation. For an entrepreneur it’s important to stay ahead on the learning curve always. The best lessons any entrepreneur can get about his business are from his own experiences in running that business. Therefore, it’s critical that an entrepreneur consciously makes all the decisions while constantly keeping a record of what didn’t or doesn’t work. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake; you can’t learn anything from being perfect.” Today, the economic downturn may have impacted many ventures and dreams of many to start up on their own; yet this is an opportunity for all the aspiring entrepreneurs to take time to assess their project’s viability, understand the market, garner funds and take the risk to make that million dollar idea a reality. R Manav Garg is the Founder and CEO of Eka Software, a Bangalore-based software product company focused on the Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM) space. DARE.CO.IN | STRATEGY | MARCH 2010 37
The million dollar idea.indd 37
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from the Blogs http://www.dare.co.in/blogs.htm
My Unnamed Pakistani Friend in Dubai: Why Indians and Pakistanis must be friends Posted by: Krishna Kumar in in the news on Feb 17, 2010 Tagged in: Subway, South Asia, Pakistani, Pakistan, Indo-Pak relations, Indian, India, Dubai, concern
E
very time there is an IndiaPakistan standoff, my mind goes back to that evening in Dubai. This was many years back, much before 9/11 and 26/11. I was on a visit to Dubai and my return flight was at midnight. Having finished the mandatory sightseeing and having checked out of my hotel room, I sat down on a roadside bench to watch the Dubai traffic whizz by. Some time passed and the Sun was beginning to set, when I heard someone ask me in Hindi - “Are you ok?” Turning around, I saw a complete stranger, who I thought was an Indian, looking concernedly at me. “Oh! I am fine” I said, clearly not wanting to talk to a stranger... “You are looking tired. Did you come for a job interview? Did you not get the job? Do you need any
38
help?" The sincerity and concern in his voice made me pay attention this time. “I came for a meeting and now I am killing time, as my flight is much later”, I opened up. “I have been watching you for a while and was concerned. So I waited to get off duty to talk to you” he confessed. Turned out that he was a delivery boy at the Subway in front of which I was sitting. “Where in India are you from”? I asked, warming up to him. “I am from Pakistan” came the matter of fact reply. Sensing the confusion in my eyes, he went on to explain, “Out here, everyone sees Indians and Pakistanis as one. And we also tend to be together and to look out for each other. It’s only when India and Pakistan are playing cricket that we are on opposite sides. Otherwise we are one; we share our joys and sorrows.”
“Out here”, he said, “We look out for each other because no one else will”. And there we sat for a few minutes, before he went his way and I mine, silently enjoying each other’s company and the warmth of belonging. As we went our different ways, neither asked the other for a name. We did not need to. On that roadside, both of us shared a kinship which cannot be described. The warm feeling that comes from knowing that there was someone in this far away land who cared for you just cannot be described. Back home we would most likely be baying for each other’s blood. But on that foreign land, he was all concerned for my troubles, going out of his way to reach out and help. A Pakistani reaching out to help, only because I was an Indian! So, every time there is an IndiaPakistan standoff, my mind goes back to that evening and the roadside garden seat in faraway Dubai; I see a concerned Pakistani stranger enquiring about an Indian’s well-being. I remember his words that day that Indians and Pakistanis look out for each other in foreign lands, because no one else will. And every time, I wish that it were true, not just in foreign lands alone. I know that it is too early but I dream that that day will come. And till then, in foreign lands, we Indians and Pakistanis will always be looking out for each other, we will be there for each other, as kin and brothers do, because no one else will.
MARCH 2010 | FROM THE BLOGS | DARE.CO.IN
From the blogs Mar10.indd 38
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from the Blogs http://www.dare.co.in/blogs.htm
My Name is Khan: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) and the Apparel Connection Posted by: Binesh Kutty in the news on Feb 15, 2010 Tagged in: SRK, Shiv Sena , S Kumar’s, My Name is Khan, MNS, MNIK, IPL , controversy, business, Bollywood, Belmonte, apparel
A
lot has been talked about My Name is Khan and the FUD surrounding the topic. I had a
rather unique experience this evening in Nasik—and let me be very clear that it has no direct connection with the movie. I had walked into a Belmonte (a brand under the umbrella of S. Kumars Nationwide Ltd.) showroom to check out some suits. While at the shop, I noticed a strange thing across the store, all the blowups of Shah Rukh Khan were covered with newspapers. I thought maybe SRK has stopped endorsing the brand and maybe some other ambassador was already in place and the blowups of the latest celebrity were yet to come in, and so on. But then, I had to ask and confirm. The store manager made
a peculiar face and replied, “It’s simply a precaution to keep our store from getting vandalized.” It made sense now. This showroom, made entirely of huge glass panes with tens of huge blowups of Shah Rukh Khan would be an open invitation for the activists to come and smash it all. Multiplexes refusing to screen the movie got the assurances of the ministers that they will be provided security to avoid any untoward incident. Now who would’ve imagined that the issue in hand would make apparel showroom owners potential targets too? “Who’ll provide us security?” asked the manager. I must say, I was left speechless.
Sheen Returning to Gems and Jewelry Posted by: Vimarsh Bajpai in Ideas on Feb 11, 2010 Tagged in: opportunity, gems and jewelry
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ot long ago in 2009, it was mayhem in the gems and jewelry units across the country with many small manufacturing shops shutting down and workers losing jobs. The major export markets of US and Europe, which have been traditional strongholds of Indian companies for long were in chaos due to the economic slowdown. With people going on
recession diets, there was surely no money to buy the luxuries of life such as gems and jewelry. The year 2010 is ringing in some good news now. With recession now paving way for growth, the gems and jewelry units are laughing all the way to the banks. Gitanjali Gems has glittered with 39 percent jump in their net profit at Rs 41 crore in the third quarter of 2009-10. The company’s jewelry sales
turnover has gone up 60percent to Rs 1,098 crore in the quarter under review. According to IBEF, the gems and jewelry industry in India is highly fragmented with a large number of domestic private sector players. It says that India has around 450,000 goldsmiths, 100,000 gold jewelers, 6,000 diamond processors and 8,000 diamond jewelers. According to a report, rating agency Fitch has improved its outlook for this sector. DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | MARCH 2010 39
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The Business of Health Checkups Posted by: Vimarsh Bajpai in Ideas on Feb 08, 2010 Tagged in: preventive healthcare, opportunities, healthcare, health checkup
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ining up every day at the front desks of big corporate hospitals in the country are healthconscious executives who want to take health checkups but would not care much to wake up every morning and go out for walks. They would care either in gulping down loads of soft drinks, fast food and deep-fried samosas but yes they would not miss any appointment for health checkups. Call it fashionable or the real concern for good health, the market for preventive healthcare is booming like
never before. Some estimated peg the market size at around $900 million. An executive health checkup at a five-star hospital in Delhi costs Rs 3,500. A number of packages are listed on the brochure. The basic checkup is priced at Rs 3,250. Presuming that 500 people check in every day to avail of the checkup priced at Rs 3,500. This brings in Rs 17,50,000. This can be extrapolated to calculate the annual figures, which is of course huge. Healthcare is one of the largest service sectors in the country with estimated
revenue of around $ 30 billion constituting five percent of the GDP and offering employment to around four million people, according to industry chamber CII. By 2025, Indian population will reach 1.4 billion with about 45 percent constituting urban adult (15 years+). “To cater to this demographic change, the healthcare sector will have to be about $100 billion in size contributing nearly eight to ten percent of the then GDP. By then, the ten large national healthcare networks would be able to absorb 30 percent of the market share,” adds CII.
Tourism at Kumbh Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Feb 18, 2010 Tagged in: Kumbh, travel, tourism, Haridwar, pilgrimage, Ganga
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verybody knows Haridwar as India’s most popular mass pilgrimage. Even the poorest of poor have been there at least once in their lifetime. A very old lean lady taking “Ganga mein ek Dubki” (dip in the Ganges), and offering her prayers to God with the Ganga flowing from Anjali, is the most common scene of Haridwar, any Indian can imagine. With the grand event, the Kumbh approaching, a lot of tour operators are offering specific Kumbh tours with a lot of facilities. They have guides which take tourists to all historic places related to it near Haridwar, tell them complete history of the Akharas, take them to places from where tourists can have the best views of the ceremonies by Naga Sadhus, and 40
their processions. A simple Google search will also give a lot Websites that have cropped up with the name Kumbh in many domain variations, and look like official websites, though none of them are. They are offering details on previous Kumbh melas, bathing dates, how-to-reach info and what not. It’s a good example of customizing offering. Almost everybody has tried to cash in on the opportunity, even though it’s a seasonal one. After all, a festival of good omens and one which attracts millions of people from India and abroad, like Kumbh comes after 12 years and in this era when its all the more covered by media, everyone knows that even a drop from the Ganga may earn them profits.
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The Business of Global Calamities (as some would like to call them) Posted by: Abhishek Chanda in the news on Feb 05, 2010 Tagged in: WWF, World Health Organization (WHO), Oxfam, IPCC, H1N1, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, climate change
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here have been beggars, rich landowners, retailers, wholesalers and industrialists who have been pocketing their fair shares by engaging in various businesses. Also, there are the typical politicians, civil servants and men with power who pocket their unfair share by engaging in dubious acts. But of late a new way to rake in millions or may be billions of dollars seem to be the order of some people and their ‘prestigious’ organizations. This is the business of global calamities and hazards. The single biggest issue panning across the globe drawing ire of one and many is that of climate change and the man behind the erroneous reports, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is now making news for all the wrong reasons. Claims of the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035 as well as issues of global warming leading to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters such
insurance, alongside Oxfam and the WWF. Not so long ago, a yet another global health hazard that had millions in a tizzy was H1N1. Recently, certain sections of the media reported that a campaign of panic was put into place by big drug companies which convinced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic in order to increase profits. Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe conceded to a leading daily that H1N1 is just a normal kind of flu which does not cause a tenth of deaths caused as hurricanes and floods have received by the classic seasonal flu. However, a lot of criticism around the world. The governments and heath bodies are fact that these claims are ill-researched already rubbishing such claims while and over-hyped not only have political some other are busy digging deep. reasons to put pressure on policyWhile the magnitude of such makers to take action, but also are laced “global hazards” as claimed by their with murky financial opportunities. promoters/propagators/researchers is For example, it has been claimed that being questioned relentlessly, its critics natural catastrophes linked to climate are busy upping the ante by flushing change have left the world’s insurers with out leaked confidential information, a claims bill totaling to $22 billion in revealing names of unheard of 2009. The source of this information has organizations and their real motives. been linked to Munich Re, the German However, as both parties lock horns reinsurer whose concern is to exploit churning out questions never asked and the financial opportunities created by yet to be debated, the common mass climate change. For some time, the seems to be pushed into a quagmire of lucrative reinsurance industry has been confusion, trouble, false alarms, rumors seeing several business opportunities in and anxiety. Add to that the billions of climate change. dollars of hard-earned tax payer money Another leading research institute that is at risk if the truth behind all such on climate change, the International dubious funds is not dug out properly. Institute for Applied Systems Analysis It’s high time we choose our leaders (IIASA), which is under the guidance and men of knowledge carefully and of Shonali Pachauri, daughter of Dr responsibly and ask questions before Pachauri, has also taken a special giving them a pedestal to stand up on interest in climate change and and profess. R DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | MARCH 2010 41
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Laundry Service Chamak Laundry seeks to help people from bottom of the pyramid to become entrepreneurs and run kiosks that target the middle class customers. /Vimarsh Bajpai
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kshat Mehra decided to take the entrepreneurship route after working for Proctor & Gamble (P&G) for nine years, out of which seven were with their laundry business where he was the brand manager for Ariel and Tide detergents. He later moved to India to work with Aditya Birla Retail. Mehra, the IIM-Kolkata graduate, then got in touch with Innosight Ventures, an early-stage venture incubator based out of Singapore and India. Innosight is cofounded by Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen, who specializes in disruptive innovation. “Christensen has made a framework on how to figure out the possible disruptive innovations in the market,” says Mehra. “So for example, if you are Kodak and I, Nokia, I would think that there is a disruptive innovation possible in the market for customers who want the convenience of quick photography. And hence I would put my camera on phone, so that I don’t need two devices,” adds Mehra.
The Idea The core of Christensen’s message is to find out where the jobs are to be done. So Mehra picked up on this and found out that there is a “job to be done” by a subset of population that requires cleaning but has a requirement for decent quality, better than what they get from the dhobis. At the same time, they also don’t want to shell out Rs 100 for a single garment. “So we mapped out as to where is this job to be done and how big is this population, says Mehra. “This population tends to be 42
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young working adults who come to a new city and want chores like laundry to be taken care off. The other potential targets could be the housewives. So we mapped out these set of customers to whom the service could be critical and that’s where we positioned ourselves.” he adds.
The Laundry Once the idea was ready to take shape, the next step was to create a differentiator. Mehra says he is trying to set the benchmark of his village laundry service (VLS) versus the local washerman. Whatever the washerman does not give is what the village laundry service offers. “One thing that the washerman does not do is take care of the hygiene. Therefore at each kiosk we use an Ariel detergent or a Surf Excel, clearly visible by the customer. So you can watch your clothes being washed by a known detergent,” he adds. The second pain point is related to time, as the washerman would come only in a cycle of five days or 15 days. VLS, on the other hand, delivers a 24-hour turnaround time. The third pain point is that the washerman could damage the clothes. “So we wash it in a front-loading washing machine, which is technically better than the top-loading machine,” adds Mehra.
The Franchising Model Mehra is looking at the franchising model for growth. The license fee to start a Chamak kiosk could cost anywhere between Rs1-1.5 lakh to Rs2.5 lakh depending on the number of franchises one wants. “We are trying to make this franchise model easily accessible for people who just want to take one franchise. We give discounts if people want kiosks in four or five locations,” he adds. “My intent is to get as many people such as youngsters who want to be entrepreneurs, to take this up,” says Mehra. The investment would vary depending on the rental cost. If one owns the premises, well and good. VLS gives a ready-to-use kiosk and charges a deposit fee for that. “We give a full-fledged working kiosk. Then one can either work for oneself or hire someone to run it,” says Mehra. Everything from a washing machine to detergent supply, dryer, marketing support is all given by VLS. If the washing machine or drier breaks down, VLS would replace it within 24 hours.
