#31 - APRIL 2010 by CyberMedia (I) Ltd

/Rs 30

APRIL 2010

Vol 3 / Issue 07 / Apr 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

Innovation in Government

Reliance SME Loans are smart because they give you the flexibility to tailor your repayment schedule to suit your individual needs.

INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT

a loan that bends itself for your business needs.

You can pick a step-up plan – i.e. gradually increasing EMIs. You can choose a step-down plan – i.e. gradually decreasing EMIs. You can opt for a Bullet Payment – a lumpsum payment as the final EMI to close the loan. You can go for a Balloon Payment – which allows you to make a larger-than-usual EMI payment in a month when business is particularly good.

Your Idea: Reveal It Or Not?

Don’t just live big, live smart.

Business Of Luxury Child Birth & Infant Care Network Neutrality - Where Does India Stand? For more details sms SMEF to 55454* or call 1800

Businesses Bordering On The Bizarre

200 3838 (toll free) VOLUME 3 ISSUE 07

*sms charges as applicable. All loans will be at the sole discretion of the company. Conditions apply. www.relianceconsumerfinance.com

How Not To Waste A Minute Of Your Life Where Does Rating Systems Work? Tihar Jail As A Business Incubator

entrepreneur of the month/

Krishan Kumar Modi, Modicare investor of the month/ Gaurav Saraf, Epiphany Ventures Vishal Vasishth, SONG Investment Advisors columns/ Identity And Experience Inflation Gamble Planning Your Succession 92 pages including cover

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TiE Delhi - NCR Programs About TiE TiE is a global not-for-profit organization focused on promoting and fostering entrepreneurship through Mentoring, Networking and Education. TiE ecosystem spread across 54 chapters across 14 countries comprises more than 13,000 members and 2,500 charter members who are top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers and management professionals in their chosen field. TiE helps budding entrepreneurs leverage opportunities in the global market place. By facilitating ideas to germinate into actual businesses, TiE has created wealth, created job creators from job seekers and has played a key role in accelerating the global economy. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing our next generation of entrepreneurs. TiE Delhi-NCR Programs - Overview Company Showcase & Deal Flow Meetings (DFM’s) Close door, deal oriented discussions between entrepreneurs and VC’s/angel investors. Mentoring Clinic On going, round the year sessions to get expert advice on specific business challenges/issues facilitated through Charter Members from India and overseas. Entrepreneurship Nurturing Program Structured, long term mentoring program that helps entrepreneurs overcome issues such as scaling up their business, raising funds etc. Focus on measurable results and periodic progress tracking. Charter Member Face2Face Interactive, small group sessions conducted monthly based on the experience/strengths of the individual charter member TiEcon Delhi TiE Delhi’s annual flagship event celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship & bringing together successful entrepreneurs from around the world. In addition to providing in-depth, up-to-date content, it serves as a powerful networking forum. Typical attendance runs in excess of 1000 delegates. TiE Institute Series of educational sessions and workshops covering broad themes such as leadership as well as specific topics like Intellectual Property. TiE Institute’s vision is to be the “entrepreneur university.” Special Interest Groups (SIG) Special Interest Groups are focused on a particular domain or issue and provide a cutting edge platform for showcasing ‘next’ practices, discussions on emerging issues. They comprise of entrepreneurs & practitioners in a specific field/sector who would contribute by way of their knowledge and experience as well as take an active interest in impacting the policy framework that exists for the sector. The SIG’s strive to remain industry relevant and their programs/initiatives are created keeping in mind the challenges, opportunities faced by entrepreneurs. Existing SIG’s include:

Education & Training Social Entrepreneurship Retail Healthcare

Internet Cleantech Women Entrepreneurship TiE Young Entrepreneur

Apart from these there are several other initiatives we undertake each year based on the market reality, entrepreneurial climate & expectations.

To enroll as a member, contact us today:

TiE Delhi-NCR C-25, 2nd Floor, Sector-8, Phase-1, NOIDA - 201 301, Tel: 0120-4066500, Fax: 0120-4066523, E-mail: info@tienewdelhi.org

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Social Media Partner

For more information and sponsorship opportunities please contact: Ani Agnihotri, Program Chair, USA India Business Summit (UIBS) 2010, USA Phone: 404-394-6678 E-mail: usibrc@gmail.com Web: www.usaindiabusinesssummit.com

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BOARD OF ADVISORS C K Prahalad

University of Michigan

N R Narayanamurthy

Chief Mentor, Infosys

Kanwal Rekhi

32 sector

Chairman, TiE

Romesh Wadhwani Chairman & President, Wadhwani Foundation Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande

Chairman, Sycamore Networks

Saurabh Srivastava Chairman, Indian Venture Capital Association Kiran Mazumdar Shaw R Gopalakrishnan

Innovation in Government

Chairman & MD, Biocon Executive Director, Tata Sons

Philip Anderson

Professor of Entrepreneurship, INSEAD

Shyam Malhotra Editor-in-Chief Abraham Mathew President Krishna Kumar Group Editor ANALYSTS Abhishek Chanda Aman Malik Binesh Kutty Nimesh Sharma Shivani Singh Vimarsh Bajpai 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

It is natural to chide governments all over the world for their inefficiency and lack of business acumen, especially when compared to the private sector. History, however, is replete with examples of those who have shown remarkable ingenuity. DARE looks at some Indian examples.

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 KOLKATA 23/54, Gariahat Road, Ground Floor, Near South City College, Tel: 65250117

72 social Jail as a Business Incubator: Tihar–A Case Study A huge incubator ecosystem that has been built in Tihar Jail factory through the vocational courses' training.

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

strategy 42 Your Idea: To Reveal or Not? How good is it for entrepreneurs to keep their ideas under wraps and not share it until the final product or service is ready for launch?

APRIL 2010 | CONTENTS | DARE.CO.IN

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DARE.CO.IN

opportunity

54 investor of the month

Luxury Child Birth and Infant Care in India 18

Gaurav Saraf

Bio Blocks 56

Founder & Director Epiphany Ventures

strategy Will ratings work? 26

Saraf speaks about investing in the early stage startups

Network Neutrality: Where does India stand? 46 Alternatives to eBay 60

columns 68 investor of the month

Rupin Jayal 16

Vishal Vasishth

Anurag Batra 29

SONG Investment Advisors India

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta 45

Vasisthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s firm focuses on high growth sectors like education and training, agriculture and food, healthcare, financial services, etc

events TiE UP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Bizz Buzz 2010 70 Headstart: Startup Saturday 78

Vijay Anand 76

from the blogs Carpooling 22 Women's Reservation Bill 24 How not to waste a minute of your life 40

36 entrepreneur of the month Krishan Kumar Modi

others

Modi Enterprises

Feedback 8 Exchange 10 Photoblogs 30 Bordering on the Bizarre 80 Camel Safari 88

Modi shares his insights about his business empire. DARE.CO.IN | CONTENTS | APRIL 2010 5

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NOVEMBER 2009 | COLOMN | DARE.CO.IN

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blogs/edit

How to kill innovation

here is a lot of talk these days about the need to innovate and about how to innovate. However, not much thought is given to how easy it is to stop innovation. The dictionary defines innovation as something new or different that is introduced. Now, just look around you and see how many times you hear the words "this is the way it is done" or "this is the way I will do it." Worse still, how many times have you said so yourself? There is nothing that stops innovation on its tracks as effectively as a "this is the way it is done." If you have been doing something in a particular way day in and day out, it becomes fairly ingrained in you that "this is the way it is done." And you do not only not think up other ways to do things, but also, you end up believing that this is the only way it can be done. That is why, sometimes you get an outsider, a consultant, to take a fresh look at things and ask "why not do it this other way?" Smaller organisations may not have the luxury of hiring a consultant who will ask this question. So, more often than not, in this case, the entrepreneur himself will have to don the hat of the outsider and ask whether there is any other way things can be done. In the rush of everyday business, you often do not have the time or bandwidth to sit back and ponder that question. And thus, innovation dies. It also takes a lot of will power and drive to push through the other way or the innovation. And this drive has to come, if not right from the top, then from someone close enough, since they have to cut through not just existing processes, but also the resistance to change that is manifest in "this is the way it is done." This is reason number two why innovation dies. And finally, innovation like everything else, requires investment. If the innovation is, say, in manufacturing, then you have to create new machines and maybe even new factory layouts and factories themselves. If the innovation is in the way you reach out to your target audience, then there has to be investment made to put them in place in the form of, say, new software systems or communication systems. Making inadequate investments will as surely kill the innovation as saying that it cannot be done any other way!

/Krishna Kumar DARE.CO.IN | BLOGS | APRIL 2010 7

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magazine

Conservation and Preservation of Monuments It is indeed a real pity that old monuments which are a pride of India are totally neglected and left to their fate. With weeds and moss growing on them and their walls cracking, it is good if people can contribute for their upkeep. In the meantime, visits to the monuments can be made more meaningful and attractive for tourists by staging theatrical reconstructions of incidents that have happened in the past, related to that monument; for example, mock battles that may be linked with a particular fort or palace or a mock court in session or someone dressed up as a king actually walking down the corridors of the monument with courtiers around. It would make the monument come alive and be more attractive to tourists. Anjali Yamini Good Time for an Agroprocessing Unit? Since last so many years we have been hearing about the great loss of Rs 25,00050,000 crore of fruits and vegetables. Government is also actively pursuing the matter to promote food processing and its associated industries. But the value of loss is not decreasing even after ten years of attempting to solve the problem. So clearly there is some mistake either in the data or in the methodology of attempt to address the problem. There are many institutes which offer food processing technology knowhow. But yet we find no

commercial success of all these efforts. The biggest drawback I have observed in this process is the review of the efforts made and the subsequent corrective action to be initiated. Fundamentally, the cost of the processed food available in our country is significantly high for any household to use it regularly in its current income level. The fraction of the society which uses the processed food is low here. The reason I understand is, for most of the items in the market, it is low quality at high price. This has to be looked into and changed to better quality with optimum price. The scale of operation of our plants are also low for the want of material and the lack of the established market. The material is not of prime quality thus the popular notion which goes out is that low quality material is being used for processing. To illustrate, I will suggest the case of the dehydrated peas available in our country of local make and the ones imported from New Zealand. The imported product is much better and available at affordable prices in India. This really asks for the points to ponder. The supply chain of the imported material will be having at least three members and yet it is offering an affordable price vis-a-vis our product. To develop the food processing industry it is imperative that the norm for the quality and the post-harvest technology has to be developed and the farmers are urged to accept and adopt it. For the same, the farmer's cooperation and education is required. Since our farmers are not well-off to take care of their daily needs, they are not going to invest in knowledge and upgrading their operational set ups. Hence the farmers co-operatives should be developed to induce them to be the direct processors of their produce. Yogesh Kathrecha Managing your Noble Intent A social enterprise should also be run professionally like any other commercial outfit. Unless you have the discipline, the motivation, leadership and the drive to succeed, there is no way a social outfit can survive, be it for-profit or not-for-profit. This is a good summary. Santosh Bhandarkar

magazine

magazine magazine

Hair-raising Business Ideas! Nice idea,there are many people who are looking for hair waiving and because of stress and tensions, people tend to lose their hair at a younger age. I think this will succeed. Raja Ramesh

blog

www.dare.co.in | email: dare@cybermedia.co.in | SMS ‘DARE <your msg>’ to 56677

feedback 8

Social Currency 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

APRIL 2010 | FEEDBACK | DARE.CO.IN

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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

e are an Indian company looking for trading opportunities between South Africa and India. Product line is not yet decided and we are currently conducting surveys. Interested parties may contact. Rana Jitendra Singh Responses What products have you shortlisted? I can supply you dehydrated spices and can also distribute food products in certain parts of Maharashtra. Nikhil Chauhan, Sakkat Food We manufacture energy saving motor starter for high motor ratings. We have previously exported this to Zimbabwe and see a lot of scope for our product in South Africa. In case you are interested please do let me know. Rathin Vyas I am interested in trading and I am looking for opportunities. Kindly send me more details on email. Dinakaran

have been involved in developing 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 soy-based health products in geographically spread out micro-industries (called ‘franchisees’), under the same raw material, quality standards and brand. Extensive training, technical support, marketing support and hand-holding are available. The project in its simplest form requires an investment of six to eight lakh rupees from a franchisee in typical B cities and gives back a net profit of one lakh, if operated on 30 percent 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 specially designed with youth employment in mind. Health foods have a good future presence and market due to rising health awareness. Later 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 should contact us. Param Deep Singh Responses I am an electrical engineer by profession. I have read your post and I am very much interested in this project. I live in Nirmal which is located in Adilabad District of Andhra Pradesh. Soyabean 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 soy 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 through email. Also include the cost of the equipment and the scope of the product (SoyFit). Kalyan Rao We are into food-related business (manufacturing). We are also into the retail of Ramdev Baba medicines. I would like to know more about your terms for franchisee and the business model Nikhil Chauhan, Sakkat Food Contact me through email. Pradeep Arora Contact me through email. Rajiv I would like to know more about this. Please revert on my e-mail ID Rishu Kumar

APRIL 2010 | EXCHANGE | DARE.CO.IN

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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

conduct a 40-hour course on the Internet as a LVC (Live Virtual Classroom). All you need is an Internet-enabled PC (256 kbps or above) with a headset to participate with English as a medium of instruction. Ask for a free demo session today by sending me a mail. Vijay Kumar, Indigo Retail Responses 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 I would be happy to receive free demo. Nikhil Chauhan

am currently working on a plan to set up an e-waste management project in Bangalore. If somebody is interested and would like to join me kindly contact me; giving brief details of your experience and strengths. Umang Agarwal Response I am based in Nashik and am also interested in ewaste management field. I would be very obliged if you could share the information you have on this topic so that we can mutually be beneficial to each other. Nikhil Chauhan I am interested in this project. I work in a renewable energy company in Bangalore. Let us meet and discuss and take it further. Balaji Rangasamy

would like to start an importexport business in the African continent. I have stayed there for 26 months and have a good knowledge of the East African region. I have products in mind that can be exported and would like to import

some handicrafts and export it all over the world. I am looking for some angel funding and some expert guidance as well. Nayan Shah, Ahmedabad Response We are a Nashik-based SME dealing in food products. We can supply various dehydrated powdered spices, various pouch products, and few other products. If you are looking for suppliers, you can contact me. Nikhil Chauhan

e are looking for entrepreneurs (successful or failed) to join our team at First10. First10 is a fast-growing, direct marketing company e-company 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 their client’s website: 1. Attract potential customers to your website using Pay per Click campaigns: Google AdWords, Yahoo search marketing and Microsoft adCenter 2. Optimize your website and landing pages to collect your customers’ contact information 3. Educate and 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. We’re constantly looking for exceptional talent to complement our team. Arjun Rajkumar Response I have completed my BMS (Bachelors in Management Studies) from Sydenham College, Mumbai and MBA from Chetana's (Mumbai). I am not a web designer but have experience in industrial

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marketing as I had started a packaging unit in Uttaranchal. Also I have worked with Edelweiss Capital for one year. I would be happy to assist you and work with you. Nikhil Chauhan

ransparent IT Solutions is a Vellore-based stealth mode startup company working on building-on-demand IT Financial Management Software. We are looking for fund and mentors; please get in touch with me to discuss further. Vijay

e have a play school/ preschool concept with day wise curriculum. We are looking for a channel partner to promote franchiser/franchisee module. Those with 300-400 sq ft office space or who are ready to start a play school in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi can become our channel partners. Kumar, IQ Kids Response I'm interested in your idea. My location is Patna, Bihar. I want to start a similar project. Please give me your full concept as to what is the investment, how much earnings are there, etc. Ravi Ranjan

I have left my last organization as VPOperations and have front-end sales experience in Internet business. Even today I am providing STM-1 clients service in different cities through ISP. Get in touch if interested in association on sale-profit base. Pradeep Arora We are providing HR services to a number of BPOs and other corporate clients and are located at Mumbai. Please let us know if we can be helpful to any of you. Pradeep Arora (different from above)

am not a big player in the Indian electronics industry to invest in crores but I want to start my own business based on importing solar products from China. I have no knowledge in importing any product and its associated intricacies like import duty, etc. Could you please guide me through the process? Balraj Bhardwaj Response We are professionals based in Mumbai and operate all over India. We specialize in business setups including company formation, partnership formation, limited liability firm formation and other registrations. For free brochure on company formation, kindly send a mail on my email ID. Bhavesh Savla

his 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 its peers and pesticides of fertilizer sellers for solving its 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 more countries are now becoming sensitive about the pesticide residue and other health hazard issues concerning agro-commodities. So my idea is to develop crop health management on 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, agro-input manufacturers, agro 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 Reuters Market Light, etc) to and fro with the farmers and with the advisors and suppliers.

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The economic viability would be coming in a similar way as a human health professional starts 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 facilitators 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 Contact me through email. S Gishnu

RH is the one of the fastest growing chair manufacturing companies in the country. With a wide variety of products and an exceptional after-sales service, we endeavor to keep our clients happy and satisfied always. GRH is a brand owned by Shiriman Trade & Services Pvt. Ltd., India. The company sells chairs through the above mentioned brand and emphasizes on quality and convenience in all its sales.

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Hence its tag line, Step Up to Quality. Manish Hada, Delhi

am looking for individuals, private or public limited companies, who would like to get involved with us in doing bamboo business on a large scale. I am based in UK and have access to UK and EU markets. Pranab Debnath Responses What kind of support\help are you looking for? Nikhil Chauhan I am interested to know more about the business module as I belong to a place which is very rich in bamboo products in India. Subhrajit Chakraborty What sort business are you thinking of handicrafts or bamboo tiles? Can you tell me? Pradeep Mondal Please provide me your contact details. Vijai Bhaskar

e work as a group called 'Creative Group' in Titwala (Maharashtra, India). It's a charitable trust with PTR No. F9123/Thane. We are working since Aug'99 in this area. Titwala is just 65 km away from Mumbai. As there is a lack of proper medical facility available in and around 68 villages, we had started a polyclinic in Oct 2000 with the aim of having a secondary care hospital. In our polyclinic named as Creative Polyclinic, we have specialist visiting from different faculties and we have ECG, X-ray, dental clinic, Pathology Lab, Physiotherapy Lab, and Nebulization facilities available in our clinic. Last year we had started a medical store also.

With the valuable guidance of Mr. Pramod Lele (CEO- Hinduja Hospital)and Dr. Daver (Director Professional services, Hinduja Hospital), with their personal capacity we are working on a secondary care hospital project. We have acquired a land of 7000 sq ft, as 3500 sq ft land we have got in donation and we had purchased 3500 sq ft. We have planned a hospital with 25 beds including two ICU beds with ventilators, six maternity beds, four beds in casualty and other general beds. We will have two operation theaters, pharmacy, procedure rooms, OPD, etc. Budget for the same is around Rupees two to two and half crores. Titwala is famous because of Ganapati Temple and lakhs of devotees visit it often, Shree Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, Titwala had taken the responsibility of the construction of our hospital. We are in the process of collecting donations for this project and we have 80 G Certificate as well and we have kept our accounts in order as we could complete all the formalities required to get donation from any trust. We are looking for donors as once we start this facility in this area we will save many lives and will support a large population. Kindly help us in the way you can and if possible please give us references of other trusts who helps such projects. Vikrant S. Bapat President Creative Group, Manda-Titwala

e are in the process of establishing lighting business in Chennai with focus on LED and high-end lighting and are looking for investing partners. We are well experienced with world-class product line. Suresh MKP

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blogs/opinion

Identity and Experience Identity without experience is superficiality. Experience without a distinctive identity is confusion. /Rupin Jayal

Today experience is increasingly becoming intrinsic to the brand’s identity. And identity must be the organising principle for the experiences that brands offer.

The author is Managing Partner - Direxn: Marketing & Brand Consultancy.

recently walked into the showroom of a telecom brand that promises to be “happy to help”. First of all there was no happiness in sight. The customers waited listlessly as customer service personnel went about their highly onerous tasks and clearly customer delight was not one of them. None of the personnel manning the stations allowed even the hint of a smile to disturb their austere demeanour. Help was grudgingly given when it became virtually impossible to say no. This was not some small outlet tucked away in an unknown corner of the city but a large, highly visible one, located in a premier marketplace of a prime locality. So while the brand has a wonderfully distinct identity, it is has not been meaningfully translated into an actual experience. In the second case it is a brand that one has experienced for over 14 years. Through the years there have been few complaints and far more moments of satisfaction. There have even been moments of actual delight. Yet they do not seem to add up. Each of the happy experiences were valued but they did not seem to reinforce any particular backbone of identity. It seemed as though they were bright ideas sprinkled like confetti—sparkling without shape or form. So the first is a case where there is a clear identity yet it remains at an expressed rather than experienced

level. Should the case outlined above be the rule rather than the exception, this brand will be in danger of haemorrhaging goodwill. Sometimes the gap between a distinctive promise based on a clearly defined identity and the actual experience gets obscured because the entire category suffers from a deficit in delivering a good experience. The argument then goes that brand A is better than brand B in terms of comparative quality, thereby apparently obviating any need to seriously deal with the actual deficit between promise and delivery. This argument ignores the “highlighter effect”—if your brand decides to highlight a facet, it then tends to be held to a higher standard when it comes to it and that may not just be versus its immediate competition within the category. Proof of the highlighter effect has been most evident in the recent woes of Toyota. While many automobile brands have had to recall cars to fix possible defects, the outrage against Toyota has been particularly intense. This is first of all because the brand’s core perceived strength was reliability which drove preference for many mainstream models even though they were less exciting than those of the competition. The erosion of faith in the core value of reliability for the Toyota brand was further exacerbated by its tardy response to the problems. So not only were its products being impacted by

APRIL 2010 | COLUMN | DARE.CO.IN

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problems that affected its basic DNA but its response also seemed to be less than stellar in terms of reliability of accepting and dealing with the burgeoning problems. None of the backlash would have been as acute had reliability not been highlighted as an essence for the brand. Thus it does not matter if your brand matches the category in its core attribute or suffers from the same deficiencies due to category challenges. If you select a particular facet to highlight as the core identifying value of your brand, people will hold you to a much higher standard—after all why would you focus on a facet that is merely equal to or marginally better than competition? Choosing the core identity for your brand has to be very carefully thought through and then it has to be delivered at every touch point. With greater networking amongst people, brand promises broken are quickly disseminated and admiration is rapidly replaced by cynicism. Given the increasing amount of technology available, it is quite possible to replace inadequate human interface with a far more delightful technological interface so as to protect your brand’s core identifying value. For example, at banks it is by and large easier, more efficient and convenient to transact through an ATM than a grumpy teller. So if a particular delivery system is deficient in meeting what the brand’s core identity promises then alternatives have to be developed. To not do so risks eroding the brand’s image with damage to brand value that could “cost” far more than developing a viable alternative delivery mechanism for its basic promise. Apple uses a mix of “do-it-yourself” architecture, on-line and phone-up assistance and replacement policies to reduce dependence on local service backup. This means that owners are empowered to fix things both by the simplicity of the product and assistance that

enable a large number of issues to be corrected via DiY. This reinforces one of the substantial values of Apple—that of brilliant simplicity that makes it easier and more enjoyable to live with an Apple product. In the second case, when experiences are not harnessed within a single core brand identity value, it is a very critical problem of wasted enterprise and resource. It can be worsened by conflicting experiences that actually create confusion and thus further erode perception of the identity of the brand. Defining a distinct identity and actualising it through every moment of contact between people and the brand is what builds resilient great brands. Given the rapidly growing power of Web 2.0 to build interactive relationships between people and brands that genuinely create a two-way conversation rather than a monologue, delivering a clearly defined experience based on a prime facet of the brand’s identity becomes critical. If the brand’s core identity is merely communicated through one-way channels (such as mass media) it remains a statement of intent and does not become the driver of conviction. If a brand’s identity is of caring then it must ensure that people experience it when they buy it, when they require support and when they least expect it. If it is of fun then every moment spent in the company of the brand must deliver this—its packaging, its service, its display, its initiatives, etc. This has to be delivered consistently over time, monitored for effectiveness and distinctiveness and finally backed up by communication that reinforces it. Identity lies at the centre of a brand. As people face an ever greater deluge of information, imagery and stimuli, a distinct identity becomes critical to the survival of a brand. An overwhelming number of ideas, no matter how great each one may be, without focusing on the brand iden-

tity, will only cause confusion rather than build conviction. A clearly enunciated and expressed identity enlivened at every moment of contact creates conviction that ensures resilience and long-term health for the brand. Today experience is increasingly becoming intrinsic to the brand’s identity. And identity must be the organising principle for the experiences that brands offer. Few brands can “sell-n-forget” whether they provide services or products or both. As has been proven through countless studies, acquiring a new customer is a lot more expensive than retaining an existing one. A consistent and defining experience becomes even more important to retaining customers and building advocacy. As people become more aware and brands proliferate, choices within and between categories will only increase. Choices are made on an ever-growing variety of factors. Those factors could be basic “hygiene” or highly nuanced “higher order” ones. When a brand chooses to distance itself from its competition on the basis of a factor, it shines on its ability to deliver it distinctively, consistently and effectively. And this has to be experienced rather than just expressed. Experience drives people’s faith in the ability of the brand to deliver and hence their belief and conviction in the brand’s core identity. Not doing so exposes it to the “highlight effect” and ensures it is judged more harshly than competing brands that do not make promises in that area. Better to choose a smaller stage and a narrower spotlight and deliver an overpowering experience than to choose a large stage and a wide spotlight and deliver corrosive disappointment. Harness the power of experience with a clearly enunciated and effective brand identity. Express the power of your brand’s identity by ensuring focussed, consistent and distinctive experiences. R DARE.CO.IN | COLUMN | APRIL 2010 17

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Opportunities in

Luxury Child Birth & Infant Care in India What is it like to be born in the lap of luxury? The modern five star child birth specialty centers promise to provide all whatever is possible. The promise is to minimise the pain, offer a soothing environment and an over-the-period personal touch offered by highly trained staff using the best of technology. /Nimesh Sharma

he birth of a new baby in a family is always a special occasion requiring special care for both the new born and the mother. In places where we do not have any technology and specialized doctors, 18

it is the mid-wife who provides this expertise and helps with the delivery of the baby minus any technology or comforts, while in urban areas itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the doctor that performs the role but with the use of technology.