The Roadmap Since February last year, VLS has grown from three locations to 25 today, just in Bangalore. “We are now starting up in Mumbai and Mysore. It has been a rapid growth,” says Mehra. What about taking it to the villages? Mehra says “When we said village laundry service, our aim was to involve the bottom of the pyramid people, both as operators/entrepreneurs and as customers. For e.g., we have 41 people on our role, who till very recently did not have a job. We trained them, their salary was pittance. We have given them employment.” As of now Mehra want to focus on Tier I cities but is looking forward to taking it to Tier II and III cities as well. R DARE.CO.IN | INNOVATION | MARCH 2010 43
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Smartphones: Are their ads smart enough to break through clutter? With more than half a dozen handset manufacturers offering smartphones in India, have the players managed to break away from the resultant communication clutter? /Abhishek Chanda
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ndia is a marketer’s haven when it comes to selling telecommunications, be it service providers or handsets. Down the years as giants like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have been churning out handsets one after the other, the last few years of this decade has seen a new breed of phones fighting it out amongst themselves—Smartphones. Beyond the rudimentary exchange of handsets for money, another battle has been brewing in the Indian media space, the battle for eyeballs of an evolved group of consumers!
seas brands such as the Finnish Nokia and the two South Korean firms – Samsung and LG. But the homegrown Micromax is now challenging the Koreans, after overtaking rivals such as Motorola, Sony Ericsson and HTC, according to recent researches and reports. Apple’s iPhone redefined the smartphones market globally, but failed in India primarily because of the high price of the phone. Apart from that, other domestic companies such as Zen Mobile, Gee Pee, Intex and Simoco have also jumped into the bandwagon by launching the socalled chat phones.
The Smartphone Market InStat, a market research firm has stated that about 18 million smartphones have been sold in the APAC region in 2006 and is expected to increase to 64.2 million by 2010. As per IDC, 70 percent of the mobile devices would be smartphones by 2010. A couple of years back, the market for smartphones was 38 percent. Again, a recent study by research firm Gartner revealed that social networking will replace email as the primary vehicle for communication in one in every five businesses across the world by 2014. The company also predicts that by then, email will be replaced by social networking services as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communication. The Indian mobile phone market has been largely dominated by over44
Communicating the brand Considering that the consumer is initially dependent on advertisements of the product to arouse interest in the brand and build up a purchase decision, it is quintessential for brands to not to fall into the ‘me too’ trap. But are they really doing that? Taking up four of the most active smartphone brands (advertising-wise) in India in the recent times, (Nokia E series, Blackberry, Samsung Corby and Micromax) here’s a look at some of the key similarities and differences in the advertising campaigns of these brands.
What’s common? Given that almost all the players offer similar features, the advertisements for these brands also embody a
similar look and feel. Like others, one is most likely to find feature-based blurbs that talk about emails, messaging and social networking. Though Nokia is the largest player by far in the market, the untrained eye may mistake certain models of
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the E series for a Blackberry and vice-versa. The layouts of both these brands use bold and dark colors and have an overall serious and executive feel to them owing to the corporate crowd they target. As a result, most Blackberry and Nokia E series ads would feature models in neat and formal attire and have surroundings that reflect an office
from the usual black and grey. Both brands heavily promote chatting and social networking as modes of communication. Both Blackberry and Nokia haven’t been advertising much on TV but are visible in the print media, as well as other mediums like OOH and digital.
What’s unique? Nokia For those who have seen Nokia ads previously, the brand has an uncanny habit of blending the consumer or the individual with the product to create one unique identity. The ads which are executed in India by ad agency JWT, rely on a copy that stresses on the consumer’s identity borne out of certain key features of the product in question. So for example, in this particular ad, the proposition is ‘How we respond is who we are.’ Last year when Nokia launched a category of stylish phones, the proposition again was ‘It’s not just a phone; it’s who we are.’
ambiance. Both these brands have been heavily promote emailing as a mode of communication. Again, if we take up the recent Samsung Corby and Micromax range of phones, they have a youthful ambiance in common. So, typically both brands have a lot of young people having fun with their phones and use a lot of vibrant colors straying away
Blackberry Launched in 1999 by Research In Motion (RIM), Blackberry is unique in itself that it doesn’t advertise much, but gets promoted by the service provider that is selling the brand in a bundle offer. So, may it be a Vodafone or an Airtel or Tata—one is sure to have found feature-based Blackberry ads time and again. However, RIM, which has its limited campaigns executed by the ad agency Collateral in India, generally relies on ads that announce the arrival of a new variant which generally have a hero shot of the phone with bullets or a summary of the features and what’s new in it. The brand relies on its reputation and word of mouth as advertising. A year or so back, Vodafone had introduced the Blackberry Storm, which featured F1 ace driver Lewis Hamilton promoting the brand. The company generated buzz by coining him the first to use the Storm.
Samsung Corby Corby has been making a lot of noise these days with heavy advertising in all forms of media, especially TV. One of the major reasons for that is the phones’ which come preloaded with the popular social networking sites, are targeted at the youth. Corby is unique in itself as it brings a lot of spunky colors to this particular series of phones ranging from yellow, orange and red! This instantly sets the brand apart as the consumer can distinctly recall the product from what he has seen in the ad. The TV ad created by Cheil Communications, encompasses all walks of life of the youth, may it be emailing, partying, clicking pictures or capturing videos, sharing them and also keeping up through social networking and chatting. The ad also has a distinct proprietary tune playing through it in the form of a jingle that helps generate recall. Micromax The Gurgaon-based firm, which entered the business about two years ago, is already giving serious competition to the established players. The brand that uses the tagline ‘Inventing surprises’ and targets the youth is unique in itself as its premium category, which is solely comprised of QWERTY keypad handsets will keep focusing on ‘easy chatting’. The brand has recently invested Rs 100 crore for advertising and has appointed Lowe Lintas as its creative partner. It has also signed up Bollywood biggie Akshay Kumar as the brand endorser, a move that would help gain more visibility. The brand had launched an advert in Hindi, set in a college classroom with a bunch of teenagers having fun with their phone. As a result, it managed to differentiate itself from a Nokia or a Blackberry, in being more youthful, casual and fun. R DARE.CO.IN | INNOVATION | MARCH 2010 45
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How to
Improve Productivity in any Organization
Using WorkďŹ&#x201A;ow Analysis Workflow techniques are typically used in large organizations with repetitive tasks, clearly defined roles and interactions. However, simple workflow management techniques like the ones discussed here can help improve productivity and reduce skewed workloads in any type of organization. /Krishna Kumar
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enry Ford ushered in the second industrial revolution (and affordable personal transportation) by using assembly lines and mass production techniques to produce cars. Mass production led to the development of workflow techniques to improve productivity and quality. Work flow has since become integral to managing repetitive work situations and concepts like TQM (Total Quality Management), Six Sigma and BPR (Business Process Reengineering) are attempts to improve workflows. A workflow is nothing but the way work flows in the organization. It is about defining where a particular job starts, who does what to it and where the output moves next, and further on till the output moves outside the boundaries of the organization. So, while workflows are typical in assembly lines, they also work well in situations including software development and call centers, where code or calls are routed to different departments based on a set of rules. Typically, the concept of workflow and optimizing the workflow are used in large organizations with clear cut job roles and is often automated using complex software. However, the basic principles of workflow management, 46
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For the purposes of our understanding, we will define the following seven elements of a workflow. Please note that these are not necessarily
moves next in the workflow sequence. In the simplest of workflows, there are no conditions and work simply moves forward to the next person in the flow. However, most workflows are not like that and usually there are conditions that determine where it moves to next. These are typically based on approval, behavior or response. For example, “if code is okay, send it to the
standard definitions, but are for our understanding. 1. Element – An element of workflow is that part of the process which is executed by a given person. An element could be “call next number in the list” or “paint the box red” or “check code block for errors” and so on. 2. Input – Whatever goes in, or is given to a person to do his job. This could be information, raw material, a function definition (for coding) code, an incoming call, a number to dial out to, etc. 3. Output – Whatever that person hands over to the next person in the sequence to continue the workflow. This could be modified code, comments on or about the code, finished or semi-finished goods, an ongoing call, etc. 4. Processing – Processing is the work done on the element by the person with whom it is at the moment. For example, processing could be dialing the number, or writing the code module or handing over the call to a supervisor and so on. 5. Conditions – Conditions are what determines where the work
next stage, else send it back for reworking”, or “if solution works, close call, else escalate to tier II support” or “if measurements within tolerance, stamp 'pass', else stamp 'failed'.” 6. Time – The amount of time required to execute the element. Time could be in any unit—minutes, hours, days and so on—depending on the type of job. Cycle time is the time required to complete the entire workflow and is the sum of the time required for all elements of the workflow. Here we should note that the actual execution time may be longer than the cycle time, if any of the elements take longer than scheduled or if at any point, the workflow is reversed, for say, correcting errors. 7. Choke point – A choke point is a point (person) where work piles up because of very high work loads, leading to delays. This can be because of under staffing or because work keeps coming back to the same person again and again (typically for verification). Choke points tend to delay the process beyond planned
along with some common sense can be used in almost any work situation in an organization of any size to improve planning, productivity and quality, and more importantly, to reduce skewed work loads.
Basic elements of workflow
cycle time and throw things out of schedule.
A simple workflow A simple workflow is linear, that is the next person in sequence to handle the job is always the same and there are no changes to this based on conditions. It is represented by a series of arrows pointing to the right, with each arrow representing an element.
Let us for the sake of an example consider a file moving from one department to another. This file could be electronic or otherwise and could pertain to say the purchase of a new plant and machinery. Within each department, the file would need to be processed by different people. In your case, this may be an incoming call or a piece of code or a part of a machine. Our objective is to increase the productivity and to even out the work load on the people concerned.
How to increase productivity We increase the productivity by reducing the total cycle time. From the perspective of workflows, we can improve productivity by smoothing the workflow itself or by reducing processing time. Smoothing is done by reducing the number of elements and by ident ifying and removing choke points. Processing time can be reduced by decreasing the time spent on each element and the number of reworks; that is the number of times when the workflow is reversed to correct errors or to attain defined specifications. Of these, we will focus more on the first set—of how to smoothen the workflow. DARE.CO.IN | STRATEGY | MARCH 2010 47
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There is another important factor that contributes to low productivity and higher processing time, particularly in unstructured office-like situations and that is defining and accepting competence. We will discuss that later.
Calculating cycle time With the definitions out of the way, lets move on to the real task of improving the productivity. We start by mapping the actual workflow. That is, we create a diagram of the process as it moves actually forward at your place. On this diagram, note the conditions for forward or backward movement and the time taken by each. Chances are that you will end up with a highly complex diagram for what you thought was a simple sequence of elements. If you do not, you have a miracle at hand. If you do, you now know the source of many of your problems. Now add up the number of elements and the time taken by them individually. And that brings us to the first question: Are you spending more time than you have at hand for completing the full job? We have not reached the stage of whether you are spending more time than you should. The question at this stage is whether there is enough time at hand to complete the job as it currently exists? In a recent example that I was involved in, there were 14 elements in a particular job (not counting reworkings) that had to be completed in a cycle time of
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12 days. The minimum time requirement for each task in this case was estimated to be at least one day. So, you had 12 days to complete a job that was designed to take at least 14! Obviously, there was no way the job could be completed on time, and people were working extra hours and weekends, without really being aware where the basic problem was!
Reducing cycle time If the cycle time is longer than what you can afford to give it or what you think it actually should be, then you absolutely need to reduce cycle time. This can be done using one or more of four methods: Reduce repetition – You will often find in unplanned workflows that some elements tend to be repeated with different people doing the same or similar things. For example are there too many QC stages? Can they be consolidated into one? Eliminate unnecessary elements – In any workflow, particularly in unplanned and unmanaged ones, elements tend to get added over time. Typically this happens with approval tasks getting introduced in between.
If that has happened in your case, it is time to take a really hard look at each one of them and eliminate all that can be removed. Reduce time for individual elements – Take a hard look at each of the remaining elements and see whether they are taking more time than they should. Is there any way the time spent on individual elements be reduced? Maybe assigning more resources to elements that require them could do the trick. Run elements in parallel – Unmanaged workflows have another bad tendency—to become completely sequential. That is, each element waits for all others before it to complete. Perhaps more than one element can run parallel, saving on time.
Workflows and choke points The next big issue to resolve is that of choke points. Choke points easily develop in workflows when there is too much of loading on one individual or team. Another easy way in which choke points develop is when the work keeps coming back to the same person/team for checking
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Another area where unmanaged workflows go out of control is when there is no clear definition of the
person(s) before them was not competent enough, then they will start checking everything or even redoing everything from start. Sounds funny? Look around and you will be surprised at how many instances you can spot of this particular problem. Add some perfection seekers into the equation and the problem worsens by an order of magnitude. The only way of handling this is to clearly define the role of each person/team in the flow and to have every one accept the competence of others. So, to take the example of a magazine like DARE being created, there is a team of writers, a team of copy editors, and a team of designers and so on. If the copy editors accept the competence of the writers on the subject being written about, then their role becomes limited to language and presentation. Else they will end up getting all worked up
designer is not accepted, everyone would end up thinking about the design rather than concentrating on their task. Okay, I can hear the questions. What if others are not competent? Who said the others are all incompetent and only you are competent? And even if that were true, wouldn’t it be easier to spend some time in building up the competence rather than spending forever in catching up on delayed workloads? Another way of increasing competence would be to create teams which would crosscheck each other’s work on a given element rather than have everyone check everyone else’s work. And finally, aligning and optimizing the workflow is not a one time effort. Over time, changes creep into what has been set up due to a variety of reasons. Changes in the business
roles and there is no acceptance of competence. Let me explain this. Consider an office where a file is moving from one person to another. Now, if each person thinks that the
about (and working on) the content and the scope of their part in the workflow increases to consume more time and thus extend the cycle time. Similarly, if the competence of the
environment also would require reoptimization of the workflow. How frequently you need to re-look at your workflow would be a function of your business and the teams you have. R
multiple times. This could be like when code keeps coming back to the same QC team after every stage, or more likely, there is some senior person in the office who wants to check the work after every stage or in the case of multiple elements of work, wants to individually check every element himself or herself. I recently came across an example where more than 30 percent of all elements of a workflow were with one person! The impact of this load on that person as well as on the rest of the team is imaginable! Very clearly, such choke points have to be identified and eliminated from the workflow.
Defining roles and accepting competence
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unique idea The coming of the social commerce websites MyDala.com is among the first to roll out the concept of group buying in India. By its third month in business (February 2010), the website had closed over 100 deals, sold over 2140 vouchers—which adds to a total saving of over Rs 15 lakh—just in the city of Delhi. The Website now has presence in three cities with a total workforce of 34 employees. We catch up with MyDala.com’s founder Anisha Singh about this unique business segment... roup buying website: what is the concept here? I would say ‘My Dala’ is a social commerce company. Dala is Sanskrit for the word ‘Group’. MyDala features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in a variety of cities across India. The idea of the website is to get people together in a group to avail huge discounts on services that we will not be able to get as individuals. For instance, while one can easily get 20 percent discounts in restaurants in various ways; we have arranged for campaigns that provided discounts at 80 percent. Similarly, we did a
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If enough people do not buy the deal, the featured retailer will have gotten that whole day's branding exercise done across our fan base without having to pay a single penny for it.
gym deal at 93 percent discount. A gym deal that is worth Rs 3000, which we are selling for 200, needs no convincing. Even after we took the deal off, we had people who were willing to come to our office and drop money to get the gym deal. So instead of us trying to convince them, there they were, convincing us. These are discounts unheard of and the kinds that an individual can never get. It is a generally accepted fact that we Indians love bargaining and getting good deals. Such deals have a great potential to go viral. If you get a fantastic deal at a good discount, you tend to tell your friends about it, then they come buy at the website. This is the power of ‘group buying’ or ‘social commerce’. The concept itself is very old and there are scores of companies in the US and other countries that have been doing business around this concept since the 1990s. I started looking at the concept around April 2009, noticing the popularity surge of social networking websites such as Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, etc. By August 2009, we were putting things in place for MyDala. Our first soft launch deal went live on 23 November, 2009. I think it is around 15 December, 2009 that we did the formal launch in Delhi. At our website, you do not have to register yourself. To get to know about the deals on a daily basis, you can visit our website, opt-in for our daily-mailer or SMS, or simply get to know them from our social networking pages. Ours is a very simple business plan where it is a win-win situation for everybody. The retailers win because they get committed customers; we only win if the retailers win and the customers win when they get deep discounts
for being in the group that bought the deal at MyDala. How easy or difficult is it to get deals to feature on the website? Being the first business in India with this concept, it took us a while to get the people here to understand. Their obvious question being, “Why should we dilute our brand by featuring a deal on your website?” We had to explain it to them that this not like a print ad or a TV ad where you run your promotions but never get to know the true ROI. Ours is a very simple concept— we will not charge you any marketing fee. We broke it down for them by saying that the deal from their company is highlighted on our Website for one whole day. Even if enough people do not buy the deal, you will have gotten that whole branding exercise done across our 15,000 fan base on Facebook, Twitter, mail-outs, etc without having to pay a single penny for it. We only charge them for deals where at least the minimum required number of customers is acquired. I think what clicked with them was the fact that we were giving them a medium that they had never ever gone into. We were showing them that they were getting committed customers through their door. Are there any criteria for choosing whose deals feature on the website? I must admit that we are a bit finicky about this. We try and identify quality retailers who we know for sure will provide the same level of service to the customers generated from our website, as they provide to any other customer, whether you have a
discount or not. For us our customers’ convenience and satisfaction matters more than anything else and we make this very clear to our retailers. Having said that, we have deals coming in from the likes of VLCC, which we run as panIndia deals. But our conscious effort is to pick deals from small and medium businesses that offer niche products and services that are different. Are there any criteria for choosing what deal to feature and when? This is a tricky one. We have a get-together on Friday and get a deal line-up ready. We don’t wait till when the deal comes in. We try to not repeat similar deals in any given week. For instance, two salon deals in one week is something that we won’t do. We will do one saloon shopping and one recreation. We have six verticals that we play with— shopping, recreation, beauty, health, restaurants and services. We only do six deals a week because a Saturday deal lasts till Monday morning and we have Sunday off. The overall criteria is that we try and get a good mix. You have been in business for three months now. Do you have any numbers to share? We have 34 employees working at MyDala. As per Alexa ranking, we are in the top 800 Websites in India. We have around 400 followers on Twitter and more than 15000 fans on Facebook. We have closed over 100 deals as of now, have sold out well above 2140 deal vouchers. Talking only about Delhi, we have closed deals that account to a total savings of over Rs 15 lakh in discounts. We are now present in three cities—Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. R DARE.CO.IN | UNIQUE IDEA | MARCH 2010 51
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o whomsoever interested to have an office/shop/education and training center at Nedumbassery highway side, very close to Cochin International Airport, 1000 sq ft fully furnished and 1000 sq ft to be furnished, exclusive in a closed campus, for rent or for joint venture, if both of us feel we can accommodate each other in the years to come or if interested for an owned premises 10 or 18 cents commercial highway side plot is available at the same campus. Magnetic Systems Company, a partnership firm established in 18th Feb 1988 at Cochin, Kerala, India, to business under information technology. The firm is promoted by Maju V Baby, Managing Partner, who has immense experience in IT since 1986. Mrs. Rekha Mathew is partner, in business and in life. Both belong to the traditional Kerala Christin family Vayaliparambil at Nedumbassery and Kattumanghattu at Mulanthuruthy. We were distributors for several corporate clients since 1988, and from 1990-2002 we were authorized support centre for M/s. ET&T Corporation Ltd., (a Govt. of India enterprise) under IT Ministry, GoI, for computers and related products, sales, installation, service and for annual maintenance contract. From 1993 to 2000 we were maintenance contractors for Dept of Post, Kerala circle for various manufacturers’ computers installed in PO’s all over Kerala. Presently we are providing maintenance service to over 900 computers in various govt depts. Maju V Baby
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have started an HR consultancy firm “Effective People”, to provide growth & change management, professional training and outbound experiential learning programmes after spending around 3 decades in various corporates. I would like to interact with entrepreneurs in the same field or any other field who may be interested. Atul Response I am working in the same domain in Delhi. You can contact me on my number. Janardan Tiwari
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ooking to invest between 25 lakh to 1 cr in promising new start - up companies based out of Mumbai. Interested entrepreneurs should send
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a brief copy of the business plan with the profile of the management team to my email id. Would be interested in any services, internet or healthcare related business. Ashish Response Hi Ashish, I have newly formed travel agency at Calcutta. I have 10 experience in travel Industry. My travel agency’s moto is reliable travel tourism service, and we target middle class, upper middle class, luxury class customers. I like to give value for money package, unusual packages, internet based travel booking facility, plus travel and tourism training. In near future, I will open a Hotel Management School. I have land in outskirt of Kolkata. If you interested in Travel & Tourism world, and dream to travel world, then you can contact with us. Ranu Ali Ours is Media Services & Consulting Company. I will send you our Executive Summary. The Company is engaged in TV Programme/ Movie Production & internet option which is expected to revolutionize the business. Looking forward to your response. Sudhir V. Joglekar Akshaya International, Mumbai
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very time I read DARE, I can feel a gush of adrenalin to charge me up. I have been for long contemplating an idea. In fact to some extent I have experimented with its practicality through a few beta versions. Now I am looking for a mentor and fellow thinker to build it up together. In brief, this is about Crop Health Management. In essence, crop health and human or animal health management principles are the same, but unfortunately in case of crop health, we are still following a primitive and largely misguided approach. So farmers primarily depend on the advice of their peers and buy pesticide or fertilizer sellers for solving their problem. On the contrary, India has a fairly advanced, agriculture science resource base and lot of money has been and is being poured into this sector. Commercially, contract farming is slowly but steadily catching up too. Internationally, more and
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more countries are now becoming sensitive about the pesticide residue and other health hazard issues concerning agri-commodities. So my idea is to develop Crop Health Management in the same lines as human health management. In the center of it would be a progressive farmer or a rural youth who will be trained in basic agronomy and crop management to act as the first point of contact from farmers, in the same fashion of a primary health worker. This crop health worker would be supported by a network of scientists, agronomists, laboratories, agriinput manufacturers, agricultural machinery manufacturers, etc. The crop health worker would also be connected real time through mobile telephone network (there have been some development in this recently like Reutersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Market Light etc) to and fro with the farmers and with the advisors and suppliers. The economic viability would be coming in the similar way a human health professional start his/ her practice. So we can think that the crop health advisor would initially collect some fee from farmers for advice, field visit, lab test etc and then slowly s/he would scale up by selling fertilizers, pesticides etc. The Government can also use them for communication and implementation of rural development projects, while the private sector can use them to promote their products. They can be the facilitator for large scale contract farming, organic farming etc. If anybody finds interest in this concept and shares the same passion to be the harbinger of Green Revolution, please get in touch with me for further brainstorming. Sharbendu Banerjee Response I read about your idea and I like your concept. I will like to talk to you in this matter and I am too interested in promoting agri based industry. Shital Jain
am a post graduate and was working as HR Head for an IT firm in Pune. I have left my job to do something on my own. I am planning to take a franchise of a day care and pre-school. I am looking for an affordable option to start with. Please revert. Payal Response We are a UK based educational consultancy with a network of more than 40 colleges and universities. We have many branches and agents in India working for last 6 years with us. We are looking to expand our network. Please contact for more details on my number or by email. Thank you Kiran Chandok, Geet Overseas
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have a concept on Remote Healthcare Services â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an end-to-end healthcare delivery system for the developing world. I am looking for people who want to be a part of the core team and can also help with angel funding to kick off the pilot project. Sanjay Sharma
Responses I would appreciate if you can send me a write up on this idea for evaluation. I would be keen to work in core team post evaluating the idea in detail. Ashish Mehta I would be interested to know more about your business idea and proposal. I can be contacted on my number. Bhagwati Sharan Sharma We are working on similar concepts. Lets connect and see if we can do something together. Sai Giridhar
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am planning to start a Pre-School in Chennai or any where in Tamil Nadu. I have finished my MBA. I want information regarding the process, investment, support, legal requirement, etc to start the preschool. Philoma Response I represent a market research and business incubation firm operating across South India. We can support your needs in setting up a preschool in chennai. We have already worked on similar assignments earlier. Could we talk further on this? Kalyan Kumar
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am looking for individuals, private or public limited companies who would like to be involved with us in doing bamboo business on a large scale. I am basically based in London UK and have access to UK and EU markets. Jay Prakash
Responses Please forward me some details on the same, I am very keen interested to go with it. Anand Ojha Contact Me on my email. Bhupender Singh
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would like start a small type of manufacture business in Karnataka. So kindly help me out in the same. Ashok Kigga
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e are looking for entrepreneurs (successful or failed) to join our team at First10. First10 is a fast-growing, direct marketing company based on the internet, and has emerged as one of the few firms in India that focuses on conversions. It follows a simple four part process to increase sales from clients website: 1. Attract potential customers to your website using Pay Per Click campaigns: Google Adwords, Yahoo Search marketing! & Microsoft adCenter. 2. Optimize your website & landing pages to collect your customers contact information. 3. Educate & Engage the consumer about your product/service via email marketing campaigns. 4. Increase online sales by driving the customer back to your website. We are now looking specifically for a creative web designer / art director to join our team. Anyone with a passion for startups can contact us. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re constantly looking for exceptional talent to complement our team. Maju V Baby Response I am interested in the concept, as i am in the same stream. so please tell me more details so that we will talk further VB Gangadhar
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am an interior designer from Pune. I am looking for an interior designer who can be my mentor and will guide me. Pooja
am based in Chennai. We are into architecure and interiors for leading Five Star Hotels, Hospitals, Commercial and Residential Buildings in South India. I can offer to guide you. Muthaiah
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e are an industry leader in the business of importing and manufacturing corporate gifts and premium/promotional articles in UAE, with a small presence in Indian market as well. For our Indian operations we are looking for a CEO with relevant experience, entrepreneurial skills and a go-getting attitude. The right person will have partnership in the profits of the division. Biren Jasani
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f you know of anyone who is into generation of Bio-gas and has problem of storing excess Bio-gas, I can help provide a solution to not only generate more bio-gas but also store pack and transport and sell like any other CNG / LPG gas for great business opportunity. We are looking for people from Bio-gas industry to start selling Bio-gas like any other gas. Bio Gas distribution entrepreneurs are Welcome to start this opportunity. Sandeep Patel Response I’m a MBA student in US but Indian by origin. While at school, we are currently working to create a business around mass energy storage system. Our system has generated good reviews from Dept of Energy, US. We didn’t develop the system but have the patent option for the technology. I think there lies an underlying opportunity for us to unite. Thanks Shaleen Khurana
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i, I am looking for a Dairy Farm business to start here in the Andhra Pradesh, India. I need ideas and opportunities to help me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Ravinder Babu
e are a newly formed travel services provider with a special focus on innovative tours. We are developing various theme based tours such as tea tours, wine tours, wellness tours, etc and would like to associate with service providers in these respective domains. Interested parties may get in touch. More innovative ideas are welcome too. Siddharth Gurjar Responses I am a Delhi based Tourism professional and Trainer. Please send the details about your products and if have any website. Pankaj Kumar, New Delhi We are currently Indian agents for a US based not-for-profit company hosting students for a 4 week programme in Dehradun and Rishikesh, comprising home stay and exposure to medical systems of treatment. We can host groups or individuals wanting to visit the Dehradun, Rishikesh and Haridwar area for meditation, yoga and treatment by Ayurveda and Unani systems. Please contact me by email or on phone for further discussion. Kiran Chandok Could you please let us know more about your innovative tour concept, so that we can take this further. Kabita Lunawat
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e have a play-school/ preschool concept with daywise curriculum. We are looking for a channel partner to promote franchiser/franchisee module. Those with 300-400 sq. ft. office space or ready to start a play school in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, or Delhi can become our channel partner. Kumar Responses I am planning to open a playschool in area adjoining Delhi border. Area is highly populated with double earning service class families. Regarding my qualifications I am a Qualified teacher M.A. + B.Ed. + M.Ed. and have substantial experience in teaching and
running a branch. Looking towards guidance and assistance. Namita Goel I am interested. I am from Chennai looking for opportunities in the education domain. Please send me complete details including cost details. Ramesh Kumar Interested in becoming partner in Delhi. Kindly send details. Jolly Gagan Contact me on my email Id. Sushil Lohia
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plan to establish a pure vegetarian restaurant (Jain Bhojanalaya) with modern amenities in Jaipur`s Johari Bazar, which is the main market or at Shimla, with orchestra at dinner and tea time. I am looking for an investor. Ashok Bothra Response I will fund you how much you require. Nimesh, Director, SSI
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am a HR professional working in an IT firm. I have a unique dental insurance plan for corporates and schools which could be a multi crore business opportunity. I am looking for like minded people to partner. Interested people may please write to me... Pradeep
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am working as IT Techie. I am aspiring entrepreneur. I would like to know about Marketing Leads. IT requirements like Software Development, ERP Implementation and services. Where shall I get these kind of requirements? Are there any websites and agencies to map the requirements between the service providers? How can I get these kind of information? Sudhakar G
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ed4u.in - This website has details on Chennai’s Medical World, starting from doctors of all specialties, hospitals, chemist, blood bank, diagnostic centers etc. in Chennai. Doctors, hospitals and all others advertise in this. This is a ready to earn website and available in Google search. “THIS WEBSITE IS FOR SALE”. Any one who has money to invest in manpower and infrastructure and would like to start business in Chennai
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can buy this website. For further details and buying cost contact me. MK
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have been in touch with DARE from the first edition onwards. I am very impressed with the response I get even today from DARE. I would like to start a food outlet in Bangalore. I have a Masters in Retail Management from NIFT Chennai and was always interested in food retail. I need some mentor or a person who is already in the business to guide me. I am doing my side of the research. Please help me out in this. Nandhakumar Responses You can write or call me. Vijay Kumar, Indigo Retail
We are into digital marketing team we can help u getting more orders for your services kindly let me know some more details about your business? Ramesh
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am a regular reader of your magazine and believe that DARE always supports upcoming entrepreneurs! I am a BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus (2005-09) graduate. I have always been passionate
about food and running my own business. I am starting my food venture in Gurgaon-Delhi-NCR (declining an offer from Symantec). As a first-time entrepreneur, I am facing various issues and will continue to encounter such issues as I grow. As of now, I am facing an uphill task of finding a good team. I have done all the groundwork in the last few weeks and need atleast one more member who is equally passionate for food and a career in this field. I have planned to launch the venture in the next 2-3 weeks. I am looking for people interested in the venture. Sumit Response I got to know about how passionate are you for the food venture through your post. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m also thinking on the same lines. We can meet & discuss the possibility together. Mohit Mittal Please call me. I am interested in this idea. Manjeet Singh
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conduct a 40-hour course on the Internet as an LVCâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;live virtual classroom. All you need is an Internet (256kbps or above) enabled PC with
a headset to participate in English medium of instruction. Ask for a free demo session today by sending me a mail. Vijay Kumar Response I am from udaipur and venturing into BPO training and placement business. If we can work out something then it will be great. As in our area no such service is available and students will find it quite helpful. Chirag Sharma
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am presently working (business planning) on my brainchild related to banks, which is completely unique in its functions compared to the traditional banks and does not exist in India yet. I am looking for a mentor who could assist me to execute my beautiful and practical plan. Curiously looking for guidance and support. S.P. Guruprasad Response With my versatile 24 yrs experience in all areas of business, I can guide you. You can please contact on my number or through my email id. Rambabu
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investor of the month
Kaizen is a private equity fund focused at investing in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education sector. Sandeep has more than 15 years of operations management, investing and nurturing experience across technology, real estate and logistics sectors. Most recently he has been the Managing Director of a $400 million real estate development fund in India called Milestone Fund. Sandeep has a MBA from Stanford University, a MSc in Civil Engineering and Operations Research from University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Engineering from Indian Railways Institute of Engineering.