So, can there be a market for reducing the pain and increasing the comfort of the mother and the baby while reducing the risk of lives and increasing prospects of a healthy baby and mother? With the rising

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disposable incomes of people and preference of just one or two children (as compared to the hordes of children earlier), people want that the birth of their much-awaited first or second baby should not be just a medical event conducted by professionals sans personal touch and in an environment full of smell of medicines. Welcome to the business of luxurious birth. With a population of 1.18 billion, giving birth to approximately 75,000 babies everyday, the market for luxurious birth will only increase in size.

What is it like to be born in the lap of luxury? Is it about getting all the facilities under one roof? Is it about minimizing the pain? Would it include avoiding a difficult environment and seeking a better and soothing one? Getting a personal touch via pre-birth through post birth association with the patient and the baby, and through a dedicated personnel, complete with emotional counseling would be amazing, wouldn't it? Shouldn't it also provide the highest level of care for both the mother and the baby using the best of technology which reduces the risk of lives as well? And then, having a highly trained staff to take care would make it a lifetime experience. Well, this is all a part of what the modern five star child birth specialty centers promise to provide you with, to make your experience with the new born once in a lifetime. And true luxury would be when you get all the above mentioned things at one place. In this story, we explore what all the five star child birth specialty centers have been doing to give a luxurious once-in-a lifetime experience to their customers, what innovations have they brought into the industry to be able to differentiate themselves from the plain-vanilla labour wards of other hospitals, how big is their

prospective market, and what bottlenecks are there for entering the luxury child birth industry?

Better and Soothing Environment "Unlike labour wards of other hospitals, here there is no smell of medicines, other patients, wounds, etc.” says Dr. Rita Bakshi, Senior Consultant (Obs & Gynae), Adiva, a birthing specialty center by Mother’s Pride Group. Subsequently, the family is given at-home feeling by offering them a fully furnished luxurious room, no less than a hotel. There is a personal television and such other stuff in every room, and staff is at your beck and call, just like the waiters in a hotel, while you are staying in the room. Even a few hours before the delivery, the mothers can be seen roaming in their rooms as they find the environment soothing. Later on, there is gentle soothing music playing, which blended with a nice aroma and visually delighting candles makes delivery less painful and a very pleasant experience with the feeling of a spa. Even the husbands are allowed inside the LDR (Labour, Delivery and Recovery) suites during all times, which helps in the emotional and psychological bonding between the couple and the child. Every doctor and staff is trained to offer as much personal touch as possible to their patients. Ten years ago, none of us would have imagined that a facility like this could exist for giving birth to a child. “At Adiva, we have relatives of parents coming up in big numbers and we don’t restrict them for either the timings or the numbers,” say Dr. Bakshi. Instead, at Adiva they are provided a photographer, a cake and a bottle of champagne (non-alcoholic) and are allowed to celebrate then and there and are not charged for things like food.

Best Technology for Best Care Apart from the luxury factor, these

Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

Neo-natal Emergency Transport Service birth specialty centers also claim to be technologically superior compared to their traditional counterparts. "Fortis La Femme (FLF) was the first one to start Neonatal Emergency Transport Service (NETS) with a dedicated ambulance and a hotline to the nursery. And along with four LDR Suites, it has a ‘High-Frequency Ventilator’ and ‘Neonatal ICU’ for the babies”, says Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah, Sr. Consultant Neonatologist at Fortis La Femme. LDR Suites help avoid the hassle of transferring the mothers to delivery rooms from their rooms while they are in labor since the beds are convertible. Now there is better technology available to deal with very ill or weak babies and to help the mother and the child deal with pre-term (pre-mature) birth. According to Dr. Mallaiah, La Femme has the capability to save babies who are mere 25-weeks old, in the womb. The team undertakes ultrasound DARE.CO.IN | OPPORTUNITY | APRIL 2010 19

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Luxury Delivery and Recovery Suite and x-ray of the foetus and can successfully deal with a larger range of complications even at that stage. As a technological advancement, they have recently started genetic counseling of parents and metabolic screening for the foetus. “At Adiva, there is a neonatologist with every baby and there’s a ultra high equipment and tertiary level ICU for the babies”, said Dr. Bakshi. For minimising pain during labour and delivery, technically, there are practices like epidural anaesthesia (without side-effects) and massage which are used to soothe the delivery process.

Personal Touch Generally, any interaction with the mid-wives or the doctor in a normal hospital starts as and when the mother goes into labor and they help in delivery. But, these hospitals step in much before that. Hospitals recommend and even parents prefer to consult the same fertlity experts, doctors, gynaecologists (all available in same hospital) over the whole period starting before pregnancy, till delivery. And it is over this period that the doctors are able to develop a bonding with the patient and take 20

personal efforts for proper development of the foetus. Dr. Bakshi says, recalling the Abhimanyu story from the Mahabharata, where he learnt the Chakravyuha gameplan in his mother’s womb, “Some of us might not believe, but it has been proven by experiments and researches that even today whatever the mother undergoes during her period of pregnancy affects the child mentally, indirectly if not may be directly.” For instance, the domestic issues creating unhealthy home environment during that period adversely affect the child’s mental growth and development. Those babies don’t keep well after being born; tend to have less weight and suffer from other issues. Therefore the hospitals, as a philosophy, take the responsibility to ensure mental development of the foetus and the physical development after it is born. According to the doctors—if the birth has been traumatic, leading to any scars, mental or physical, they will remain with the baby throughout her/his lifetime and can lead to other serious problems in life. Only a personal touch by doctors and trained hospital staff over a long period can ensure this does not happen.

Emotional/Psychological Counseling The western concept of Doula (a woman who gives continuous physical, emotional, moral and informational support during labor and birth and postpartum care in the home, but not any technical medical help) is also being widely followed by some hospitals like Adiva. The doulas are specially trained in their art and connect more deeply with the mother and are accessible whenever they are required for any help or counseling. Moreover, there are ante-natal classes specially held for couples by these birth specialty centers over a period of few weeks where they are given training on how to take care of the baby during pregnancy and after delivery, dieting, exercising, understanding baby's needs, pain relief, and how to deal with the problems of the baby. All this gives parents a certain level of psychological support and confidence and they can spend better quality time with the babies rather than worrying for the problems.

Who can afford “the experience”? To avail these “at-home” facilities, the price is no less. At Adiva, it ranges from Rs 50,000 to one lac

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for two days (three in case of caesarian delivery), So, quite obviously, these hospitals target the elite and educated segment of the society, which wants to spend that much for the amazing experience and lifetime memories.

What’s the bottleneck in having more such specialty centers? Lack of Awareness: A large number of people don’t know about these facilities existing in their own city. Geeta, a recent second time mother from Delhi didn’t know that there are hospitals offering luxurious experience for a painless and pleasant delivery. She had opted for a delivery in a prominent hospital of Delhi, experience of which she didn’t found too good to recommend, owing to the lack of personal touch among the doctors and the staff. “Right training of nurses for a place like La Femme, where new lives begin everyday and need highest level of personal care, can make a huge difference as after the doctors it’s the nurses that do all the care and run the hospital, says Dr. Raghuram. Staffing: Most of these hospitals have to do in-house nurse training

Neo-natal Emergency Transport Service

to handle their best technology and offer personal care. The several midwifery courses offered outside don’t provide the required training. However, after their best-in-class training many of these nurses migrate to places like Middle-East countries. Operational Hiccups: In a hospital, most of the departments function as independent and are interlinked as well. To bring together so many of them, getting them to use world-class technology, recruiting qualified staff, training them to use advanced technology and undertake patient care with a better mindset poses a big challenge to the hospital authorities. Starting this from scratch is a bigger Herculean task for a new organization. Technology: As of now, most of the technology being used by these hospitals is imported from countries like USA and Germany, where this business of making equipments for neo-natal care is hugely profit-making.

How Big is the Market? While there are good numbers (as high as five to ten patients/day) bringing in business owing to the

changing lifestyles and incomes, a large part of the market is yet to be tapped. While Dr. Bakshi puts the approximate growth figure at 90-100 percent for the next five years, being optimistic about their ten branches opening in Delhi within 2010, the growth in the sector could be up to three times, according to Dr. Raghuram. The medical tourism catching up in India is also a contributor to the business. Upto 30 percent of the patients are foreigners. The international markets include London, Florida, Europe, Africa and Middle East. Apart from the delivering mothers, La Femme also receives baby patients requiring only neo-natal care for severe complications from Delhi and nearby cities, which provides for a supplementary market, purely on account of advanced technology. In a city like Delhi, there are only three such hospitals, that too in the southern region. Across India, among the known ones, there are less than ten, mainly in big metros like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, etc. Many of the other top hospitals like Max may have advanced facilities but haven’t focussed on this segment as a business strategy. Given the best technology available, the Western, spending culture that the people are adopting, the huge untapped market, lack of enough hospitals/nursing homes in this segment, an obvious high profit margin--this being a service business and rising awareness, an opportunity is up there for serious players in neonatal care. Serious because when you run a place where God’s first creative activity takes place, business can never be the only purpose. You need to have a vision, a passion, belief in mankind, highest morals and ethics and love for what you plan to do. Sky is the limit, and it depends on you whether you see the sky as too far or still a constraint after touching. R DARE.CO.IN | OPPORTUNITY | APRIL 2010 21

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from the Blogs

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A Business that can never be Organizedâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Carpooling Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Mar 14, 2010 Tagged in: save fuel, carpooling, unorganized businesses, green planet

ell, one of the businesses that can never be organized is that of carpooling. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a popular option for cost saving and reducing pollution, and there have been many efforts to organize it but most in vain. There are a number of websites that facilitate carpooling by giving options to car drivers and other users. A quick search will reveal names of carpool.in, commuteeasy, indimoto, carwale, carcabpool, carpoolworld, carpooling.in and poolmycar.in, etc. However, the uncertainty of the availability of cars and difference of timings of office-goers, these websites have not been able to deliver. There are postings by people who have a vehicle to offer and by those who want a vehicle for carpooling. But due to difference in routes, timings and needs for flexibility, most of those are lying old and unanswered. However, it in no way means that carpooling is not happening. In offices, schools, neighbors, etc, people do pool in vehicles, even though it is to save their own money. And in a way, even the conveyance provided by companies to their employees can be called pooling, since it is done either in cabs or buses, saving time for companies and cost for employees, and 22

some green brownies for environment. In corporate hubs like Gurgaon, there are crossings where you can find people pooling vehicles with strangersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;hitchhiking, so to say. Each and every vehicle (which includes trucks) going there is looked upon as a potential time and hassle-saver for the commuters. In fact, even for going there from the main city (read Delhi here), there are native-defined places where you catch the call center cabs, which are coming empty after leaving night shift employees to their homes. Commuters come to the cab 'stand' (officially

called Car Pool Stand and developed countries) and have to wait for a willing cab driver to stop the cab and confirm the destination. Though it may financially hurt the owners of the cabs as they are undergoing revenue pilferage, those drivers are in fact doing a service to the public and environment, even if they earn from it (Rs 25 for a 35 km ride is not bad at all). The unofficial cab 'stands' that I know of are Karol Bagh, Wazirpur, Saket, Dhaula Kuan, besides others. There might be a mention of these in some Orkut or Facebook communities, but otherwise, only the natives and daily commuters about these options. On the lighter side, there have been instances where innocent personal car owners have unknowingly stopped cars at such 'stands', may be to see-off some friend/relative and people standing outside (with demand more than supply of seats) just open the doors and sit inside forcibly, as if kidnapping the driver. It happened with my own sister-in-law's friend's friend and her cousin. They were like what is this happening? Then the people had to be instructed to get down from the car, which is an embarrassment for the 'high-nose' commuters (sorry for poor Hindi translation)!

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from the Blogs

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Online Radio in India Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Mar 18, 2010 Tagged in: Online Radio, Internet Fm, Live streaming radio, RJs, Online Advertising

orldwide, there are a lot of online/Internet radio stations that exist, and facilitate listeners to cross geographic boundaries to listen to regional music of their choice. However, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t find many in India. If you try to Google, the first few links you find seem to be rather okay. However, some of them are just normal on-demand music sites, while others look like cybersquatting. While talking about Internet/online radio, it should not ideally include those who have offline radio stations

as well, and are there on Internet just to complement their advertising strategies. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a space that can be well utilized considering the number of users that are online in India. Besides streaming content, they can give option to listen to particular shows (not to include music, which would make it a normal music website) to their audience. They can even advertise on traditional radio stations. Also, their advertising avenues to earn revenues are more than those of traditional means. They can sell ads in streaming content as well as on the

space on their website. Though radio on mobiles gives them a very tough competition, but there's definitely a space for at least a few players.