Sandeep Aneja Managing Director Kaizen Management Advisors 56
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I have hopes that especially in the higher education and vocational segment, a lot more liberalization will occur and it will become a lot more attractive area for investment.
hy betting big on the education sector? From pure commercial sense, this is one of the largest capitalized spaces in the country. It is one of those most obvious places where there is significant demand and supply gap which is increasing both in quality and quantity on a yearly basis because the current infrastructure doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sufficiently provide either the quality or the quantity of education needed in India. And from a more personal perspective, if I were to look at the next 20 years of my working life, I have to do something meaningful. In my opinion there is nothing more meaningful for India at this point than educating the masses.
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There is a lot of opportunity for investment in education infrastructure but education, per se, is a tightly controlled area right now. Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that bother you? Sure it does. It is definitely an important area for us to look at and be concerned about. However, education is not just higher education, colleges and schools. Education goes beyond that and includes activities such as preschools, which are not regulated, corporate training, teacher training, vocational training, tutoring, test preparation, ICT, and learning management systems (LMS). Even within this, there are opportunities to provide services in a manner that may be for profit but not profiteering. As long as you are providing services of the right quality, and a not-for-profit entity wants to hire your services, then that is good enough. So I think there are opportunities to look at.
Giving you some examples of the trends we are seeing in the market, which are very heartening; there are three bills which we expect to be looked at very seriously in the upcoming sessions of the Parliament. One is the Foreign University Bill, which is a step in the right direction. Another is related to accreditation that is likely to be privatized. When that occurs, it makes a whole lot of difference towards the quality of education and takes away some of the bureaucracy that is involved in the entire core education, especially higher education. The third is the education tribunals. When we have that, it is going to be much more localized, privatized system supported by the public backbone. So these are the large changes that are likely to move our system in the right direction. Are you looking at early stage ventures as well, or is it only going to be growth capital that will come from your side? We are primarily looking at the growth capital. However, in certain situations, where early stage venture does make sense and helps create value for our investors, which are beyond the revenues, we will consider. Let me explain. Suppose we invest in an early stage company. Three years down the line, the revenues are Rs 50 crore. It may have been that we had invested in the same company at a later stage. But at the point of Rs 50 crore, you can value the company at a certain amount. But that valuation, often, will be driven by revenues if there are multiple competitors in the market. If there are not multiple competitors in the market and if there are
two or three good-quality players of that size in the market then the valuation at that point need not be driven just by the multiples and the traditional revenues, etc. It can be, at that point, driven by the scarcity of having those companies exist at that level. Have you already made investments? We are looking to make our first investment in a company that would be providing services to schools. It will be the company that will be in collaboration with a foreign education provider, which is establishing its India operations in partnership with our portfolio company. Are some pure-play Indian companies on your radar as well? Absolutely, there are Indian companies on our radar. This is an Indian company where we are investing and it is a vocational training company. It has been in the business for many years, has generated good revenue and grown. We are looking to take it further up on the growth curve. There are quite a few pure-play Indian companies that we are looking at. How big is the fund? We have two pools of investments under management. First, we have a domestic pool that is being raised by the investors in India which is at Rs 300 crore. The second one is doled out from Mauritius for investors abroad and that is $120 million. Have you set yourself a time frame for investments in India or you would wait for only good opportunities? It is very difficult to come up with DARE.CO.IN | BIO | MARCH 2010 57
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We are primarily looking at the growth capital. However, in certain situations where early stage venture does make sense and helps create value for our investors, which are beyond the revenues, we will consider.
an answer and look back later in hindsight and regret it. There is no compulsion for us to invest a single dollar. However, there is a reason. We have asked people to lock away money and allocate it towards our fund. We have a duty to pick a strategy that we believe will support our thought process of making eight to ten investments over a period of three to four years. So we have allowed ourselves a pace of two to three investments a year, which is a healthy pace. It is not too aggressive so that we can spend enough time investigating each company, figuring out whether it has the business performance potential to improve or not, and whether it aligns with our abilities. If it doesn’t, we don’t have a compulsion. At the end of the day, even if we don’t invest 20 percent of the fund, I will not be dismayed because I would have done our investors good service by investing only in those companies that made the best sense for us. Isn’t it disadvantageous to be focused on one sector? When you talk about investors looking at two or three sectors as part of their portfolio often those investors find that because they focus on many sectors, it becomes an oxymoron. You can’t focus on two or three, especially if you focus on private equity. PE is very different from mutual fund investment. Mutual fund is all about investing for growth, growth and growth. It’s about investing in the fastest-growing companies, irrespective of the sectors. If you apply the same today to PE it is a cyclical business. Every business and every sector goes through 58
cycles. Unless you are deep into the sector and the business, you will miss the cycles and the business evolution. Being focused really means being focused. If I were to say to you that I am keenly focused on just the school management phase, it would be silly because that would be too focused and not diversified enough. But we are focused on a sector which has got 25 sub-segments, out of which 12 sub-segments are greater than Rs 2000 crore in size today, some of which are growing faster than 20 percent year-on-year. It is a welldiversified enough segment and there are sufficient correlations within the various sub-segments with non-education businesses. For example, if you look at IT training, it is more related to the health of the BPO market than to the education market itself. What’s your investment strategy? We believe the time has come for Indian private equity market to look at an industrial investment strategy or an operations-oriented value addition investment strategy wherein the private equity investors (us) look at the company from the objective of figuring out the potential of unlocking value. The first thing that we have to do is to review the business performance improvement potential of the particular entity that we are investing in. To have the understanding of that potential, we need to know the sector and the various sub-segments within it. Therefore, the team we have crafted is the set of people who understand the sector and the segment and have built across sectors and have built companies within the sector, as well.
There is a three-way exit opportunity for us in this. We are happy to invest in companies which are about Rs 10 crore to Rs 40 crore, help them grow to a point where they have better corporate governance and better policies; grow the revenues to Rs 50 crore or Rs 100 crore; then exit by selling our stake to a larger investor or sell the company to a much larger buyer, who are many in the company today. If there is a possibility, we would like to come out with the company's IPO. We are looking at some companies which have Rs 200 crore in revenues as well. They will be good IPO targets when their revenues exceed Rs 400 crore-Rs 500 crore, and they have consistent profitability. The public-private partnership in the education sector is picking up. Are you willing to tap that area too? We believe that our portfolio companies will be looking into the public-private partnerships as an area for getting revenues for themselves, specifically in employability and in providing services to the schools. There are the areas we are bullish on in that order. In the employability area, where quite a few bottom-ofthe-pyramid contracts are being given out by the government, starting with rural employability schemes and ITI revamping schemes, those two are the most obvious. I do believe that our portfolio companies have the ability to play in those two areas. Also, there is a bit of an impasse on handing over schools to private players on a management basis. I see some of those things becoming a reality in a year or two and that will be important for our portfolio companies to look at. R
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CONTEST CONGRATULATIONS!
WINNER LAST MONTH'S BUSINESS IDEA CONTEST
Please allow 30 days for dispatch of prizes.
Specialized Aircraft Painting Service Vishal Garg, Painting an aircraft is no easy job, besides painting a huge piece of machinery it is more about the right paint mix (so that it can handle variations in temperature, drag etc.), right quantity (as aircraft needs to be light and paint can add weight)and various other factors. It is a highly specialized field. The pace at which private individuals are buying aircrafts, in a few years the number of aircrafts would be large enough to offer a sustainable business model. Even now it could be a profitable venture.
Musical Fountain Written by Asher Ben, February 21, 2010 The propellers of decommissioned aircrafts along with the rotor and shaft are to be removed and assembled horizontally. Then small holes are to be drilled on the blades. These holes would have nozzles attached to them which carry the water jet coming through a plastic conduit pipes. Four plastic conduit pipes connect nozzles on the four blades with a common water supply tube at the shaft. The flow and intensity of the water supply is regulated through an external electronic device which responds to variations in music. The electronic device signals the rotor to rotate in clockwise and counter clockwise motion. It also relates the water jet flowing through the plastic tubes. This creates a fountain which varies in pattern and design based on the rotation of the blades and according to the intensity of the water running through the pipes.
Air conditioning and pressure and velocity generation Written by Aalok Pandey - APD Innovation FrameWorks - Mumbai, February 08, 2010 When the blades of the propeller rotate, they produce kinetic energy and a pressure differential. If the blades are designed in such a manner, like a canopy like fully encapsulated chamber, the air at the inlet and outlet would have great pressure differential, and hence temperature difference. The high pressure, could be converted to drive miscellaneous motors and pumps in the craft, for kitchen and washing. The low temperature could be utilized in providing air-conditioning, thereby reducing load on the current unit. The design when optimized for speed, can provide additional thrust to the plane, thereby saving energy, reducing fares and so on. Finally the business idea to utilize current resources to turn them 100% clean and green and selfsustainable, could be developed for aviation segments..
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CONTEST The warfront experience Written by Khaiber Siddiqui, February 21, 2010 The idea is to create a simulation studio as a part of some amusement park for which visitors buy tickets to get an experience of flying in a war plane through a battle field. The studio will be created inside the skeleton of a real (but outdated) war plane which is generally used to transit soldiers to remote locations. The visitors will sit in the plane just like soldiers. But the most important part are the windows which will be actually 3D LCD screens. Even the cockpit area will be made exposed where a person enacting and uniformed as the commander will sit to fly the aircraft and the windscreen will serve as a main big LCD screen to show how it looks from the cockpit. As the journey begins, all these screens will slowly start showing as if the plane is entering in the battle field with heavy rains and lightening outside to make it worse. The person enacting as a commander needs to be real good at acting as he’ll have an important role to play. He’ll address the visitors as ‘commandos’ and will welcome them on the flight as a leader. Throughout the flight he would appear busy with the flight controls, would look tensed at times, would turn his head to shout and tell about what’s ahead. The overall idea is that when a real person will act frenzy in front of the audience, the simulation effect will become more realistic. All the seats will be installed with a simulation control which will give the experience of the taxi, take off, turbulence, somersaults, free fall and landing and that’s why the visitors will be required to sit with their seat belts on (just the way we use those in the amusement park ride). There will be surround sound effects to make one hear the machine guns, bombing and the rattling engines of enemy planes passing by. The lighting used inside the plane will also be linked with the program as it will go changing from normal to dim and will then flicker down to eventually black out as the plane enters the battle field. Finally the plane will escape the danger zone and will return to base, the lighting inside would also come back to normal and the journey will be over with the ‘victory theme song’ played in the background welcoming back the soldiers.
Defence Tourism Written by Shikha Bansal, February 07, 2010 It has always been a desire for a person to fly like a bird and to fight like a gladiator. When the country is not at war the resources stay idle and may be put to optimum use. All the three strategic units of Defence i.e. Army, Air Force and the Navy have some interesting equipment which a person has always dreamed of using as a child. The Ministry of Defence has come out with a novel idea of letting the public take a shot at the elite defence equipment, of course under due supervision, and enjoy dare devils antics. This move shall not only cover the maintenance costs of the equipment but shall at the same time instill a sense of patriotism in the youth of the country. Those who show extreme versatility in using these equipment shall be offered permanent jobs in the defence forces. It is a win-win situation as the Government mobilizes much required funds and gets access to a large pool of talent who might be interested in joining the armed forces.