Online Magazine Retailer Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Mar 16, 2010 Tagged in: Online, Magazine, Retail, Magazinemall.in, E-magazines

oing to any magazine/ newspaper vendor, merely seeing the number of magazines overwhelms us. There are just so many magazines out there on every possible topic, and newer magazines are continuously being launched in newer niches, which is in spite of the advent of online content and e-magazines. Sometimes, we don't even know that a particular magazine exists till the time we see it. And not all vendors have the physical space to accommodate the innumerable magazines being published. For those who buy multiple magazines for personal or office purpose, it becomes a problem if some

of them are not found at a vendor. They need to go to another vendor. And if they have to subscribe magazines, they have to courier the forms for different magazines to their respective offices. Here lies a business opportunity which has not been explored by many, but by very few like magazinemall.in. Online magazine/periodical/ journal retailing has not caught up in India. Even magazinemall has started its India operations very recently and offers approx 200 publications from 16 leading publishers. People/ organizations can subscribe to magazines in bulk online and the vendors can offer discounts and prizes since middleman margin will get

eliminated. Besides, a number of other extra services can be offered that cannot be given by vendors and shall surely get customers lured to you. These extra services could include easy renewal, updates on new magazines/newsletters, free shipping beside gift subscription and discounts, deals and offers. There is no geographic constraint and one can surely get the first mover advantage provided the right marketing is done in time, with few exclusive tie-ups. DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | APRIL 2010 23

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from the Blogs

http://www.dare.co.in/blogs.htm

Of Women Entrepreneurs, Women's Day and a Reservation Bill Posted by: Vimarsh Bajpai in in the news on Mar 08, 2010 Tagged in: women's reservation bill, women's day, women, skills, loans, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs

hile Happy Women's Day is showing on Twitter, amidst the din in the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, there is a Women's Reservation Bill which is being tabled to give 33 percent quota to women in Parliament and assemblies.

Both seem to be mere symbolic gestures to salute the fairer sex while the situation on the ground remains unchanged. There is still no light at the end of the tunnel for millions of women in small towns and villages. They work on fields, in factories and homes only

to be marginalized and paid much less than their male counterparts. Just the mere passing of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament will serve no purpose until real empowerment takes place.The Act could become a tool in the hands of corrupt politicians to use women as dummy candidates in elections while the real power rests with them. Similarly, we will twitter today and forget the next day. It will all be back to pulling women down and creating hurdles for them. Empowerment lies in entrepreneurship. More women should be encouraged to come up with business ventures, innovative ideas and ways to partner in existing businesses. Starting your own business and successfully running it requires skills such as proper business and financial planning, marketing, communication and understanding customer needs. It is for each of us to impart theses skills to marginalized women to help them look positively at opportunities of self-employment. Another point to be considered is funding. Some banks have worked out some special schemes to encourage women in entrepreneurship but still it is difficult to avail loans. Lack of awareness is a big problem. DARE did a story on why loans for women entrepreneurs are not taking off.

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from the Blogs

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Heights of Comparative Advertising Posted by: Abhishek Chanda in in the news on Mar 08, 2010 Tagged in: Tide, Rin, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Kolkata High Court, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Hindustan Unilever, disruptive advertising, Comparative Advertising, CocaCola, Advertising Standards Council of India, 1996-97 Wills Cricket World Cup

hen brands fight it out amongst themselves, the fight is all about capturing the market share and toppling the competition. And when they do it on TV, it is all about grabbing eyeballs by making the cheekiest of ads and taking potshots at the competitor. The sub-continent has had ads that have unleashed witty and funny, and at other times drab commercials to hit back at each other. During the 1996-97 Wills Cricket World Cup there was the memorable Pepsi versus Coca-Cola campaign, when Pepsi hit back at Coke, the official sponsors of the tournament, by sporting the tagline, Pepsi: Nothing official about it. Suggestive yet not blatant or at least not legally improper. Since then there have been detergents, shampoos, chocolate-based milk drinks, bikes, DTH and even the airline industry! (Kingfisher versus Jet Airways) Even recently the chocolates category too adopted this strategy as Nestle's Munch made a poor imitation of Cadbury's Dairy Milk. However, a shocker of a campaign was unleashed a week back (February 25, 2010) by Hindustan Unilever (HUL) Rin locking

horns with Procter& Gamble's (P&G) Tide Naturals. Forget pixelating the competitor's brand name or pack shot or using beeps, Rin took on Tide Naturals by

not only clearly showing it but also poking fun at it's competitor' tagline and ending the commercial saying, 'Issued in the interest of Rin users'. In a matter of few days it sparked off debates amongst the industry experts as well as consumers themselves who are often accused of not noticing ads on TV. Not only did the brand get instant visibility and created a buzz, but also got the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) knocking at its door, seeking answers for violating norms. Having said that, the Kolkata High Court has now passed an interim order, restraining HUL from airing the Rin commercial, terming it "disparaging." However, what the brand has surely gained out of this debacle and repeated bombarding of its commercial, is a lot of publicity and awareness (even if it's out of shock and awe) out of a stubborn lot of consumers. Some may remember Rin for its parody, while some may find the brand's attempt rude, while others might end up recalling Tide heavily out of the ad too! After all everything is fair in love and war and it surely is a breath of fresh air to chance upon some disruptive advertising on the idiot box. R DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | APRIL 2010 25

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Will ratings work? The advent of the internet and social media has seen an explosion of the use of rating systems. However, ratings do not work on all ocassions. If you plan to use rating systems, you should be aware of when it will work and when it will not /Sachin Saxena

s a society we are fascinated with ratings. However, we also seem to have a very strange love-hate relationship with the concept of feedback and ratings. Starting from our childhood, we get a report card from our school. Most of us resented that, but we accepted it. In our professional lives, we procrastinated completing the 360 feedback forms and appraisals forms. Finally when we were given warnings by the HR department, we complied and after some deep introspection gave ourselves 5 on a scale of 1-5 on most categories. Less than one percent of us fill the customer satisfaction surveys when we have really bad experiences with some product or service. But then something seems to have changed. The advent of new media, particularly the Internet seems to

have given ratings a whole new life. User content, feedback and rating seems to have become synonymous with the next generation of the Web. Suddenly everybody and everything is all about ratings. Ebay has ratings for sellers and buyers. Google has them in its page ranking algorithm. Twitter provides a count of number of followers, somehow linking the number of followers to an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s importance or power. Yelp has user provided rating for restaurants, and the list goes on and on. Then came services like Digg and StumbleUpon, which were purely rating engines. How did this change happen? In a very simplistic way, all these ratings made some sense. Companies had

to have a Web presence to generate revenue. Search engines were a way to be discovered on the web. The web in turn is growing exponentially to become a huge information wasteland. Rating engines provided a route to higher relevance, readership and in turn better search engine visibility and hence higher revenue. Frankly given the rate at which content is being generated online, ratings became a way to put some sanity to all the madness. But the question remains why otherwise reluctant people are behaving the way they do, rating anything and everything they come

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across. Is it because the Internet finally provided us, the lesser mortals, the anonymity we were all looking for express our opinions on just about anything? Is it is the power of the new media in amplifying our voices? The first step to answering this question was to understand the boundaries or guidelines on when ratings a tool make sense? To answer this question, I started considering the applicability of the rating concept to the real world and the virtual world. I sought out examples of when rating worked and when rating did not work. Based on these simple examples, I tried to arrive at some simplistic conditions under which ratings and rankings made sense and when it did not.

Examples in the real world, where it worked Our teachers have rated us. Over time, as a society we have made a real science out of this. There are standardized test like SAT, GMAT and CAT, still debated about, but

nonetheless widely accepted. What is important to note about these tests is that over time we have done a lot of careful, deliberate and constantly evolving scientific research to fine tune the testing (rating) process. Magazines like Consumer Reports have rated things like cars and electronics. These reports allowed a common man to buy complex and expensive gadgets, appliances based on qualified testing reports done by experts. Often, the publishers of these reports use a lot of scientific methods and derive data before they publish these reports. So these were our â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;trusted referralsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It is important to note, that the person and/or the company providing the ratings, put their professional reputation behind their reports.

Where it does not work Personal views and beliefs, like religion, best wife, best dad, motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cooking. Emotion and things not easily measurable like favorite music and favorite teacher are dif-

ficult to rate. Again who is publicly willing to declare that their math teacher or their English teacher was not their first choice? For the most part we kept these discussions to the privacy of our friends and family. If cases where we disagreed, we agreed to disagree.

Examples in the virtual world, where ratings worked Ebay, where transactions are between strangers, has a system to rate buyers and sellers. However, the feedback mechanism was limited to only people who had done transactions with each other. Trust is very important factor for commerce. Ratings provided by other buyers about a seller allowed reputation to be built over time. Yelp provides local ratings for restaurants and other local services. The rating of these local restaurants provided a verification function, but food critics cannot reach all restaurants in every city and street. And the actual cost of any incorrect feedback is

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Frankly given the rate at which content is being generated online, ratings became a way to put some sanity to all the madness.

not earth shattering. The worst case is one bad meal, if your friends (“social referrals”) recommend a place you do not like.

Examples where ratings are not available LinkedIn is your professional network. It does not have any rating mechanism. If you valued someone, you would add them to your network, if you did not value the relation, you simply don’t accept their invitation to connect! If you liked someone, you could write short recommendations, but that is not the same as ranking them. Facebook is where you hang out with friends and family. Lots of dialogs happen on Facebook, but it has no rating mechanism. Do you really want to tell your relatives how they 28

stack-up against each other? So based on this very simplistic analysis, I would conclude with the following set of parameters to evaluate whether rating or feedback works is a good tool or not?

When will ratings work • When you are dealing with small or one time transactions. • When you are dealing with something impersonal (like a car or a celebrity). • If there is science or expertise behind the rating. • If it is okay for the person providing the rating to declare himself. That is, the person who is providing the feedback is willing to go through some level of scrutiny or is ready to take some responsibility for his action.

• There is some concept of limited ‘currency’ to rate.

When ratings will not work • When you are dealing with a long term/strategic relationship. • When you are talking of something close and personal. • When emotional/unquantifiable items are being used to make the judgment. • When anonymity is important, example you have to give a 360 feedback to your boss! I know you are probably thinking about rating this article, but in my opinion you, me and the opinions have characteristics that are not very conducive to ratings! R Sachin Saxena is Vice President, Product Management & Marketing in the Consumer & Enterprise Business Unit at Globallogic.

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blogs/opinion

Raising the child While first-generation entrepreneurs treat their businesses as babies, it is equally important for third or fourth generation entrepreneurs to take their established businesses to the next level

/Anurag Batra

Entrepreneurs do not necessarily think of their tombstones but actually enjoy the process of creating an enterprise.