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CONTEST Aero World Written by Rahul V Shah, February 21, 2010 India is an emerging market for aerospace industry. We are witnessing an increasing demand of new low cost air-craft. The business idea revolves around utilizing old planes of various shapes and size. Aero World is the world’s first unique theme park, which is completely built on the planes which are no longer utilized actively. Aero World will be a theme part with the following attractions: 1) Entrance: People have to buy tickets and boarding pass like any other airport. The entrance of the theme park will be created just like an airport. All the internal staff will be dressed in the same fashion as you will find in any airport. It will be a complete experience as if you went to an actual airport. 2) Museum: The theme park will have a museum which will be a collection of old planes and will explain and educate visitors about the history of aerospace. It can also show the models of new generation planes to show how technology has advanced in the years gone by. 3) Restaurants: The park will have various types of restaurants and food shops. You can take an old 2 seater plane and convert it into a quick “ice-cream” shop and take a big Boeing plane and convert it into a five star restaurant. 4) Gaming: Parts of the aircraft can be converted into an entertainment junction with various games related to space and aircrafts. 5) 4D Experience: We can create an 4D simulated flying experience for people to enjoy. You can even make them experience a crash and recovery in an entertaining style. 6) City Tour: Small aircrafts can be utilized to give a quick city tour. People can get flying experience and view their own city from the top. 7) Crash Course in flying: A training institute which can teach people how to fly a small aircrafts. 8) Documentary and Movies: You can show all time famous movies related to aircrafts as well as documentaries related to the aerospace industry.
Air taxi services Written by Raj Kishor, February 06, 2010 The idea at first sight is for starting an air taxi service which connects small cities for both passengers and small cargoes at cheap prices. For example, a small plane having 5-10 or even 20 passengers or cargo like flowers, highly perishable goods, emergency medicines etc. can ply from say, Bengaluru to Trivandrum. In between these two cities there are different stops like Salem, Coimbatore, Ernakulam etc. For that we have to setup or arrange small airports in these cities. Flight chartering, tourism etc can also done in this firm.
Scrap metal art Written by Palash Soni, February 21, 2010 Seeing this plane, I get reminded of the frequent crashes suffered by jets like these. It is a sad affair. However, we can make something useful out of the leftover junk of the crash, or junk from a plane which is going to be disposed off by any airline/air-force. After the crash investigation file closes, we can buy the scrap metal leftover from the crash and convert it into scrap metal artwork by employing an artist. The artwork might range from a small key ring to a small statue. We can scribble the exact details of the plane from which the piece was made. Since the art took birth from a fighter jet, we can sell it online in which interested buyers would be asked to bid for a piece of art. Since it is something unique and would be exciting for a lot of people out there, we can expect to make money by selling it as exotic art. It may sound a bit weird but it is worth a shot and would work on people who have a niche for unique and weird stuff!
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The Business of
Prefabricated Structures The use of prefabricated structures is on the rise which means more convenience to the consumers and good business for entrepreneurs. /Nimesh Sharma
B
uilding concrete structures is time-consuming, thanks to the number of steps involved right from sourcing the raw material to giving the finishing touches. This becomes a big problem especially if the requirement is immediate. However, since last four-five years, India has been introduced to a solution to this problem in the form of prefabricated structures, or prefab in short, more popularly known as porta cabin. Prefab structures (read Porta Cabins) are dwellings manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled on site and
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are designed and built to be movable rather than permanently located. Quality expectations in prefab are also changing. Now, customers even want air-conditioned and dust-free cabins, as computers are also being used in thereâ&#x20AC;?, says V Kumar, owner, Porta Cabin Corp, a big ticket prefab vendor.
The target market and the major segments All the major PSUs, many government departments and ministries, defense establishments and diplomatic missions, major private sector companies, elite schools, big
13 HRS FLAT In UK, McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s restaurants use prefabrication technology to build their new outlets, and they recently set their record of a completed outlet being built and open for business within 13 hours of starting construction on prepared ground works. This has considerable commercial implications for businesses and a range of prospective clients in India, which could be hotels and retail outlets who are using some form of prefabricated procurement. hospitals, top hotels, biggest builders and airline companies use prefab structures. The bigger prefab ven-
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dors like Porta Cabin already have impressive client lists, which are any small player’s envy. The major segments in prefab business are: I. Buildings: Companies that are starting projects need project site office before any minimal construction activity can be started, for accommodating their workforce II. Residential/Individual: In places, where government/municipality does not/cannot allow pucca construction, e.g., Near Qutub Minar, prefab structures are widely used. It includes rooftops where Municipal corporation does not allow construction beyond a maximum height and farmhouses on riverbanks III. Security Requirements: As a newly emerging option for defense and security arrangements, there is a need for control rooms, bulletproof cabins, CCTV monitor rooms, and strategic customized security structures on rooftops of important buildings A large amount of business also comes from places having difficult terrains, meaning it’s not a metro-focused market.
Why has prefab gained popularity lately? Prefabricated systems have been popular in India only recently because due to very poor labor remunerations; the system of wet (in-situ) construction is cheaper than prefabricated mass-produced systems. However, Brijesh Sharma, Triveni Electrofab, says, “These have been used since many years by the likes of Paramilitary forces and PWD. It’s the private sector that is embracing it only now which makes it a fashionable commercial item.”
What differentiates it from traditional rivals? Prefabricated structures can be assembled at a site with high speed.
LIST OF PRODUCTS WHICH ARE BEING/CAN BE OFFERED IN PREFAB • Site Office/Accommodation
• Portable Class Rooms
• Small Hospitals
• Bathrooms
• Camp Site
• Terrace Rooms
• Beach Houses
• Security Rooms
• Cellular Phone shelter
• Farm Houses
• Bunk House
• Modular Cabin
• Portable Toilet
• Guard Rooms/ Post
• Clinics
• Roof top
• Hotels
• Huts
• Barracks
• Portable Kitchen
• Cold storages
• Exhibition halls kiosks
• Workshops
• Warehouses
• Extended accommodation
• Disaster Relief Shelters
• Low Cost Housing
• Storage Shed
• Transit Camps
• Resorts & Hill Cottages
• House (one to three bedrooms)
• (Up to) three-storey house
For instance, around 1,000 sq. ft. can be erected on site in approximately two to three days. These structures are sturdy and have life of approximately 30 years, which is comparable to any on-site built structure. The materials used include wood, PVC, Cement Fiber Board (CFB), and GI (Galvanized Iron) sheet panel, with varying thickness.
Size of market and earning potential “Small firms can do a business of around Rs 5-6 crore per year, selling about 200-250 porta cabins of price range Rs 500-1500 per sq. ft.”, says Ankleshwar Nanchahal, Director, Tinnycraft. On a higher scale, there are companies like Porta Cabin who sell 6000-8000 porta cabins per year, with 80 percent of the clientele being the corporate market. One thing to take care of is that this business is seasonal in some aspects.
Competition The market is untapped to the extent of 60-80 percent, with lesser competition on bigger scale. “There are very less companies that offer expertise in the market. In reality many companies don’t offer prefab themselves but outsource it to companies like us who actually have the expertise,” says Nanchahal. Most of the small firms are engaged in
installing prefab units bought from the suppliers. It’s only the bigger companies that have their manufacturing facilities.
Source of raw material There is no dearth of raw materials. Apart from Chinese imports, Indian companies like Everest Industries, NCL Industries (Nagarjuna Group) and Tata Steel manufacture the materials used in prefab construction.
Industry-specific issues Some of the problems faced by prefabricated house vendors in India include lack of familiarity of the consumers, impression that design choices are limited with prefab structures, perceived cost premium for quality prefab, lack of flexibility in on-site design changes. The others include opposition from construction workers and contractors who may perceive threats to their jobs from prefab units; prefab styles often cater to a niche market and have limited initial appeal.
Barriers to entry and growth Barriers to prefabrication are presented from the perception resulting from past mistakes. These include lack of trained work force for installing prefab units; lack of prefab
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One can start a prefab selling unit with about Rs 50 lakh constituting fixed capital and working capital. There is a minimum profitability of approximately 10 percent which can be increased overtime through acquiring bigger clients and moving up in the value chain of products.
ADVANTAGES OF PREFABRICATED STRUCTURES − Good weather resistance − Easy and fast to fabricate − Knock down system and easy shifting − Fire Retardant − 100 percent water proof − Anti Termite − Anti fungus − Anti Corrosion − Very low maintenance cost − Resistance to chemical − Aesthetic Design − Light weight, high flexural strength and impact resistance − Low cost (vis-a-vis time cost) − 50 percent less water used for construction of a typical house − 50 percent less use of quarried materials used in the construction − At least 50 percent less energy consumed − Feasible subsidies from government for GRIHA rated green buildings/ structures − Lesser legal issues − 50 years warranty (for houses in India, in most cases) resources close to the building site; the consumer is either not familiar with the concept or does not desire it and stricter guidelines being used by money lenders to assess prefab home loans. There is the perception that prefabrication offers a non-permanent solution.
Innovations in prefab market Some people have brick slips mechanically fixed to the outer surface of the structure’s wall in an attempt 64
Prefab Homes to mimic the traditional finish. Besides, even containers containing the equipments and other things like AC, generators, computers which are required on a project site, which are wholly transported there, are being made of prefab material. The innovation factor has been market driven in the prefab industry. Now, instead of only plain porta cabins, there are also toilets and pantries made of prefab. In Rajasthan, Porta Cabin Corp has even made cabins which provide office space during the daytime and sleeping place during the night.
Socio-economic impact of Prefab on India Prefab is already making waves in the education sector as companies like Sintex are providing prefabricated classrooms to governmentfunded education scheme – "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” wherein there’s a shortage of six lakh classrooms. Sintex has already received approval from 16 state governments, owing to its large scale geographically diversified manufacturing facilities, leading to lower costs. These structures can also be used for mass housing in disaster situations, for defense personnel in difficult terrains and mass housing of labor force and slum dwellers by companies.
Investment and ROI in starting a prefab selling firm In this business, working capital is required more than the fixed capital.
Though its a small segment, but being the latest fad, options are available for primarily those who have big space and can spend money, and above all have the fetish for it. Major constraint for prefab homes is that they cannot be built beyond one to three floors. The cost of construction is Rs 1500 -7000 per sq. ft., which is additional to the cost of land. The companies that are offering prefab homes have little customization to offer to the nascent Indian market. They offer prefab houses that are of standard sizes at high prices irrespective of space availability with the customer. Globally, companies like Ikea (furniture giant) and Toyota (Automobile giant) are entering prefab housing business and doing very well. Then we also have prefabricated houses made of engineered bamboo that have certain other advantages. They can be packed flat and transported long distances at a reasonable cost. They are better designed and environmentally friendly. Bamboo materials are widely available and can be cultivated at a low cost. For those who can afford, there are wooden homes as well as wooden floors, for which there has developed a sudden liking. The prefab market is wide open for companies that can come up with marketable solutions to the design, supply, and cost issues. If you want to be innovative in the construction sector and want to add glamor factor, this is the business to be in. R
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sphotoblogs Handicraft and Social Entrepreneurship
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ecently on a visit to Tilonia, Rajasthan, I came across a number of small units set up with the concept of social entrepreneurship. This could range from handicraft, handloom, toy making, rain water storage, solar energy capture, technology integration, computer education, health issues, and even folk art including music, dance and puppetry. The idea behind social entrepreneurship is simple - empowering society to sustain on its own resources. Often social entrepreneurship is labelled as a charity work or the functional area of NGOs. But there is great potential in this sector where, with a good social impact on education, heath and living conditions, economic growth of society can be ensured. (Photo taken at Barefoot College, Tilonia, Rajasthan) Author: Vivek Kumar
Tourism around Qutub Minar
A
ccording to Wikipedia, in 2006, Qutub Minar received more visitors than Taj Mahal itself. This footfall made it the most visited monument of India. Qutub Minar, of course, is one of the most talked about monuments in India. Most of the children know the false tale woven around it that once upon a time, it had seven storeys. The Qutub Minar complex invites lots of foreigners, local visitors, school children, and individuals. Catering to their various needs right from food and transportion opens a host of opportunities. At the same time, micro level businesses like visitor's guide and translation also thrive on individual basis. Before digital photography came and everybody started clicking photos through mobile phones, professional photographers made good business clicking visitors and sending them photographs through post. According to some unquoted sources, there are around 800,000 monuments in India that are unprotected. Is tourism India missing a lot of opportunities? (Photo taken at Qutub Minar complex, Delhi) Author: Vivek Kumar
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Photo blogs Mar10.indd 65
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Kiran Mazumdar Shaw CMD, Biocon
Samir K. Brahmachari Director General, CSIR
Anil Kumar Gupta Executive Vice Chairman, National Innovation Foundation
S. Sadagopan Founder Director, IIIT
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Vijay Chandru
Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Labs
CEO, Strand Life Sciences
Dr Ajay Mathur Director General, BEE
March 8-9, 2010 India 2010
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Research Af liate, Synthetic Neurobiology group of MIT’s Media Lab
Ass. Professor, Harvard Medical School Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Chairman and CEO, Nanobiosym
Dr. Mano Manoharan
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CONTACT: Dhaval Gupta at +91 9999 688 057 or email: dhavalg@cybermedia.co.in Meenakshi at +91 9845 155 614 or email: emtechindia@in.cpm-int.com
2/25/2010 11:07:03 PM
blogs/opinion
Who Really Owns Your Company /Vijay Anand
Whoever sold you the romanticism that being an entrepreneur meant being your own boss was clearly lying. You really never escape the chain of command and reporting structure so easily, not in a civilized society.
Who does own a corporate? They say it becomes an entity of its own, can own assets, can incur liabilities, can attract investments and is a being of its own, shielding its board and management from most liabilities. Who owns it then?
O
nce in a blue moon, this
as they say. As an employee you
situation repeats itself.
might be accountable to your boss,
The board of a company
but as an entrepreneur you are
along with the stakeholders and
accountable to all of your clients,
investors are pushing the entre-
stakeholders and employees. And
preneur towards a direction which
every one of them holds you re-
he/she is really not liking the latter
sponsible to have the answers and
and tries playing the ownership
do your best—that’s no different
card. “This is my company and I do
from being an employee. Think
have the best in mind for it.” No-
about it.
body usually reacts to those words, but technically one could throw
know. It is crucial to understand
you out for making statements like
this because this sets the context
that. I’ll start with who doesn’t own
to understand a whole lot of things
a company—it’s the entrepreneur.
that happen through the course of
Whoever sold you the romantiVijay Anand is an entrepreneur who has experience starting and building various technology startups, starting at the young age of 16. He is currently the Incubation Manager at RTBI, an incubator in IIT Madras that focuses on building rural-focused businesses. He is also the founder of Proto.in, India’s premier technology showcase event and is involved in various initiatives that are shaping up the emerging entrepreneurial scene in India. He blogs as The Startup Guy at www.vijayanand.name and tweets regularly at www.twitter.com/vijayanands.