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.

ecently I was part of a panel discussion on UTV Bloomberg and Mini Menon was moderating it. We were talking about Kolkata and Bengalis and their work ethics. We were discussing how traditionally Kolkata and West Bengal were the fountainhead of entrepreneurship in India. We also talked about how Marwaris have become synonymous with entrepreneurship in India. Mini shared an interesting anecdote about some people being born with a silver spoon. She said something that got me thinking: She said she met an extremely wealthy fourth generation entrepreneur in Kolkota who remarked that his was the first generation in his family that was now having to work. Now think about it. Isn't he blessed? We have all heard the maxim 'Work is Worship'. Consider an entrepreneur who has an established enterpriseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;something that his or her great grandfather created. What is his or her motivation to work? Is it about curiosity and being enterprising to create further value? My simple answer is that it is his or her own drive and the experience and legacy that drives him or her. Entrepreneurs do not necessarily think of their tombstones but actually enjoy the process of creating an enterprise. It is about taking the enterprise to the next level of growth, to explore, enter and establish in newer area of business. The fourth generation entrepreneur is on a journey of self actualization. Money may drive him and his size of ambition, but there is something more to it. Look at Bill Gatesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the man is the richest person on the earth. For close to 28 years he has dominated the world and

is now training his curiosity and energy on creating social enterprises. I have written in the past as well that entrepreneurs, apart from the fact that they are creating wealth for their shareholders, are also answering a higher calling. It is about creating something unique, like a musician does, or a painter does. It is about self actualization. This fourth generation entrepreneur could have easily rested on his family's laurels and could have actualized himself in other ways, but he chose to try and build the enterprise to a new level. I have never had the good fortune of meeting the legendary and iconic late KK Birla, but I am told that he enjoyed his work so much that he was working till his last breath and believed that he was lucky and special that god had chosen him to work. Entrepreneurs are, in some ways, the real terms Karmyogis. Is there a lesson and advice for young scions who join well established businesses passed on to them by their families, fathers and grandfathers? Yes, there are three lessons: 1. What is your plan to take the enterprise to the next level? 2. Can you intertwine these plans with your interests? 3. Can you add a social dimension? I am not a specialist or a management consultant on family businesses, but I say this by observing some brilliant success stories of third or fourth generation entrepreneurs. Creating a new enterprise is like giving birth to a baby and taking an existing enterprise to the next level is like raising the baby and making a man or woman out of him or her. Both are equally important. R DARE.CO.IN | COLOMN | APRIL 2010 29

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photoblogsp LPG cylinder gets dearer in Delhi

ith the Delhi government withdrawing the subsidy on LPG, the cost of each cylinder has gone

up by Rs 40. While the jury is still out on the pros and cons of subsidy as a price-control mechanism, the common man would face the heat of rise in prices. Is the government justified in removing subsidy? Author: Vimarsh Bajpai

A cyclist waits at a junction amidst the traffic din

ndian cities are surely not friendly for cyclists, despite the vehicle being the mode of transport for millions. In the UK,

companies that encourage their employees to cycle to work are offered tax incentives. Trying this out along with other incentives could make more people take to cycles, but not until the government plans separate lanes for cyclists. Are you willing to do your share to help cyclists? Author: Vimarsh Bajpai

APRIL 2010 | PHOTO BLOGS | DARE.CO.IN

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sphotoblogs People savour street food

ndia is famous for street food that is palatable to all. With the upcoming Commonwealth Games, the street food

business is set to rise with tourists getting to taste some authentic food. Is there an opportunity in offering high-quality street food? Author: Vimarsh Bajpai

A woman sells gutkha and packed tobacco

t is a well-known fact that tobacco and gutkha (of which tobacco is one of the ingredients) cause cancer, yet the number

of people consuming these carcinogenic products is on the rise. The country needs more social entrepreneurs who can spread awareness among teenagers. Are you game? Author: Vimarsh Bajpai

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Innovation in

Government

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ost of the capitalist world and some of the most influential sections of the recently-converted-to-capitalism world would have you believe that they shudder at the thought of government in business. And they are not entirely off the mark, for governments have, more often than not, proved them right. Yet, modern economic history is replete with instances of individuals in government helping set up successful business ventures or governmental administrative reforms that stand the test of time. In the last six decades since independence, India, like most of the world, has undergone tectonic changes in its administration and economy. Time was when private investment in most economic sectors was positively discouraged in India, as most of them were reserved for state-run companies. In other words, the government managed not only the country's administration and law and order, but was also the biggest business conglomerate in the country. Over time, the excessively controlled economy and indeed the huge administrative structure became the primary reasons for India's economic backwardness, eventually leading up to the Balance of Payments crisis in 1991, which ushered in economic liberalization. Even so, by a conservative estimate, upto 40 percent of the economy remains government-controlled. Yet, chided as most government servants rightly were, for their inefficiency, mis-administration and utter lack of business logic, some notable DARE.CO.IN | SECTOR | APRIL 2010 33

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A FEW GOOD MEN exceptions among them stood out. Had it not been for people like Verghese Kurien, MS Swaminathan, Homi Bhaba, RC Bhargava et al, India may never have seen Operation Flood/ Amul, the Green Revolution, the nuclear bomb, Maruti Udyog, and so on. Such achievements have become so iconic that they are inseparable from independent India's history. So what was it that made these few people stand out among a sea of those that were in no way remarkable? Simply put, they had all the hallmarks of being great leaders. Also, fortuitously for the country, they made things happen at the right time. So was it just providence or did these people have any common leadership traits that held them in good stead? While there are no straight answers to this question, if one were to try and analyze, a few important common characteristics stand out. 1. Charisma: While this is a trait associated more with politicians, India has seen its fair share of charismatic bureaucrats and military generals. Who can forget the inimitable Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, known as much for his flair as for his generalship, which eventually won India the Bangladesh war in 1971? But do others exude similar charisma? If yes, why don't we ever get to see that part of them? For one, Manekshaw had become a public figure even while he was in service, unlike most government officials, for whom anonymity is the norm, at least till they reach secretarial position. Yet, within their departmental domains, the likes of Verghese Kurien and TN Seshan held great moral sway over their subordinates. 2. Ability to build the right team: This is perhaps one of the most significant character traits of any leader, more so one who works in a government department or corpora34

APRIL 2010 | SECTOR | DARE.CO.IN

Innovation in governemt.indd 34

tion. The traditional interpretation of the welfare state model requires the government to overlook merit and efficiency practically at every step of the process of governance-from induction of employees to implementation of schemes and projects. All administrators, without exception, have been aided by a few good men who have steadfastly stood behind their leader in good times and bad. The most recent example is of E Sreedharan, who, without a highly disciplined and motivated crack team of some of the most technically competent railway personnel, could have built neither the Konkan Railways project nor the Delhi Metro, literally from scratch. 3. Foresight: A leader necessarily has to have the ability to work toward a scenario months, years or even decades into the future. This becomes even more pertinent in the case of the government as it is mandated to undertake and implement such schemes or enter such businesses where the gestation period may be measured in terms of decades. This further entails the ability to take tough, even seemingly ruthless decisions in the larger interest of the issue at hand. Moreover, institutionalizing processes that stand the test of time and can be replicable is also extremely essential. 4. Forthrightness and dexterity: The bane of most government processes is their circuitous nature. The government, both in its internal processes and while dealing with the public, takes forever to conceptualize and then to implement processes. If a person in executive authority can cut through the red tape and simplify execution and implementation, while not breaking any rules, his job becomes that much easier, especially in a governmental context. It cannot be emphasized enough that if a

SOME OF INDIA'S MOST OUTSTANDING GOVERNMENT SERVANTS AND WHY THEY STOOD OUT

Verghese Kurien He is the "Father of the White Revolution in India" and the driving force behind Amul.

RC Bhargava Indira Gandhi placed immense trust in him to start Maruti, and he delivered.

TN Seshan An administrator par excellence. He made the Election Commission of India a truly independent body. Before that the government of the day had an iron grip over the EC.

Dr MS Swaminathan Aptly called the "Father of the Green Revolution in India." He was chiefly responsible for the introduction of High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, which ushered in the Green Revolution in the late 1960s and the early 1970s.

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leader takes longer than required to take a critical decision, the organization suffers.

E Sreedharan Popularly called the "Metro Man." for successfully and efficiently running the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), and delivering projects on-time and on-budget. And it was his vision that made the Konkan Railway possible.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw He realized the tactical futility of invading Pakistan during the monsoon months of 1971 and withstood immense political pressure while delaying the war by six months, in the process winning India the war. He enjoyed a great chemistry with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Dr Homi Bhabha He can arguably be called the "Father of the Indian Nuclear Program." He was the guiding force behind setting up what came to be known as the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) after his untimely demise in a plane crash in 1966.

PC Mahalanobis This brilliant statistician was the main driving force behind the setting up of the Indian Statistical Institute. He then went on to devise the model for the Second Five Year Plan, a model that later came to be called the "Mahalanobis Model."

Innovation in governemt.indd 35

5. Perseverance: This is a classic recipe for success in any situation, and leadership in the government is no different. Policy implementation and administration are the primary functions of the state, yet affecting policy changes can not only take ages, but is also fraught with dangers that can derail it at every stage. In such a scenario, it becomes important that the concerned department or public sector unit (PSU), under its leader, perseveres to wade through all challenges to see the process through to fruition. From Sukumar Sen to MS Swaminathan and now to E Sreedharan, this trait that has been characteristic of all such bureaucrats and administrators who have seen projects through. 6. Integrity: To put it simply: a dishonest man simply cannot be a leader of men, so this becomes the fundamental trait of anyone who truly leads. It goes without saying that those bureaucrats and administrators have unblemished service records when they are handed over such critical work. Sure, some like KPS Gill and Verghese Kurien have gone on to court controversy, but rarely for the job that gave them much deserved fame. 7. Ability to think out of the box: If a leader has to solve a problem or create something anew, he cannot tread on the beaten path. This also includes challenging dogmas and worn out traditions and the ability to question, analyze and, if required, debunk one's own ideas. Novelty is the name of the game. Governments are usually saddled with people who have archaic and therefore potentially unproductive ideas which stall processes.

8. Political backing at the top: The executive and administrative head of a private company almost always becomes the final decision-making authority in so far as his department or organization is concerned. In the government, however, the bureaucrat or administrator is answerable to the political executive and so it becomes pertinent that his ideas are in perfect harmony with those of the political executive. In fact, it cannot be any other way as the political executive is answerable to the legislature and therefore to the public. In case a disagreement between the political executive and the bureaucrat cannot be resolved, either the former almost always prevails or the latter bows outâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with the notable exception of TN Seshan. 9. Ability to see that all change is incremental: Revolutions happen, but quite by chance. No leader can truly assert that he set out to revolutionize his field of work. All sensible people in positions of leadership look at affecting incremental change with the assumption that such changes will add up to more than the sum of their parts. 10. Control and delegation: Almost always, delegation is touted, and legitimately at that, as one of the most desirable qualities of a leader. Yet, the most pertinent question that every leader almost always has to grapple with, is, "when and how much to delegate, and to whom?" Now whereas a private sector company can pick and choose employees to work on specific projects, the government has to almost always make do with employees who have secured "permanent" cadre positions on the basis of an open competitive exam. Therefore, it becomes difficult to pick specific people out, thereby leaving an executive head with a "best-fit" scenario. R DARE.CO.IN | SECTOR | APRIL 2010 35

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entrepreneur of the month

Modicare Limited is one of India's leading direct selling company offering products across various categories like personal care, skin care, colour cosmetics, home care, laundry care, agriculture, auto care, nutrition, food & beverage and health & wellness. Modi is also the chairman of Modi Enterprises, a group of companies with many international partners, including businesses that of cigarettes, tea & beverages, entertainment, consumer products, network marketing, chemicals, tertiary education and gourmet restaurants.

Krishan Kumar Modi Modi Enterprises

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Aspiring entrepreneurs should avoid doubting themselves. Once you avoid that, you realize that making money is the easy part and the hardest part is to believe in yourself and that you can make money. ell us about the genesis of Modicare. While travelling from one country to another, one comes across people from all walks of life. About 14-15 years back, I met some peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the kinds who one would generally never expect to come and talk to you, actually making a proposition to me to start a business. I was intrigued by it and started to look into this fast becoming popular business of multilevel marketing. The mix of people doing this business also caught my attentionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;there were those who did this as a part-time business, there were housewives, the unemployed, also some people who had quit their jobs to do this business full-time. I saw an opportunity in bringing this business of multi-level marketing to India. Our first approach was to seek partnership with some foreign firms to learn from them; but we soon realized that most of them wanted to venture into India on their own. Hence, we decided to start our business independently. We roped in a few people with prior experience and expertise in the field of multi-level marketing (MLM) in different parts of the world and we started out as Modicare.

What is the one key challenge in setting up an MLM business? This business encompasses a very large number of non-professional people to do a professionalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job. So the biggest challenge was how to make these consultants understand this concept. The challenge is in getting them enthused, teaching them how to make a pitch, etc. In India, particularly in the middle class segment, there seems to be some sort of reluctance when it comes to the thought of selling something to family and friends, to make profits. So, while the wives and students in China feel proud about working in this line of business, we tend to stop ourselves from getting into it. One of the biggest problems we face is that many people join this line of business without clearly understanding it. Yes, people have made real good money for themselves in MLM. However, it takes a lot of hard work. Now when people join the network without understanding this, they tend to lose hope very fast. The return in this line of business comes in a certain period of time, not immediately. MLM companies have had to deal with one disturbing trend time and again. For instance, some company (competition) comes up and promises

easy money and this fact troubles the consultants of our company. The fact is that everyone wants to cut corners and move as fast as possible. However, here is the message that needs to be clearly understood: If you do not put in effort, you will have to invest a lot of money and still the rate of return will be small. If you put in small amount of money and do not put in efforts and still are promised high returns, there is a good possibility of it being a scam. If you put a small amount of money together with a lot of effort, and provided that the work done is consistent and of good quality, there is a lot of good returns that can be gained. How do you get around the scepticism about MLM business is usually scams? The whole idea of investing a small amount and getting good returns, without putting in any effort is what the scammers promise and people get cheated. These MLM companies do not last for long; but these companies do give a bad reputation to the industry. The fact is that in the MLM business the capital that the consultants invest is their effort, not the money. In case of genuine MLM businesses like ours, we are clear about the fact

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e that the money invested is small, but the consultants have to inevitably bring in value by a lot of consistent hard work to make good returns from it. What are the key elements for success in this line of business? This business is very simple to do. The key factor for success is desire. You need to have a strong desire to have somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a car, a house, or any such thing. The fact is that if one can afford to buy the things you desire with your current income, he or she does not need to get into the business of MLM. However, if the desire does not have a means to end, the person who gets into the business of MLM will put his heart and soul to surpass all rejections and dejections, which is a part of the business. Secondly, one needs to believe that he or she is bound to succeed. If these two elements exists, the person can easily be guided to succeed by Modicare through their executives and consultants. What are the product categories that should not be even explored for MLM business? MLM is one-to-one marketing. Therefore, you should concentrate on products which otherwise cannot be sold without having to explain to the customer about how to use the product, how they can benefit from this product, and also to an extent help them by being available to give them advice, if they have any questions or doubts when they use the product. For instance, people do not need the help of the seller in understanding the usage of a product like sugar; but if it is a telephone or a cleaning device or some health-related product, it is likely that one would require advice. Those are the products that are normally sold through MLM. 38

Yes, people have made real good money for themselves in MLM. However, it takes a lot of hard work. The return in this line of business comes in a certain period of time, not immediately.