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So here are two things you must
cism that being an entrepreneur
the company: 1. The day you incorporate your
meant being your own boss was
company you no longer own
clearly lying. You really never
it. If you want to own some-
escape the chain of command
thing, keep it a proprietary
and reporting structure so easily
firm or under a partnership
not in a civilized society. So It’s no
(wouldn’t recommend it, as the
wonder that things don’t span out
statistics as high as 99 percent
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I see and come across enough entrepreneurs who want to own more than 50 percent of the company. That’s almost the sure way to kill the company and strangle some relationships.
of the partnerships ending in
give up control, bring in the right
breakups). It might not be a
people, and yet have enough of a
bad idea to keep it as a family
leeway to make a decent exit. Note
business, but there as well its
how the stake you hold is towards
joint ownership
a better return, rather than control.
2. The day you agreed on a term
And in all this, the obvious
sheet and took money from
question remains. Who does own
your investors, you made up
a corporate? They say it becomes
your mind that you were go-
an entity of its own, can own
ing to sell your company for a
assets, can incur liabilities, can
good price someday. Investors
attract investments and is a being
invest looking for returns and
of its own, shielding its board and
those returns are never going
management from most liabilities.
to happen without an exit; and
Who then owns it? The answer to
an exit means a sale. Read that
that is probably the most shocking.
line a few times, it helps to get it
The government. The government
into your head. You have by all
is who owns a corporate—infact
means sold your company when
every corporate. The rules of the
you took investment. Period.
land enable and provide the space
So the obvious question arises.
for passionate, enthusiastic and
Why on earth would anyone want
enterprising individuals to spot
to be an entrepreneur despite all
an opportunity, exploit it, create
these gory truths? Well, a couple
jobs, add value, attract invest-
of reasons. a) You still do have the
ments, grow the company, expand,
capacity and capability to build
create a board to make their own
something from scratch, scale
decisions and directions for the
it and make money in the proc-
entity, make an exit, or even take
ess—you are still one of the major
it public. But at the end of the day,
stakeholders in the firm and b)
when and if it does shut down and
What you want to do to create this
incurs a loss, the losses go away
value (be it money or impact or
with the fading memory of the
fame) is all left to you,– at least in
company. And that’s the shield that
the beginning.
a government provides to the en-
The intent for writing this arti-
trepreneur—probably the best of
cle is for one thing. I see and come
freedom for an individual to create
across enough entrepreneurs who
wealth and value the fast track way.
want to own more than 50 percent
As far as the government is con-
of the company. That’s almost
cerned, creating jobs is one
the sure way to kill the company
of its prime mandates. And corpo-
and strangle some relationships,
rations are instruments towards
because it shows that you haven’t
that cause.
gotten the first thing about a
In the light of that, look at the
corporation right—you can’t own
bailouts. You might see a slightly
it. And the only way to scale it is to
different picture.
R
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from the Blogs http://www.dare.co.in/blogs.htm
Ideal model for a ‘Health focused NGO’ Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Feb 15, 2010 Tagged in: Healthcare, NGO, hospital, poor care, transparency, donation
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ecently one of my uncles was in the hospital for two months. He had severe Pancreatitis, with only history being that his mother also had a stone in the gall bladder (which goes into pancreas to lead to Pancreatitis). He was admitted in the ICU and was kept on ventilator for a long time. It was a prominent hospital of Delhi, and the daily bill generated led to huge cash outgo from our pockets. And to be frank, barring a small element of luxury there, it was the ideal treatment any individual should receive respecting his individuality and body. It forced me to think about the purchasing power of different strata of society. Even for those who can afford this huge expenditure of money, the pain of someone ill is no less. Disease pinches, and then money pinches. Now, what about those who can’t afford to spend huge amount of money in big hospitals? What about the pain of their patients? What about the unhygienic
Though admin expenses are higher in their formalities, they make sure there's no corrupt ion and donations are going to the right people.
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conditions their patients suffer in government hospitals? What about the inconveniences the attendants have to suffer? What about the business/salary loss they have to undergo because of the illness. What about the guarantee that the drugs they receive are not fake? What about the guarantee that the blood they receive (often from touts) is not infected? If a pushcart trader who earns Rs200 per day catches some serious disease like this one, he just cannot afford to be treated in any big hospital, implying a worst treatment to him, not forgetting the business loss he will have, especially in a case where he is the sole bread-earner. Barring few, almost all government hospitals have bad living conditions, and all of them invariably are overcrowded. First the patients often have to deal with the bureaucracy and apathetic attitude there and after that if there is space in the hospital they get admitted, with often more than one patient on one bed. Some of them even die on doorsteps. There is definitely a lack of social enterprises (or NGOs) in this space that can cater to poor patients arranging money for their operation, surgery, etc. If we talk about a hospital like Narayan Hrudalaya, it is definitely one great example of a hospital giving services at nominal costs. However, not always it is possible to reduce the amount of money for an operation. A good example would be an NGO like LifeCare which caters to the exact issue I am trying to point out. It finds out poor people (mainly children) who are
suffering with some major disease and need expensive surgery or operation. Then they negotiate with a hospital or health ministry officials to reduce the fee of the operation for that particular case. Then they call up their donors’ database and ask them to donate whatever amount for the child patient’s operation. And to ensure transparency and avoid any discrepancies, they have proper standards and benchmarks that they follow. They send the concerned person to the home, who after receiving the donation, gives a proper receipt, and even an Income Tax exemption certificate signed by the relevant government authority. (They must have negotiated with IT authorities for this move.) I, as a donor also get to know the child’s operation details, and get the discharge papers of child couriered to me after a few days. And they do ensure to call us up after few days and even invite us to see and meet the child if we want. I was impressed with their model since the first time I had donated. Though administrative expenses are higher in all these formalities, but they make sure there are no corrupt practices and donations are all going to the right needful people. It’s a wonderful model that I have come across, unlike those other NGOs where you donate and after that there is no trace of where the money went. Many others should follow this model which has credibility inbuilt and shall, in every way help the real cause they want to promote. What other good examples do you know of?
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from the Blogs http://www.dare.co.in/blogs.htm
Standing Out in a Crowd of Similar Businesses Posted by: Binesh Kutty in the news on Feb 11, 2010 Tagged in: strategy, Nashik, mindset, markets, entrepreneurs, business, BPO
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ecently I met a group of entrepreneurs in Nashik, who under partnership, have decided to set up a business in the BPO space. Now, it has been only a couple of years since Nashik saw BPOs being set up in the city. Naturally, there was this sudden surge of BPOs in the city. Having said that, one of the many problems that these entrepreneurs mentioned is ‘there are just too many of us who do exactly the same kind of work for the same pool of clients’. Such is the dilemma of a lot of entrepreneurs in various segment of business. What one does not realize is the fact that the real problem is the ‘mindset’ of the entrepreneurs.
Professor Philip Anderson of INSEAD in his column ‘How to Zig When Others Zag’ has beautifully penned on how to deal with this mindset problem. “Entrepreneurs can often become trapped by their own definition of who is my customer, what is my business model, and what is my value proposition,” said Professor Anderson. I highly recommend this article to any entrepreneur who is facing the issue of how to stand out in a crowd of similar businesses. As for the group of entrepreneurs who brought this problem to my notice; I shared this article with them and they say it has realigned their way of thinking in a good way.
A classic Harvard Business Review article nearly fifty years old challenged executives to ask themselves, “What business am I really in?” The author’s point is that if you are a railroad, you are in the transportation business, and if you define yourself as being in the railroad business, you will overlook competition from alternative sources of transportation such as trucks. In a similar way, entrepreneurs can often become trapped by their own definition of who is my customer, what is my business model, and what is my value proposition. Creative thinking starts by questioning the assumptions we take for granted about what we are doing. Only when we reframe a problem in a fundamentally new way can we think in genuinely innovative ways about how to position an entrepreneurial venture for growth. A creative approach to a venture starts with the question, “Who is my customer?” Often, you have to separate three economic roles: who uses what you sell, who makes the decision whether or not to buy it from you, and whose budget the payments come from. For example Bright Horizons redefined the business model for child care centers in the United States by focusing on corporations that wanted child care facilities on their premises as an employee benefit. While employee-parents may be the users, Bright Horizons’ real customers are the executives who decide that child care will boost their employees’ productivity and loyalty. Read full article at http://bit.ly/14J0m1. DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | MARCH 2010 71
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Waste Food Redistribution Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Feb 16, 2010 Tagged in: waste food, hotels, restaurants, Akshaya Patra, ISKCON, NGO, CSR, Hunger Free Campaign, Bhagidari
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ood being wasted in my company’s canteen made me recall my thoughts I had been having about waste food that could be distributed to the needy. All the hotels, restaurants, company canteens/ caterers, marriage and other parties have a good amount of food that is left after the day/event is over and most of it is thrown away. In some cases people want to utilize it but they don’t know what to do. Simultaneously, there are just too many people in India who don’t have enough food. They often eat only once a day. Now, to this Vimarsh (not my colleague) tells me why don’t you call up 1098, it’s a waste food helpline. They will pick up waste food from you. I went to their website to find out the truth,
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and found this: “Warning: We understand there is a chain mail circulating that says one should call up 1098 to pick up leftover food after a party, etc so that it is not wasted. This is not true. We are India ‘s only and the most widespread children’s phone emergency outreach service (1098) for children in need of care and protection. We do not pick up food or distribute it. This mail was not initiated by us, kindly do not circulate it. Your cooperation is appreciated. This is some inline content.” So, this idea flops here. Even before I had heard of this, I was toying with an idea. Why not have some NGO start a van service, which would collect food from hotels and restaurants, who would call up this NGO in advance on daily basis for
food. The food then will be brought to dedicated centers where it will be directly distributed to the needy. Finer details on edibility and safety can be worked out. The van shall be refrigerated (I understand that there will be costs associated). These costs can be contributed to by the bigger hotels and restaurants as part of their CSR initiatives. Alternatively, an NGO like Hare Ram Hare Krishna Foundation (ISKCON people) can start this service. I mentioned ISKCON because they are already running a really huge mid-day meal service in Karnataka , through the Akshaya Patra Foundation (www. akshayapatra.org/), feeding about 1.2 million children everyday. (See at the top of their website) While the Hunger Free Campaign in Delhi, being run by Akshaya Patra Foundation, under the Bhagidari scheme of the Delhi government and sponsored by the Taj Group of Hotels, aims at feeding school kids with mid-day meals, I am talking about minimizing wastage of food and utilizing it to feed the poor at night (I think that’s what works out at the end of the day). “Waste Food collection” idea does not generate surplus, but only helps the existing supply meet the demand at the right place, and at the right time (before it perishes). Obviously achieving perfection in matching the demand and supply might be impossible, due to seasonal fluctuations in marriage season, and many other reasons. At times, there would be shortage and at times there would be surplus left. However, even giving this idea a trial run with proper planning would be of great contribution to the society. Any resourceful altruist reading this!!!???
MARCH 2010 | FROM THE BLOGS | DARE.CO.IN
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NGO Profiling in India- Are the Paper Tigers Wary Yet? Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Feb 17, 2010 Tagged in: NGO profiling, rating, corporate charity, Charity Navigator, Foreign Aid, Intelligent Giving , Credibility Alliance, ICongo
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ith 1.2 million registered NGOS in India, and most of them being paper tigers, how many small and local NGOs have you come across that you felt are genuine and are transparent in their working and work wholeheartedly towards the cause they are promoting? Are you saying that you had no means to find out whether they were genuine? In case you have tried Googling them but couldn’t find, there’s the bare fact that many NGOs are working on ground for their causes and don’t have online presence or have very minimal presence. So, how do we find out about their worthiness? Some well-read might recommend getting help of NGO rating agencies. However, the pick is that there aren’t many or popular ones in India.
Even globally, there are very few NGO rating agencies. The popular ones include ForeignAid, Intelligent Giving in UK and Charity Navigator in the US. Though the business model of a NGO profiling agency is less likely to work in India, the situation is getting conducive gradually, though it will take a few more years to become wholly acceptable. Some would definitely wonder how the model works there. Well, it’s like this. In big organizations like Google (based in developed nations), the charity policies are made to encourage charity by employees. If John wants to give $200 to an NGO of his choice, Google pledges to give the same amount to the same NGO. However, to do the same it has to make sure that NGO is genuine. At this point of time, it takes help of agencies like
ForeignAid and Charity Navigator who have the profiles of all registered NGOs in the concerned country and have the results of NGO audit conducted by them through which NGOs are assigned ratings. That way Google gets the complete profile of targeted NGO by paying profiling charges to Charity Navigator or ForeignAid and makes sure that the charity it is giving is going in the right hands with highest amount possible. In India, Credibility Alliance and ICongo are doing similar work in this regard. So, from now on if you want to do some charity, do try to take these services. I am of the idea that they have not started charging as of now. Simply, because we won’t pay. However, a professional charity profiling system is on its way for the future. We better get ready. R
SMS: “DARE <your comments, questions or suggestions>” to 56677 Email: dare@cybermedia.co.in Website: www.dare.co.in Follow us at: http://twitter.com/daretostartup DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | MARCH 2010 73
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A True Celebration of the Entrepreneurial Spirit Entrepreneurship Week India 2010 concludes with record number of events and participants from all over India
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rom February 6 to 13, over 6,00,000 people across 30 cities engaged in a celebration of entrepreneurship for Entrepreneurship Week India 2010. Over 4,000 entrepreneurial activities were led by 70,000 students of E Cells (Entrepreneurship Cells) from 512 member institutes of the National Entrepre-
neurship Network as part of E Week India – making it the biggest entrepreneurship activity in Asia. The unique, week-long campaign advocating support for entrepreneurship was based on the theme ‘India: Opportunities Within’. In line with the theme, participants organized a range of activities and programs to
explore opportunities in solving India’s biggest problems: from education to healthcare to energy to water and more. Panel discussions, expositions, tech-bazaars, idea-generation competitions, awareness rallies were all part of the campaign – and were conducted with vigor in campuses across the country.