Also important is the fact that these products should come with full money-back policies. This is because the buyer generally happens to be some friend, colleague, or relative; and if for some reason they are not satisfied with the product, the consultant should not fail them in terms of maintaining their goodwill and trust. Hence, the product also has to be such that distance selling is not involved. Considering that you have some many businesses in the conglomerate, how do you stay on top of things? Honestly, I cannot remain on top of things. But I can surely review what has been promised by the management of the companies. We typically run our businesses on three-year rolling plans. The managements specify what they plan to do in these three years with special focus on what is the plan for the next financial year. Once a direction is established, the performance is measured in comparison with businesses in India and abroad. If I have issues with the directions, I raise the concerns before the directions get established. Then, it becomes really easy to keep updated about things by meeting people once in a month or so. Also, I make it a point to talk to different people, rather than talking to one single point of contact, to get a holistic overview of what is happening in the organization. What would be the next big thing in the MLM business? I think in India the MLM business still has had only a very limited penetration. Let me tell you about an experience I had in Dallas, Texas, USA. I was travelling in a cab and chatting with the chauffeur. I asked him if he does anything else besides driving the cab, to which he replied that he is an elec-

tronic multi-level marketer. Now that is the next big thingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;extensive use of the Internet and social networks to connect to each other and expand the horizons of networking offline. As for Modicare, the next big thing will be to go international. I think we should be able to do that in the next couple of years. What was your first big success as an entrepreneur? There have been many successes that have got me to this level. Along with our family, I have started some of our businesses from the scratch. Looking back, I can think of some exceptional milestones though. Godfrey Philips (tobacco company) and Indofil Chemical (agro-chemical company) were bought when the companies were sick and were almost no-value companies. I would say turning these around, by finding solutions to how these companies were losing money, and taking them to the next level i.e. making money, and getting them to become valuable as of today, is something I would term as a milestone successes. What is the one thing that aspiring entrepreneurs should avoid when starting up? They should avoid doubting theirselves. Once you avoid that, you realize that making money is the easy part and the hardest part is to believe in yourself and that you can make money. Of course, there will be testing times in the path to success; he should not give in to the problems in the middle of it all. He will find a solution when he continues slowly, steadily, and is calculative. When you start an enterprise, do it with a belief that you can solve every problem that shows up and believe that you are going to succeed. R

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from the Blogs

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Managerial Brilliance Measure: IIM-A's 70 percent Cutoff in School Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Mar 6, 2010 Tagged in: IIM-A, cut off, percentage, school, managerial brilliance, CAT, MAT, grades

hile the HRD ministry is trying to reduce pressure on students by easing eligibility norms for admission to IIMs, IIM is gauging managerial brilliance by the grades students have got in Class 10 and 12. It is stipulating a minimum of 70 percent cutoff in these two classes for students to get admission in it, irrespective of CAT scores (where obviously minimum cutoff is odd 99 percent). Anyone would agree that there are managers in so many companies who may not have good or high academic

qualifications but have performed brilliantly in their job, and they stand much higher than IIM-A graduates. If IIM-A thinks it shall definitely get better quality of students through this measure, it is wrong. For instance, in my office itself, there's a person, who, though has passed only class 12, is one of India's top open source hackers and with eight years of experience, is one of the best human assets an organization can have for its IT department. IIM shall definitely lose on such quality talent, with such policies.

It's time the institute takes cues from its global counterparts, where candidate's academic records (including entrance exam score) don't get a weightage of more than 50 percent (on an average), and attributes like personality and other aspects get due credence, which results in an overall assessment of an individual. I very well respect the IIMs for churning out some of the best managers in this country and the world and also acknowledge the fact that academics are important for development of an individual, society and nation. However, this time they are going back on the wheel of time and emphasizing on academics, while there is an increasing realization that an individual's success (and therefore the society's or organization's success) depends majorly on factors which are beyond academics. A popular fact that is not known to people (though it's first part is only relevant in this case) is that a number of researches across the world have proved that success of an individual depends just 20 percent on IQ and 80 percent on EQ (Emotional Quotient). The move has already started attracting criticism from some factions. It may benefit IIMs in some way, but will definitely be detrimental to interests of some worthy IIM aspirants. DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | APRIL 2010 39

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from the Blogs

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Tips on How not to Waste a Single Minute of your Life Posted by: Nimesh Sharma in Ideas on Mar 11, 2010 Tagged in: time waste, optimal use, life skills, read, write, practise, sleep, travel, look around

ne of my friends/ex-colleagues once told me the concept of work or fun. He said one should spend her/his life doing either of the two thingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;work hard or have fun, but not waste time otherwise (except of course the tragic times and similar other situations). So, based on that, after a lot of thinking I have come up with few tips using which you will be able to utilize your maximum time, and all for your good. You will find that we already do almost all of these things. However, the perspective here is of doing them consciously with a purpose in mind. I shall discuss the premise behind not wasting time after the tips. So, here they are: Read: newspapers, magazines, journals, novels, biographies, your text books, websites, the paper bag/ envelope holder of the street delicacy you are eating, sticker/poster in bus/ street or anything. Do it while walking, sitting, standing, eating, watching IPL, traveling, etc. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to read all the things in detail, but keep your eyes open and give a careful glance to readable things around you. Often, there are a lot of interesting things to be learnt. Write: poems, prose, essays, letters, daily diary, ideas, your best and worst moments of life and now-a-days you can additionally use blogs and micro40

blogs ( Twitter) to do that. When you don't have much to do, start writing whatever you think, what new ideas you have thought of during last week

on any topic, etc. Over time, if you work consciously, you may have a database of ideas which could be used in some way. Writing is a great way to express

APRIL 2010 | FROM THE BLOGS | DARE.CO.IN

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from the Blogs

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yourself, isn't it? I just did it (though I do it to earn a living). Some people are just chatterboxes. This is a great way for them to not waste time but talk with some productivity. Talk to people about ideas (never indulge in negative thoughts, though), issues, you, them, business, job, and sometimes real gossip as well. Ask them what they do, what they did in life, how they did it, and how can you do it? You will surely learn a lot from people's experiences. As the advertisment says, "Baat karne se hi baat banti hai!"

Look Around: Keep aware of your surroundings wherever you are walking, sitting, standing eating or doing something not requiring focus. You will learn many new things. Look at people, what they are doing, how they behave in public, their expressions in particular circumstances, how they behave with and think about other cultures, how they live, how they work, their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and values, as well as the unspoken cultural patterns that shape behavior. Over time, you would have learnt a lot of new practical things about the world and the people. And after learning so much about people, you would surely become a ‘people expert’, which is a skill rarely found today. You may end up becoming ethnographer if your experience of this knowledge is multi-cultural and/or international. It’s all about noticing! PS—This however in no way should mean that you stalk people or stare at them, but should do all this within legal, moral, social and ethical limits. Sleep: Not a sound advice, you might say! However, if you are one of those who often have to compromise on sleep for many reasons, this is a good use of time, to keep doing what you were doing at that time only, but not compromising on health. I learnt this from one of my college friends, who was an intelligent being, and used to sleep in class whenever he got time, so that time is not wasted. Nice… Travel: This holds for those who have days and not hours or minutes to spend time. Travelling to new places combined with all the above tips shall be the best experiences for you which you will remember for a lifetime. Practice Song, Dance, Mimicry, Sketching, etc: Most of the celebrities

we see on TV, radio and stage are there because they utilized their extra time in practicing skills like singing, dancing, mimicry and other performing arts. The bathroom singer in you needs more practice and get out in public. You never know when someone notices you to give a break or when you become famous after even a social performance of your dancing skills. One of my college friends even got a designer's job owing to his casual sketching practice in class making him too good at that. That’s how you get to do what you love in life and earn for the same. Not all people get that. Innovate ways to do all this at minimum cost, and with maximum novelty factor: Who does not love spending money? I'm sure you would love doing it all the more if you get to spend it only on things you love doing. So, innovate ways to minimize your unnecessary costs. Besides, try changing the environment for each of the above tips every time you are following them consciously or unconsciously. Change places, topics, medium, people (except friends and family) and whatever else possible. Bring in novelty in everything, and life would be fun. As I earlier said, the purpose behind all these activities is not to just pass time, but pass time productively. In a way, you may call it pursuing excellence (doing what you love to do) (Yes, the stuff is borrowed from 3 Idiots!!! So what!) The whole point of doing all this is to LEEDU: Learn, Express, Explore, Discover and Understand; but not in school/college. Born intelligent? Now, let your self-defined education enrich you and not ruin you! I am open to any more discussion on this. R DARE.CO.IN | FROM THE BLOGS | APRIL 2010 41

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Your Idea:

Reveal it or not? Stealth Mode: How good is it for entrepreneurs to keep their ideas under wraps and not share it until the final product or service is ready for launch? /Vimarsh Bajpai

hen Dinesh Goel envisioned Ideas Infinite, a service provider of standardized and customized innovation solutions to corporates, academia, students, associations, media and the society at large, he decided to consult extensively with people in his network to get feedback. For over three years, the consultations with his mentors, advisors, innovation practitioners and prospective customers resulted in him visiting the drawing board several times to ponder over the nature of products and services that he wanted to offer. So, no stealth mode for Goel, who says â&#x20AC;&#x153;by keeping your idea to yourself you run the risk of limiting yourself in almost every aspect of your venture, which eventually leads to lot of changes, modifications, improvements after the launch and learning essential things after mistakes have been made.â&#x20AC;?

What is stealth mode? It is a state of secrecy maintained by a company to deliberately hide its idea or an upcoming product or 42

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service from being known until it is ready for launch. Usually large corporations get into stealth mode while developing a new product or launching a new service primarily to avoid their competition from knowing about it. “Talking of startups, earlier, say ten years ago, when access to information was a big challenge, stealth mode used to work

very well. It used to give that edge. But now things have changed,” says Vijay Shukla, Founder, Setu Ventures.

Should you be in stealth mode? “A good way to answer this is by asking yourself 'Are you doing something different' or 'Are you doing an existing thing differently'. In case of the former, it is better to develop it

By keeping your idea to yourself you run the risk of limiting yourself in almost every aspect of your venture, which eventually leads to a lot of changes, modifications, improvements after the launch and learning essential things after mistakes have been made.

— Dinesh Goel Founder, Ideas Infinite

in stealth mode so as to retain the competitive advantage over others,” says Arun Balakrishnan CEO, Founding Director, Fintact.com (Bigslick Infotech), in reply to a question on LinkedIn. He adds that feedback from people (prospective customers, partners, etc) might not be very useful as it is something they have never used till now. Inherently people resist change and if it is something very new, the initial response from them might not be that good, which can be demoralizing, he adds Making a product or developing a service for a customer without taking feedback might not be a great idea because eventually he is the one you want to spend money to buy. Adds Balakrishnan, “The best way to go about making a B2C product is to take continuous feedback. Often a high stealth mode product tends to deviate away from the actual requirements of the market and has the tendency to become something outlandish." The idea alone would not be of much value without execution. Even if one copies your idea, the way you put it in use would be very different from the other person. “It is not the idea but the model of execution that you should guard,” says Shukla. The best way to get idea validation done is to discuss it threadbare with your mentors, guides and friends. Launching a pilot before the full-fledged launch would also work well. “It's crucial to constantly bounce your thoughts off with a committed team of mentors, who, given their experience, knowledge and network, can add value to define futuristic demands of the market, sounding out potential customers and fellow experts to bring in innovative ideas, idenDARE.CO.IN | STRATEGY | APRIL 2010 43

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tifying and warning against critical technological loopholes, gaps in financial planning and potential implementation issues, etc, says Goel. He is thankful to his mentors (who include experts, scholars, practitioners, even competitors in some ways) who helped him enhance his vision, did not let him get complacent nor obsessed with his idea and even now constantly keep him on the fast track of the learning curve While some people think that there are many who would not hesitate in stealing the idea, others believe that putting it out in the open is the best way to get it validated. In response to our question on LinkedIn, Jaap Schuddeboom, Entrepreneur Start-up Consultant and Coach based in The Netherlands, says “I'd even go so far as to suggest you

Ask when you are still brainstorming with potential customers or successful entrepreneurs and remember that unless you share, you cannot get a response.