MUMBAI 800 ventures in two days
IIT Bombay E Cell organized a Global E Cell Summit, bringing together 30 E Cells from campuses across India, to discuss strategies to strengthen entrepreneurship among students
Students of Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University, Department of Business Management spread the E Week message in buses, in Mumbai 74
Padmashree DY Patil turned its entire campus into a Special Economic Zone for two days during E Week. Each of its 800 students started a small venture during those two days, ranging from yoga classes to career counseling to organizing DJ parties. Thakur Institute of Management Studies tied up with local NGOs to host a bazaar on campus, and also held a workshop on eco-Ganesha model-making, enabling E Cell members to make and sell their own paper mache models in the festive season. At Atharva Institute of Technology, student entrepreneurs showcased their campus companies, including a stationery shop, a college magazine, a tiffin service and an information portal for students. “We have learnt so many new things in our NEN E Cell, and we cannot wait to put them to practice. A campus startup is the best way to start,” says NEN E Leader Ishani Ghosh.
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PUNE Villages become ‘party’ zones Students of MES Garware College created new market places in the villages of Deagon and Asde near Pune, by organizing Hurda (corn) parties there, this E Week. The Hurda parties, launched to promote agritourism and agriproducts, were designed for young urbaners to give them a taste of rural India. Following the success of these ‘parties’, Borade Vasant, a school teacher in Asde has volunteered to support agri-tourism in the village, and his wife Alka even wants to teach visitors how to cook traditional Maharashtrian food. “The village will certainly prosper from tourists from nearby cities. We see hope,” Vasant says. The E Cell members now plan to take three-four families in a mini bus to other villages where agri-tourism is working, to encourage them to implement the same in their own village. “Agro-tourism will flourish only when the local villagers participate actively in it, and our E Cell wants to facilitate this,” says NEN E Leader Sagar Muluk of Garware College. Incidentally, two more hurda parties have already been booked for the month.
Indira School of Business Studies, Pune
Students of DY Patil Engineering College in E Week gear, in Pune
KOLKATA More than 3 idiots set E Week rocking The cool innovator of 3 Idiots, Aamir Khan’s Rancho, will find plenty of company in the E Cells of Kolkata. An SMS system to control 16 home appliances, a ‘glowing’ walking stick to aid the blind and biofuel using vegetable oils were some of the innovations and inventions that E Cells at Institute of Engineering and Management and Heritage Institute of Technology are looking to commercialize to solve some of India’s key issues. “The crux is commercialization. How do you convert these models to readyto-use products? We are trying to look at our technical projects from the market’s point of view and use technology as a way to meet the market needs. Our E Cell has tried to build this mindset this E Week,” said Souvik Bhattacharya.
Engineering students of Institute of Engineering and Management showcase their innovation, an SMS controlled home remote and security system, during E Week
ISB&M students in Kolkata find a creative way to share their E Week passion DARE.CO.IN | NEN | MARCH 2010 75
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INDORE Ten startups launched in a week Running a very large public campaign this E Week, the E Cell at IPS Academy painted the town, literally. They painted the E Week message on bridges and on walls across Indore. In the midst of all this, they also launched ten ventures, ranging from breakfast service to medical kits for rural poor to even a US education office. It also launched a campus company – a library for entrepreneurs. In a week, the library raised Rs 70,000 in funds, and 107 books on entrepreneurship.
Student entrepreneurs at IPS Indore come together to launch 10 startups this E Week
JAIPUR Princess Padmini Devi, Vasundhara Raje, Chetan Bhagat support E Week
Actress Vidya Balan inaugurates E Week at Rajasthan Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jaipur
The entire city of Jaipur, including its princess Rani Padmini Devi, ex-chief minister Vasundhara Raje, actress Vidya Balan and the award winning author Chetan Bhagat acknowledged and were inspired by E Week because of the efforts of institutes in Jaipur. SKIT’s E Week campaign at the Jaipur Literary Festival was just one of the 100s of events it organized during E Week, where it reached out to 33,000 people. Meanwhile, Biyani Girls College organized a B Plan competition and a series of entrepreneurship workshops in schools.
DURGAPUR The ‘E’ word rules Durgapur Apart from running full-fledged programs throughout E Week, Bengal College of Engineering and Technology ran very large public awareness campaigns all over Durgapur. Despite being in a disadvantageous location (there are not many entrepreneurs in Durgapur), the speaker events at BCET were among the largest in the country. Demonstrating leadership, they have even started to mentor a new institute, which is interested in entrepreneurship. Dr BC Roy Engineering College organized 115 events during the E Week.
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Bengal College of Engineering and Technology take out a public rally to spread awareness about entrepreneurship, to promote rural tourism
MARCH 2010 | NEN | DARE.CO.IN
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CHENNAI E Week sparkles on Chennai beaches From idli sellers to morning walkers on Chennai beaches – everyone was given an introductory lesson in entrepreneurship by E Cell members of several Chennai institutes, including SSN College of Engineering, Saveetha Engineering College, Loyola College, Loyola Institute of Business Administration and SMK Fomra Institute of Technology, during E Week. SSN College of Engineering even managed a debate on the E Week theme ‘India: Opportunities Within’ on NDTV channel. Another mega event in Chennai was TEDx hosted by Velammal Engineering College, and organized for the first time in the country. Velammal Engineering College received a special license from TED International to run the event during E Week. 400 students and 40 entrepreneurs attended the Conference that showcased talks by designer Christian Fabre, film critic Sudhish Kamath and anti-corruption activist Vijay Anand.
Hundreds of students bring the E Week campaign onto the streets in Chennai
COIMBATORE Creativity and Invention at work
PSG E Cell members inaugurate their campus company JournE, a travel desk launched by students to facilitate intra and inter city travel bookings
VLB Janakiammal College of Arts and Science has 3,000 students on campus, and each of them participated in multiple events this E Week. It also tried to change the tourist route map of Tamil Nadu, with E Cell members marketing their hometowns as the hottest tourist destinations in the State. They created brochures documenting their hometowns, and distributed them on campus, on buses and trains. The idea: Explore untapped tourist opportunities. PSG Institute of Technology’s E Cell launched an Innovation Club this E Week to help technocrats think entrepreneurially. The iClub will run workshops on fund raising and patenting laws, facilitate networking with experts, VCs and Angels, and help students build business plans.
MYSORE E Week bridges urban-rural tech divide The National Institute of Engineering made a special effort of taking the innovations that have been sitting in the institute for several years to the market. It partnered with NIE’s Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST), an organization which has been researching on rural technologies for over eight years, to bring some of their inventions – an eco-friendly, smoke-free chulha, biogas plants and solar lighting appliances – to rural villages in the outskirts of Mysore. 50 rural families were benefited through this project during the week. NIE also organized a hugely successful open house talk show between entrepreneurs and parents, with over 500 students attending this face-off between 20 entrepreneurs, 20 parents and 40 aspiring E Cell members on the subject of Entrepreneurship.
The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, celebrates E Week DARE.CO.IN | NEN | MARCH 2010 77
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BANGALORE Shouting it loud Mount Carmel College started building up to E Week long before E Week was launched. In January, it organized a Startup Day to facilitate internship opportunities in startups; and followed it up with over 120 events during the week. A college with over 5,000 students, they involved every single department, including faculty, management and students, in entrepreneurship activities. Jyoti Nivas College ran a large SMS campaign, covering 1,00,000 people, to spread awareness about E Week. They also ran a village outreach program. A couple of rural companies are being funded now as a result of their initiative. RV College of Engineering reached out to the public through street plays on entrepreneurship and conducted surveys on local entrepreneurs.
E Cell members of IFIM conduct entrepreneurship activities in schools across Bangalore to mark E Week
DELHI Excitement on full throttle in Delhi
Jaipuria Institute of Management organized events focused on opportunities in agriculture to mark E Week
Noida-based Jaipuria Institute of Management ran very large public awareness campaigns all over Noida and also conducted several in-depth, experiential activities on campus. JIM isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a residential campus, but students refused to leave the campus, and had to be forcefully sent home every single day. It organized 135 events, which included talks by entrepreneurs from various sectors like healthcare, energy, agriculture and education. Birla Institute of Management and Technology and Lady Shriram College also conducted workshops and talks on entrepreneurship.
HYDERABAD Innovation on high gear E Cell members of Malla Reddy Institute of Management launched interesting prototypes at the Rural Innovation Exhibition organized during E Week. Some of their inventions included a washing machine that worked without electricity, a coconut tree climbing machine and a bomb detection device. In addition, the E Cell also provided free consulting services to four loss-making apparel industries in the neighbourhood.
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Malla Reddy Institute of Management showcased affordable products targeting rural India in the Rural Innovation Exhibition held during E Week
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E Week India 2010 Champions Bengal College of Engineering and Technology, Durgapur Events: 151, Participants: 1800 students Unique Events: Walkathon, Partnership with Red FM that reached out to 7,50,000 people, Sold organic products on campus Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata Events: 135, Participants: 1,000 students, Reach: 5,00,000 people through publicity campaigns using buses and cars Unique Events : Innovation exhibition, Massive public awareness campaign that reached out to 5,00,000 people IPS Academy, Indore Events : 270, Participants: 300 students Unique Events : Campus company and ten startups launched, Reached out to the entire city of Indore, through hoardings at the heart of the city, coverage from radio partners for 9 days, paintings on E Week theme at public places Padmashree D Y Patil University, Mumbai Events: 120, Participants: 1,500 students Unique Events: Public rally, Entrepreneurship workshops involving retired entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, housewives and even entrepreneurs from Dharavi; science exhibition for school children. Mount Carmel College, Bangalore Events: 123, Participants: 3,000 students Unique Events : Startup Day, National Conference for Women Entrepreneurs, Human chain Sri Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College, Bangalore Events : 175, Participants: 3,000 students Unique Events : Promotion of ‘Aerobic’ rice production with farmers of Chintamani village, installation of 2.500 dustbins in Bangalore to source garbage for its solid waste management unit Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata Events: 240 events, Participants: 4,000 students Unique Events : Publicity campaign in Kolkata Book Fair, Awareness campaign on arsenic pollution
Nilima Rovshen Creativity and Innovation Award – The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore
NIE leveraged the existed but so far untapped technologies developed by NIE’s Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies to benefit the rural community. CREST has been spawning inventions for the last nine years, and E Cell members of NIE decided to bring it to market. Some of the products that they introduced in rural areas around Mysore include an energy efficient cooking stove, a cost effective biogas plant, and solar and mechanical applications for water pumps and sprays. The E Cell has also designed and established a rolling credit financial mechanism that enables the villagers to implement these products at a low cost of investment.
Special Award for Best Public Awareness Campaign – Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata
HIT E Cell members reached out to over 5,00,000 people at the Kolkata Book Fair. They armed themselves with E Week banners, pledge cards and posters, and positioned themselves all across the book fair to educate visitors on E Week. The capstone though was the closing ceremony of the book fair, where the students negotiated 15 minutes of stage time and administered the pledge to a crowd of over 3,00,000 people. More articles on www.nenonline.org. Content provided by NEN DARE.CO.IN | NEN | MARCH 2010 79
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Business at Traffic Signals A short halt at a traffic signal and you are virtually in the middle of a market with shabbily dressed salesmen selling items such as books, flowers, dusters and toys. Who are these people and how does this street business go on? /Abhishek Chanda
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e wears ragged clothes, has mud and dirt smeared in patches all over his clothes and sports a curious look on his face. The light turns red and he has exactly 180 seconds to scurry along a beeline of cars, buses and auto rickshaws and go about selling his products. His area of sales—200 to 500 meter of pitch and asphalt packed with vehicles; and his target audience—any interested or inquisitive soul packed inside these vehicles. Welcome to the marketplace at traffic signals!
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Who are they? The typical seller at a busy crossroad is likely to be a migrant rather than a local. Most of them find shelters in shanties, which are close by to their area of sales and others make for their shelters at the traffic signal itself. While some have been selling at these signals for over seven to eight years, others have just arrived and are around a week or a month old. Yet some more act as fillers, as they are looking for some part time jobs or have taken up an alternative profession in selling at crossroads once they have run out of contracts with construction companies as laborers. It’s not that these sellers have suddenly dropped on from nowhere, but most have had some member of their family or for that matter some peers already working at these signals at one point of time or the other. Often the longing for migrating to a city and finding work brings these sellers from their far off villages. On other counts it is the recommendation of their peers and family members that get them to the city streets for selling products. Having said this, there is an uncanny resemblance to the stories of these
to that of thousands that migrate to the Gulf or Canada on similar work recommendations. One of the shocking truths about these sellers is that most of them are below the age of 18 years, which according to Indian laws is child labor. “I feel bad for the little kids who work out here, but at the end of the day everybody is making a living by selling their own kinds of products. Everybody is a separate business unit. We don’t interfere into what others are doing or how things are done; neither do we have room for a conscience call. It all boils down to your daily bread,” says an elderly man who sells products at the IIT Delhi crossroad and who wouldn’t reveal his identity. Even a kid who is barely four feet and looks hardly 12-13 years old to the untrained eye maintains that he is 18 years old.
What do they sell? If you thought activities at the traffic signal comprise begging and selling magazines, you will be astounded with the range of products exchanging hands. Among the things sold at these junctions are toys, accessories, refreshments, books, dusters,
and seasonal products So, if you happen to be developing a headache out of the intermittent traffic snarls, you would find a harmless yet persistent seller selling a strange head massager or if you have run into trouble with your sweetheart, you would find yet another person selling a bunch of roses or heartshaped balloons. One can find newspapers and magazines besides novels that are as recent as the Twilight series or as classic as Gone with the Wind, sold at the best bargain. And you have a person selling dusting cloth. And not just that, one has the choice of buying steering covers, Chinesemade multiple mobile chargers and sunscreens. When it comes to toys and children, you are most likely to find nodding dogs, inflated footballs and Mickey Mouse balloons, plastic hand pumps, battery-operated devil horns and so on. Chewable tobacco, fruits and salted peanuts too are on sale.
How the business works Business at crossroads is as simple as it can get, saving a few carefully taken business decisions and secrets.