— S Nandakumar President, Vinvision Holistic Management Consulting 44

promote a product/service on your Website of which only the outline is known, to find out if there is a need in the market for that.” He adds that it saves a lot of product development time and money, and if the response is positive, you know that you spent time and money that is worthwhile A section of the people who responded to how good is it to keep your ideas under wraps before the launch of the final product or service, felt that not all ideas should be brought out of the stealth mode and it depends also on the final product and its proprietary nature. According to Chicago-based Bruce Tincknell, MD and CEO of Just The Facts, “The real key is exposing it to a range of potential users in order to gauge the interest level. This is critical to do so that necessary refinements and adjustments can be made prior to launch. Focus groups are an excellent way of exposing and gaining insights and valuable feedback prior to market launch." Even if you are able to keep your idea under wraps for a while, the big question is how long can you do it. You will have to bring it out in the market, sooner or later. But another angle here is competitive advantage. According to Brian Dorricott, Business Angel, based in Bristol, UK, “An entrepreneur whose only advantage is that no one has thought of it yet and the idea is easy to copy (and not protectable), then stealth mode may be the only option. However, at some point the entrepreneur will need to go public and at that point, someone may copy it and the copier may benefit from being second to market (i.e. learning from the mistakes of the first entrant)." Dorricott believes that the ideas that are difficult to copy or have their IP protected can easily be discussed with everyone. “They will need as much help as they can get and the best way to do this is to shout about it and network

When you validate, you have got to see who you validate your idea with; the best one is your prospective customer.

— Vijay Shukla Founder, Setu Ventures

so people know. This can also help resolve early advice and funding problems--if the idea is that good, someone in the network will hear about it and become interested as a mentor and/or funder." According to Dave Powell, MD of Texas-based SandOaks, “Many ideas need significant tweaking from customer feedback, so it becomes important to socialize the idea with customers, partners and employees early in the process." Goel says that one of the key aspect of this is to understand that you are essentially in stealth mode for the world because you don't throw your idea out in the open except to a few carefully selected people who are your bouncing board. Also it is critical to carefully select who you share the idea with because you want to ensure that your idea does not get hijacked or sidestepped or derailed. So the next time you have a “great” idea, open it up for feedback and you would be surprised how fresh thoughts will make it more valuable. R

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blogs/opinion

Inflation Gamble The public is today less charitable because much of the inflation is on account of poor management of supplies and stocks by government agencies.

/Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit are hoping that “inclusive” economic growth will increase the real incomes of the middle class and the poor so that they forget the misery of the past. But our political leaders may be proved wrong.

The writer is an educator and a journalist with 32 years of experience in various media—print, radio, television, the Internet and documentary cinema.

he governments of India and Delhi have both taken a political gamble by presenting budgets that would literally add fuel to inflationary fires. The presumption is that since the next general elections are scheduled for AprilMay 2014, while assembly elections in the national capital are due in December 2013, this is the most opportune time for politically difficult decisions such as increasing taxes on petroleum products. In the 2009 general elections, the United Progressive Alliance government, led by the Congress, was able to escape the resentment of the electorate on account of high prices, thanks to the international economic crisis. Since much of the rise in domestic inflation was on account of high prices of petroleum products, which, in turn, were on account of world prices of crude oil zooming—India imports more than three-quarters of the country’s total requirements of crude oil and petroleum products—voters were charitably inclined towards the government and did not hold it fully responsible for its inability to control prices. The situation is different on this occasion. From the third quarter of calendar 2009 onwards, inflation in India has been driven by high food prices, especially the prices of sugar, dal, dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Inflation has now spread

to other sectors and become more generalized. The public is today less charitable because much of the inflation is on account of poor management of supplies and stocks by government agencies. For instance, sugar was first exported and then imported at twice the price. But the government is not particularly bothered about facing the wrath of the proverbial aam admi because elections are not round the corner. Since inflation was negative in the second and third quarters of 2009, the mere “statistical effect” will ensure that the increase in the wholesale price index as well as consumer price indices will remain around double-digits, if not higher, till June-July. Thereafter, if the monsoon is favourable, prices should start easing. The other point worth noting is that even when the inflation rate comes down, it does not mean that the prices of essential commodities have declined—it just means that the pace at which prices are rising has slowed down or decelerated. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit are hoping that public memory will be short. They are hoping that “inclusive” economic growth will increase the real incomes of the middle class and the poor so that they forget the misery of the past. But our political leaders may be proved wrong. R DARE.CO.IN | COLUMN | APRIL 2010 45

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etwork eutrality

Where does India stand? The debate over net neutrality has not yet entered mainstream public discourse in India. Yet, in mature net savvy countries, it is already a hotly debated topic that has polarized opinion on both sides and might turn out to be one existential debate we may have to contend with in the not so distant future. A DARE analysis. /Aman Malik 46

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hat is net neutrality all about?

It is a question that concerns the ownership and control of the Internet. At its heart is the principle that if one user pays a certain amount for a certain level of connectivity and another user does the same, the two should be able to connect at that designated speed. Thus far, to put it simply, the Internet, in the last twenty years of its existence, has remained neutral. The fact that no one entity, government or corporate, owns it and the haphazard manner in which it has grown around the world, has ensured and guaranteed its neutrality. This is not to say that there has been no governmental censorship. Sure, countries from North Korea to Pakistan (and even India) routinely censor websites. Yet, such censorship is not a result of the very infrastructure of the Internet, both physical and otherwise, being tweaked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or web companies themselves, to censor content. Thus far, the nongovernment owned ISPs in most of the world (except countries with undemocratic totalitarian regimes) have remained "dumb tubes" to quote Robert Evans of Cracked.com. In other words, most ISPs the world over have not censored content to suit themselves. People can pretty much surf anything from most parts of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;high culture to porn, important breaking news to boring banalities, they are all at our fingertips, at the click of a button, and the network does not differentiate between content, favoring one over the other. So what is the problem? Simply put, the ISPs, at least in the developed West, do not anymore want to remain providers of dumb pipes. They want a share of the pie. And in their defense, they put a very seemingly convincing case of how providing infrastructure and bandwidth costs a lot of money and that they must start charging both users

and content providers (at least the big ones) variable rates. Individual users across the world (including India) already pay variable rates for different speed limits. Content providers on the other hand, do not pay different rates for different kinds of content that they dish out. They pay the ISPs mutually agreed flat rates. And per se the ISPs network does not prioritize one content provider over another. There's just one superhighway for all of the Internet's traffic to ply on. But if the American and European ISPs have their way, that could change, in their favor. In other words, there could be more than one highwayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one for the privileged users and content providers who can

and If the American have their European ISPs ld be more way, there cou ay-one for than one highw users and the privileged ers who can content provid e other pay more and th als. for lesser mort pay more and the other for lesser mortals. And it doesn't end here. The ISPs want control over what content they want you to consume. In other words, if a certain website does not conform to your ISPs business interests, the ISP can simply block it. Large number of people across the world are now getting connected to the Internet via mobile phones. And in countries like India, considering the prohibitively high cost of owning a desktop PC or a laptop for most people and the high capital input required for laying a high-speed fiber optic network, the mobile phone will be the preferred mode of connecting to the Internet. And with 3G set to become a reality, more and more

people will download high volume content, thus clogging the already overburdened networks. Even if the cost of acquisition of bandwidth is factored into the tarrif structure, there is a possibility that the service provider could put certain types pf downloads on a premium, thereby jeopardizing net neutrality.

What can happen if the Internet loses its neutrality? A lot actually. The very fact that the Internet has come thus far from when, two decades ago, Tim BernersLee invented it in his lab at CERN, is because no one has controlled it consciously and the world at large has been left to use it whichever way it wants to. And what has happened to the Internet is certainly not unique to it. All technical innovations that revolutionized society, had their time under the sun when they were left free of governmental and/or corporate controlâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;radio and television, just to name two. Corporate organizations have forever hijacked technology for their own commercial benefit. Not only does it erode the freedom of the consumer to choose, it also puts all future technical innovations squarely in the hands of corporate organizations and therefore subjugates the same to corporate interests. How big is the problem in the US? Although, the problem itself is not yet apparent, several loopholes in the American legislation on this issue have raised alarm bells. Many commentators have rightly expressed their concern that if the corporatization of the Internet are not checked in time, it may just be too late. The Internet in the US has become ubiquitous with practically everyone connected either directly or indirectly to the World Wide Web. Most of the global Internet giants are Americans but cater to customers all over the world. So, if say, Google is asked to pay more for the same service that say Yahoo or Microsoft gets at a comparatively DARE.CO.IN | STRATEGY | APRIL 2010 47

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In India the real upthrust in Internet access will come in over the mobile platform. So the challenge is the break the stranglehold of the mobile phone operator over the customer so that he is free to choose form between operators and also tariff plans at will. cheaper rate, it can potentially seriously jeopardize Google's market share because Google's host of sites will open slower than Yahoo's or Microsoft's. On the other end, if your ISP has a corporate tie-up with say CNN, it might choose to block you from visiting Fox's or PBS' website, in which case the Internet becomes more or less a one way street.

and not the wireless ones. And with the US already moving toward the fourth generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology, the regulatory authority would have to move fast to cover up vulnerable gaps. Moreover, the FCC guidelines are "principles" that are not enforceable by law.

What is the legislative scene in the US vis-a-vis net neutrality?

There is a strong corporate backed global lobby that vociferously opposes the concept of net neutrality. Their main argument is that since some type of data is profoundly more important than most other data, the former data packets should be given priority over the latter. An often cited scenario is this: Suppose a doctor is performing a life-saving surgery say in remote Africa, using a robotic arm, should the data packets pertaining to his data enjoy the same priority as say that of a person downloading popular music? This effectively means that the anti-net neutrality lobbyists want to end the "one highway for all" concept that has been the guiding force behind

In the recent past, net neutrality activists have got a shot in the arm with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led by the new Chairman Julius Genachowski (an Obama appointee) announcing new guidelines in September 2009, under a comprehensive National Broadband Plan, which favors net neutrality. The latest amendments have added two important clauses to existing guidelinesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the non-discrimination principle (i.e. ISPs cannot discriminate with respect to content) and transparency principle (which relates to disclosure norms). Yet, these FCC guidelines only cover wired networks 48

What do the opponents of net neutrality say?

the spread of the Internet. The antinet neutrality activists allege that the issue is being whipped up for no reason and that it is "a controversy-seeking a problem." Yet, it is important that the citizenry and governments do their bit to preempt an issue that can potentially raise its head. Further, they argue that any preemptive regulations tantamount to state intervention and hinder free flow of market forces.

What is being done about it in the US? Net neutrality activists across the Americas and Europe are using all forums available to them to sensitize the public about the enormity of the issue at hand. Several US lawmakers and the Chairman of the Federal Communication (FCC) seem to be lending a sympathetic ear to them. The situation is in a flux though and the jury is therefore still out.

So why should we in India be worried? First, whatever happens to the Internet in the US, directly affects the rest

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of the wold, including India, as USbased websites dominate the Internet. So, if some websites run slower than others, there is bound to be a difference in speeds in India as well. Also, if network speeds within the US do not remain neutral and there is a bifurcation, it is bound to affect global traffic one way or the other. Moreover, the Information Technology Act in India presently has no clear guidelines that prohibits a local ISP from trying to control the Internet to suit his business interests. In February last year, eyebrows were raised when AirTel, a leading ISP introduced its "Fair Usage Policy" which seeks to curb the amount you download even on an "unlimited" plan. The way it works is this: If say for an "unlimited plan" with a minimal rental of Rs 1099 (before taxes), which offers you 512 kbps speed, you download data exceeding 100GB for a given bill-

ing cycle, your download speed will be halved for the remainder of the billing cycle, after crossing the said limit. Not only does that tantamount to the ISP allowing the consumer lesser amount of data transfer than was promised, but is also effectively curbing your ability to download high volume content like videos, third party application software, games, etc at optimal speeds. Further, in the recent past a popular Indian comic-porn site was blocked by BSNL and AirTel. Whereas ISPs are legally allowed to block online pornographic content in India, it does establish the ability of the ISP to censor content at free will under a government directive or for their commercial interests. As mentioned, in India the real upthrust in Internet access will come in over the mobile platform with 500 million Indians already using the mobile phones. So

the challenge is to break the stranglehold of the mobile phone operator over the customer so that he is free to choose between operators and also tariff plans at will. Moreover, with 3G coming in, the mobile applications market will see a major uptake. Analysts like Rajesh Jain point out that for this to happen, an open publishing platform for applications will have to be introduced and made widely available to consumers independent of the telecom operators. Moreover, money collection systems, independent of the operator, will have to be instituted, so that money directly reaches the application provider, bypassing the telecom operator. This would necessitate that the regulator and the industry come on the same page and forge ahead jointly so as to ensure that the information superhighway does not become the preserve of vested interests. R

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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

tarted as a concept in June 2002, Thinkxntric is an initiative to live the passion of realizing a creative design entity to serve the needs of design research, innovation and production. Understanding the market gap for all the design needs to clients has been the market motivation. Started from a two-member homebased initiative, today Thinkxntric has grown to a professional team of 18 with a handsome business growth and huge potential to realize more. Vision: To be a creative leader in the global design market place with onestop shop for all customers. To create a market niche for creative design with a passion to think beyond, making it the first design firm to go public by 2012. We provide a very different and collaborative way of designing. We believe we can demonstrate that our process is the most effective way to create or improve any product. “Freedom of thought is the birth of creativity” ThinkXNtric is not just a name for us but our character identity. Right now we are at the stage where we are transitioning into turnkey venture with over one to two crore of turnover and the project time phase is 180 to 300 days with all the approved delays; in order to achieve this we need assurers so we can pick some materials from vendors as the billing is phased out in three installments. Interested people or parties can contact me for more details and also give me their feedback to the present communication Harigopal Dutta

have started an HR consultancy firm “Effective People” to provide growth and change management, professional training and outbound experiential learning programs after spending around three decades in various corporate organizations. I would like to interact with entrepreneurs in the same field

or any other field who may be interested. Atul Srivastava, CEO Response We are currently running HR consultancy name "Affirmhr" Pradeep Arora You can mail me details on my e-mail ID. Fahim

am an Edu-preneur and educational consultant and have various education-related startup ideas. Anyone interested in opening a college or running an educationbased business in online (Virtual) or real space can reach me. Prof J.S Indore

e are also one of the leading manufacturers of cart-driven and bullock-driven agricultural implements. We can look for a long term business association with you.