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For most of these sellers, the products they sell are supplied by a third party. For example, a magazine or newspaper seller has his supplies met from an agent who runs the entire business and maintains the fleet of sellers. DARE spoke to one of these agents who revealed that he charges the company Rs 175 per day per boy. Out of this, he pays Rs 100 to the seller, who also stands a chance to pocket a commission that can be a maximum of 30 percent of the cover price of the magazine. So, the more he sells the more he earns. So, if we take ten boys who have the capacity of selling ten magazines a day and consider a magazine which sells for Rs 25, the agent is charging the media house Rs 1750 per day for ten boys. He now pays Rs 100 to each boy as his daily wage, which totals to Rs 1000 per day. The Rs 750 (Rs 75 for ten boys) he is left with is further reduced to Rs 500 after deducting charges for sub-agents, mobile, conveyance and other sundry expenses. Given this and considering his sellers are selling for 20 days a month, the main agent can earn up to Rs 10,000, by simply selling one magazine. Add to
this a number of other magazines and the figure will go up to a fat sum sans tax and other liabilities. As for the seller, he can earn Rs 100 plus Rs 7.50 as commission for every magazine that sells. So, if he works for 20 days and sells ten magazines a day, he can earn up to Rs 2,000 as daily wages along with Rs 1,500 as commission, totaling to Rs 3,500. His earnings can go up if he is selling costlier magazines that have cover prices of up to Rs 100 as his per copy commission goes up. However, the agent reveals that the sale of the magazines mostly depends on the news content on the front cover than on other things. The story is a bit different for another set of sellers who buy their products from whole sale markets that sells toys and plastic products. Pintu Gupta, who sells car steering covers and mobile chargers, says he buys his products from a wholesale market and then sells it at a profit. Another seller, Vinod Kumar Gupta, who sells sunscreens says, “I have been selling goods since the last 12 years. I started with newspapers and magazines and now I have graduated to my own business. I procure raw material, then manufacture these
I have been selling goods since the last 12 years. I started with newspapers and magazines and now I have graduated to my own business. 82
goods on my own at my residence with the help of my family.” When it comes to margins, here is the strategy. Says Pappu, a migrant from Rajasthan, who sells balloons and plastic footballs, “My margins are dependent on how good I sell. If I buy the toy for Rs 20, I try my best to sell it for anywhere around Rs 35– Rs 40. If the customer is bargaining hard, it sells at a meager Rs 25, but if I use my skills right and convince him, I even end up selling it for Rs 40, which earns me a profit of Rs 20. For toys, I generally target small kids or their mothers, if they are at the window side. This increases the chances of my sale at a higher price.” For Pintu Gupta, the seller of car accessories, business depends upon the amount he slogs. “On good days I end up earning up to Rs 800–1000,” he claims. (Given that he works 30 days a month and has at least ten days of bad sales or no sale at all, he can still earn a maximum of Rs 15,000–20,000 of non-taxable income!) The territories of these sellers are strictly marked and passed on through the years. For example, in a four point crossing, one bunch would be selling magazines and novels, the other sells toys and yet another would be selling flowers or balloons. On an average a seller works for seven to eight hours a day, which might start from 10 am till dusk and it is not necessary that he’ll stay at one traffic signal. When it comes to choosing a product to sell, the seller typically goes to the wholesale market and gets advised by the local shopkeeper on what the latest trend is. Accordingly, he picks and chooses and so you get to see different products at crossroads at different points of time. So, he may be without a formal dress and nicely polished shoes and devoid of a neat haircut but the next time you meet him at the crossroad, be rest assured he means business! R
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Organizations DARE.CO.IN
covered in this issue, in alphabetic order; first appearance
Aditya Birla Retail ..................................................42
Google ...................................................................73
Narayan Hrudalay ..................................................70
Ads4Good..............................................................88
GP Group ..............................................................36
NCL Industries (Nagarjuna Group) ........................63
Airtel ......................................................................45
Gujarat Reclaim .....................................................19
NEC .......................................................................89
Alexa......................................................................51
Hare Ram Hare Krishna Foundation .....................72
Nestle ....................................................................22
Amul ......................................................................22
HTC .......................................................................44
NetBramha ............................................................88
Apollo.....................................................................20
IBEF.......................................................................22
Nokia .....................................................................42
Apple Inc................................................................16
ICongo ...................................................................73
Orkut ......................................................................51
ATMA .....................................................................19
IDC ........................................................................44
Oxfam ....................................................................41
Balaji Group ...........................................................19
IIM-Kolkata.............................................................42
Parle ......................................................................22
Belmonte ...............................................................39
Ikea ........................................................................64
Bright Horizons ......................................................71
Imbrose..................................................................19
Britannia ................................................................22
Indag......................................................................20
Charity Navigator ...................................................73
Innominds ..............................................................89
Checkmate Security Services ...............................89
INSEAD .................................................................71
Cheil Communications...........................................45
InStat .....................................................................44
CII ..........................................................................40
Intelligent Giving ....................................................73
Council of Europe ..................................................41
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ....................................41
CraftMyGift ............................................................88 Credibility Alliance .................................................73 Cygnus Fine Jewellery ..........................................32 Delhi government ..................................................72
Porta Cabin Corp...................................................62 PrimaryInfo ............................................................20 Proctor & Gamble (P&G) .......................................42 Reebok ..................................................................89 ReGlobe ................................................................89 Research In Motion ..............................................45 Rolls Royce ...........................................................16
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) .........................41 Intex .......................................................................44 ISKCON .................................................................72
S. Kumars Nationwide Limited ...............................39 Salaree.com ..........................................................89 Samsung ...............................................................44 Scribd ....................................................................25 Simoco...................................................................44
Department of Food and Public Distribution System (FDS) .....................................27
ITC Foods ..............................................................22
DewInk.com ...........................................................88
Johnson & Johnson ...............................................17
DimDim ..................................................................89
Kodak ....................................................................42
DLF ........................................................................89
KPS Consultants & Impex .....................................18
Economist ..............................................................16
Kreeo .....................................................................88
Eka Software .........................................................37
Laundry Consultants Group ..................................89
eLagaan.................................................................88
LG ..........................................................................44
ELGI Group ...........................................................19
LifeCare .................................................................70
Emami ...................................................................26
LinkedIn .................................................................24
Everest Industries ..................................................63
Lowe Lintas ...........................................................45
Facebook ...............................................................24
Mahesh Tutorial .....................................................88
FICCI .....................................................................22
Mavcomm Consulting ............................................89
Toyota ....................................................................16
Fitch .......................................................................39
McDonald ..............................................................62
Triveni Electrofa .....................................................63
Flickr ......................................................................25
Metacafe ................................................................25
Twitter ....................................................................51
ForeignAid .............................................................73
Meter Down ...........................................................88
Tylenol ...................................................................17
Forum ....................................................................25
Micromax ...............................................................44
VLCC .....................................................................51
Frito-Lays ...............................................................22
Ministry of Agriculture ............................................27
Vodafone................................................................45
Gartner ..................................................................44
Motorola.................................................................44
Wrigley...................................................................22
Gee Pee.................................................................44
MRF .......................................................................20
YouTube .................................................................25
GlaxoSmithKline ....................................................22
MyDala.com...........................................................50
Zen Mobile .............................................................44
84
Sintex.....................................................................64 SlideShare .............................................................25 Solvents Extractors Association of India ..............28 Sony Ericsson........................................................44 Symantec...............................................................89 Taj Group of Hotels ................................................72 Tata Steel...............................................................63 The Environmental Protection Agency ..................20 The Rubber Board .................................................20 Tinnycraft ...............................................................63
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People DARE.CO.IN
covered in this issue, in alphabetic order; first appearance
Aashish Solanki ...................................................................................................88 Aditya Sanghi ......................................................................................................89 Akshat Mehra ......................................................................................................42 Akshay Kumar .....................................................................................................45 Anil Kumat Katakam ............................................................................................89 Anisha Singh .......................................................................................................50 Ankleshwar Nanchahal ........................................................................................63 Barack Obama.....................................................................................................16 Brijesh Sharma ....................................................................................................63 Clayton M. Christensen .......................................................................................42 Dr Rajendra Pachauri ..........................................................................................41 Henry Ford...........................................................................................................46
DARE is not an acronym. It represents the daring spirit of the entrepreneur.
Jyoti Ramnath......................................................................................................88 Lewis Hamilton ....................................................................................................45 Mahesh Shetty.....................................................................................................88 Mitesh Gajera ......................................................................................................32 Navin Kumar ........................................................................................................88 NR Narayana Murthy ...........................................................................................23 Philip Anderson ...................................................................................................71 Pintu Gupta..........................................................................................................82 Richard Grant ......................................................................................................25
The red color for the R of DARE represents the fire in the belly of the entrepreneur. You could think of the D representing the face, A representing the chest, R representing the belly and E representing the feet of the human body. Hence the red R.
S N Chakravarty ..................................................................................................18 Sandeep Aneja ....................................................................................................56 Shah Rukh Khan .................................................................................................39
The entrepreneur dares to do things. (S)he dares to do things differently
Shonali Pachauri .................................................................................................41 Shreyans Chopra .................................................................................................88 Steve Jobs ...........................................................................................................36 Suketu Talekar .....................................................................................................89 Sundar Rajan.......................................................................................................20 Sundar Subramaniam..........................................................................................89 Swani ...................................................................................................................19 Ted Kennedy ........................................................................................................16 Tiger Woods .......................................................................................................17
SMS â&#x20AC;&#x153;DARE <your comments, questions or suggestions>â&#x20AC;? to
Vinod Kumar Gupta .............................................................................................82
56677
Wolfgang Wodarg ................................................................................................41
dare@cybermedia.co.in
Timothy Leary ......................................................................................................25 V Kumar...............................................................................................................62
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Headstart
Startup Zeal The February editions of the Startup Saturday saw innovative discussions all over the country. Bengaluru Startup Saturday Bangalore celebrated its second anniversary with much fanfare. Instead of a regular panel discussion and startup product demos, this edition invited the city’s local entrepreneurs to come and share their stories. It was not just the highs, but also the lows; not just the blind beliefs, but also the fears. The speakers, who were handpicked from the earlier editions of SS Bangalore, shared their experiences candidly and offered pearls of wisdom to the audience. The fact that they touched a chord with the audience was evident with several questions being asked and answered in a rapid fire. The speakers included, Srinivasan KA of Amagi, Shreyans Chopra of Suksh, Sumeet Anand of Kreeo, Aashish Solanki of NetBramha, Jyoti Ramnath of CraftMyGift, and Navin Kumar of eLagaan. More info at http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/event.php?eid=21
Mumbai Following the tradition of motivating entrepreneurial zeal across this nation, the monthly Startup Saturday was hosted on 13th Feb. The event was attended by over 70 people who came from various domains, regions and backgrounds to brain storm in yet another superb confluence. The event started with a lecture delivered by Mahesh Shetty the owner of MT Educare. He shared his insights about entrepreneurship and the specific opportunities available in the education sector in India. Mahesh also shared some special nuggets that answered entrepreneurial doubts about self, industry and competitors. He said the most important aspect to win in education or any other any sector is the way you approach the problem. When Mr. Mahesh started Mahesh Tutorials and decided to increase his team, he was called upon by his mentor. He advised Mahesh that he is simply making a mistake by compiling a team of faculties, who will later become his competitors by opening their own classes once they know the business. To this Mahesh replied that he is not creating competitors, rather by empowering his team what he sees is three new branches of Mahesh Tutorials in near future, which will be executed by these three team mates. What happened next is history. Even today the same principles guide his organization of empowered employees called MT Educare! In the lightening pitches segment there was a good amount of diversity—Akshay from Ads4Good who presented a medium where website owners and bloggers can help uplift the society by providing an ad space on their websites, Anubhuti from DewInk.com, a startup which helps develop a child’s brain with stories that they connect with, Simi and her team from Meter Down the country’s first auto rickshaw magazine, a team from Deltecs who showcased their product Drona which is a mobile application authoring tool, friends from i-become.org who discussed how they are trying to bridge the gap between companies and students from various education institutes. 88
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Finally an interesting part of the meet was the Open House. The theme was HR and personnel issues that the startups have to face; where can they get good team members, how can they manage them and experiences by different startups were discussed. If you weren’t there, you seriously missed great insights! More info on http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/event.php?eid=19
Kolkata The Kolkata SS started with a talk by Salaree.com founder, Aditya Sanghi, who answered questions about his business. Salaree.com is a promising modular SaaS-based payroll management system, which is totally web-based. This was followed by an interesting session by Aditya on “is your data ‘earning’ the interest?” Aditya, a proponent of SaaS took a shot at pitching to businesses and individuals to go the SaaS way. This was followed by the lightning pitches session. More info on http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/event.php?eid=18
Delhi The theme for SS Delhi was Corporate Social Responsibility—How startups can add value in this segment. Some interesting insights were shared by Nakul Kumar from ReGlobe. The company specializes in providing E-waste management solutions to its clients. They are currently managing the mobile recycling program for Nokia. Pankaj Sharma from Center for Transforming India. This very young NGO-startup is trying to create social harmony and help further the growth of our country. Anand Mahesh from Mavcomm Consulting spoke on “How should startups use PR effectively.” His company’s portfolio includes DLF, Reebok, NEC, Symantec etc.
Hyderabad SS Hyderabad was held in the premier B-school, ISB, with a sales theme, which included questions like how do you get that first sale, the first paying customer, startups struggle to get leads into corporates and to customers, how do you get those leads and how do you close the sale. Some prominent speakers included Sundar Subramaniam, Co-founder of DimDim, a premier web conference tool, Anil Kumat Katakam, VP, Sales, Innominds, a global software
Pune SS Pune focused on ventures which normally miss the eye from our heavily digital-media centric lives. These are cool businesses which give better returns to their investors. Brigadier Jayant Mankikar from Checkmate Security Services, Rajiv Kumar from Laundry Consultants Group, and Suketu Talekar from Doolally held the sessions. This was followed by a tea and networking session and a discussion on the Pune Angel Network. R
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OCT 07 - FEB 10
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50 tech entrepreneurs will compete and collaborate to start two startups in one Weekend! iWeekend Bangalore : 12-14 March, 2010 iWeekend New Delhi : 19-21 March, 2010 iWeekend Ahmedabad : 26-28 March, 2010 For more information, visit www.iweekend.org
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HOW TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY WHY INDIANS IN ANY AND PAKISTANIS MUST ORGANIZATION BE FRIENDS BUSINESS USING WORKFLOW EXCHANGE WASTE FOOD REDISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS CHAMAK LAUNDRY SERVICE HOW TO BE A GOOD CLIENT
HOW TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY IN ANY ORGANIZATION USING WORKFLOW ANALYSIS
REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT GET YOUR COMPANY ON SOCIAL MEDIA THE BUSINESS OF HEALTH CHECKUPS Tyre Recycling: The New Biz In The Block Business Of Prefabricated Structures The Growing Business Of Oilseeds
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 06
Building An Enterprise Through An Idea Standing Out In A Crowd Of Similar Biz The Coming Of Social Commerce Websites
entrepreneur of the month/
Mitesh Gajera, Cygnus Fine Jewellery investor of the month/
Sandeep Aneja, Kaizen Management Advisors columns/ Brands With Feet Of Clay What do I Do With The Money Now? Who Really Owns Your Company? 92 pages including cover
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