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I'm working on starting an adhesives and sealants manufacturing company. I'm looking for someone who has either domain experience or is looking to invest. I could provide economics if anyone is interested. Sai Donthneni

We are looking for tie-ups with the organizations who can promote our products in the export market. We manufacture and develop the products with no compromise upon quality standards. Our products are recognized for the quality standards and we can offer most of the products. Anshul Garg

have 200 sq ft of retail space in Savitri Cinema Complex, Greater Kailash-II, New Delhi available on lease for ATM. This is a prime property in a posh area of South Delhi. Vinay Nangia

e are a well-known preschool and day care brand in India - "Planet Kids". We are looking for expansion through franchising. We want to open our branches across India. Our preschool has various

features which are different from the regular preschools and day care. We also provide startup support, site selection support, training support and other required assistance for setting up and successfully running your preschool. Contact us for exciting franchise opportunities. Rohit Singh

am a freelance textile designer as well as have my workshop by the name Tatvakala Design Studio. I design home furnishing items and am specifically interested in designing kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; range. At present I am retailing my item to most of the elite furnishing stores in Delhi. I have great concepts. If interested, do get in touch. Garima Rohatgi

am a management graduate with experience in software and venture capital companies in the US.

am a supplier of Chettinad heritage items. Nattukottai Cheetaiar was a prosperous community that lived in the southern coastal part of Tamil Nadu. From 1850 onwards, they had business contacts in Burma, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. They preserved their heritage by building their houses like mansions. Their culinary was unique. They brought Burma teak with which they built their houses in a very exquisite manner. Chettinad heritage items are now available for sale. I can supply Chettinad furniture, silverware, stone works, antiques, and Athangudi tiles. Athangudi tiles are man-made with clay. They are floral and geometric in design and are used for flooring. They are environmental friendly. Those interested can contact me. Lakshmanan

e are a one-and-a-half 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: The person should be based out of

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Bangalore; must have the ability to drive execution (full time); Electrical engineering background and passion in the (solar/wind) energy business; long term and high goal commitment. Raghavendra Ijjada Response I'm a management graduate from Purdue and have worked in the US for sometime. I have come back and worked on starting a solar power plant but things didn't work out. You could give me a call if you guys are still looking for a person to join. Sai Donthneni

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? Shahid Ali Response I teach ReSto, a course for those who wish to start a retail store online. If interested please get in touch with me. Vijay Kumar

i, I want to start a bamboo business here in the US. I have ten acres and plan to propagate and plant five acres to see how it will do. I need ideas and opportunities to help me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Eddie Response Contact me. Gandhi Naresh

Exchange 52

e are interested in doing exploration of coal in any virgin coal block. There is readily available coal for sale and we are interested in buying imported coal also. Saturn Mining & Exploration Pvt Ltd

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 Response I run a hospital management services company and can also help him in funding if the project is viable. Fahim Abdul Majeed, 5 Services, Kerala

e invite you to become a sustainable business leader by starting our franchise pre-school and taking advantage of the fabulous opportunity we provide. "Kinder Scholars International Pre-school" structured and organized through various international classroom management program is formed by group of educationists. Ram Kumar

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entrepreneur. I have ideas in the aerospace sector for defenserelated applications. All my ideas are 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. Guruvishnuvardan M (The post was earlier published under name of Raj Kishore mistakenly. Error regretted) Response Contact me through e-mail. Vinayak Hegde

am working as a software engineer in Bangalore. I have a aspiration to become an

e have a business in men’s garments, which has a very good potential for speeding growth in comparison to any other business in India. We are distributing our franchise across India so that there is more market return in terms of investment for the investor or franchiser. If any investor or franchiser is interested, please mail me. Vikram Singh Response Kindly send us more in detail. We are placed in Bangalore and we are looking for some business opportunity. BR Dattatri

am currently working on a plan to set up an e-waste management project in Bangalore. If somebody is interested and would like to join me, kindly contact me giving brief details of your experience and strengths. Umang Agarwal Response I would love to help you out. I have done some work on e-waste & want to learn more about your plan. Let us meet up. I too am in Bangalore and can be contacted on my number. Parvez Ahmed

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 India operations we are looking for a CEO with relevant experience, entrepreneurial skills and a gogetting attitude. The right person will have partnership in the profits of the division. Biren Jasani Response Please provide me your contact details. Vijai Bhaskar

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investor of the month

Epiphany Ventures is a Mumbaibased venture capital ďŹ rm, incorporated in 2008. It focuses on investing in early-stage businesses looking for value-driven and innovative enterprises with clear differentiators and scalable business models. Gaurav started his career working as a consultant at Diamond Technology Partners, a strategy consulting company, headquartered in Chicago. After his return to India in 2004, Gaurav has been involved in making proprietary investments in various industries. Gaurav has a B. Sc in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania, and M. Sc in Finance from City University, London.

Gaurav Saraf Founder & Director, Epiphany Ventures

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The mandate is to look for businesses that are scalable, there is large opportunity in the market and there are clear differentiators in the business, where it is not very easy to replicate. ou have raised money from highprofile investors such as the LN Mittal family. What is the mandate that you have from them? The mandate is to look for businesses that are scalable, there is large opportunity in the market and there are clear differentiators in the business, where it is not very easy to go and replicate the business. This would ensure sustainability in the margins. If you do something where there is not much differentiation, everyone will eventually do it if it is profitable. The idea is to invest in companies where there is clear differentiation, there is scale to be achieved and there is a market that is large enough, so that the company can keep growing. So when I exit the business, even then there should be scope for the company to grow, otherwise the other people coming in the business whether it is a strategic investor or a purely financial investor will not come and buy my stake. Most importantly, work with the team of people who have strong ability to execute and strong business acumen.

Usually investors identify certain sectors that they understand very well and that is where they invest. Isn't being sector-agnostic quite a challenge for you? It's not so much of a challenge, it is being opportunistic, given that we have not seen massively big-bang exits in technology. Businesses in education, healthcare, rural development could be more scalable. When we came in and started looking at these areas, we thought there are opportunities almost everywhere. There is a broad canvas on which you want to work, but have you identified a few sectors on which you are bullish? We are bullish on education and healthcareâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we think there is probably a lot of business models emerging out of these two areas. Also, sectors like rural devel-

opment, where the government is allocating a lot of money. There are going to be a lot of companies that would be benefiting from this, especially smaller companies, if they come up with business models to develop supply chains which reach these places. What about stage? Ideally I come in at an early stage. It is where the company has established a proof of concept, started generating revenues. So let's say they have about a million dollars in revenues already. And they have got a pipeline of orders, which may not be contracted, but which may be in various stages of being contracted, and the company is looking to scale up. But if there is a seed opportunity where the team is very experienced in a particular sector, I don't think I would dismiss it.

scenario because that mean you don't have to rely on somebody else to come and buy you out. But if there is a good exit available as an acquisition or another company or an investor wanting to come, that would be great as well. Is there a time-frame during which you have to invest the entire fund? We would like to invest these funds in the next two years but we have not agreed to any time-frame.

Is there enough awareness in the country about the availability of venture capital? India is one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world. People have the will to do something on their own, and they go and do it, even if it is a small business. But the knowledge that is lacking is how do you recognize this better to make it a large business. There is not Besides the business plans that you get, enough knowledge about how venture capital works. There is a lot of knowldo you actively search for businesses edge about entrepreneurship. The lack that you can invest in? We do go out and visit incubators. Let us of knowledge is about how you organize say I like the clean energy space, and If I your business to make it scalable. come to know of an interesting comHow much stake do you plan to take in pany in this space, I pick up the phone a company you invest in? and try to talk to them. I do go to the The idea always is to invest if we can incubators to see what the companies get a board seat. The stake depends on there are doing and if they are right for the stage of the company, the sector, us to invest in. valuations, etc. Our minimum threshold for a shareholding in a company would How much money do you plan to put be that we have a say and the board seat into a deal? in the business. For some companies Typical investment ideally would be might say that below 10 percent they $2 million but we do anywhere from would not want to give a board seat $0.5 million to $3 million. while the others might say that with How long do you plan to stay invested? even 5-6 percent they would want to give a board seat. We don't look at it Typical investment horizon is about in that sense. We look whether we are five years. getting a fair deal and are we getting a deserved return on the investment in Your plans on exit? the next five years or so. On this basis You ideally want a company where it we decide whether we should invest and has the ability to go public on its own strength. I think that is the most ideal on what value we should invest. R DARE.CO.IN | BIO | APRIL 2010 55

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Opportunities in

Bio Blocks Bio blocks help save water and its demand is on the rise. While its imports have grown considerably, there is an opportunity to manufacture it in India /Abhishek Chanda

lmost every country across the globe is getting increasingly concerned about the depletion of natural resources. With only 2.5 percent of the total volume of water available to us in the form of fresh water and an ever depleting water table, wastage of water has become a major issue. When it comes to ways of conserving water, methods such as rainwater harvesting, basic practices like repairing leaking taps or not keeping the water running are the most common. But has it ever occurred

to you that simply by flushing a men's urinal we waste 100,000 liters of drinkable water per year or 8,333 liters per month! Particularly to deal with the flush menace, back in 1991 the concept of waterless urinals were introduced by an American company called Waterless and soon the technology spread to Europe, Japan and South Africa. Down the years, variants like membrane valves and sealant liquids have been developed to make urinals waterless. However, one of the latest variants in this category

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are biological blocks, which are also finding steady acceptance amongst the Indian corporates.

What are bio blocks and how do they work? Bio blocks typically work on the fundamentals of modern day biological warfare where micro-organisms are used for destructive purposes. These blocks contain a number of active ingredients, including microbial spores and surfactants that are used to tackle uric acid and odour. When these blocks are placed in the urinal pans, upon interaction with urine, the spores in the block become active 'good' bacteria that 'feed' upon the urine and then

multiply. Once a person urinates, the urine pushes down the bacteria into the urinal pipe and over a period of 15-30 days an entire colony of microbes spurs up in the back area of the urinal—starting from the pipeline to the sewage treatment plant (STP). Now, the good bacteria reacts with the urine and uric acid, thus taking care of the odour. Plus, there is a little bit of perfume that is also present in the block. The pipe now gets into an auto clean mode. Water itself simply pushes the untreated urine into the STP for further treatment and neutralization. But in this case, it is not needed as the bacteria neutralizes the urine and thus one can afford to go flush-

less. There is a liquid variant for this technology too, which can be used to mop the urinal floor to deal with spilled urine. "In a way, three basic problems are taken care of—wastage of water, the odour and contamination and diseases”, says IP Swahney, CEO, Eagle Build-Tech, master distributors of bio blocks in north India, manufactured by a UK-based company called Bio-productions. Each bio block on an average gets consumed within three to four days (as per tests conducted in public ares like shopping malls) and it takes 300 uses on an average to consume one block. A bio block typically comes within the price range of Rs 20-26.

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However, the bio block armed urinals would still require 10 liters of water flushed down everyday as the bacteria needs moisture to breed and multiply in case the quantity of urine isn't enough. Again, the bacteria needs to grow downwards in the pipeline rather than getting stuck in one place or growing upwards, for which the flush is necessary. According to Dr VM Chariar, Centre for Rural Development and Technology, IIT Delhi, waterless urinals with the technologies available would still need human intervention and maintainence, but nevertheless they lead to a lot of savings in terms of water. Chariar himself has been aggressively steering ahead the concept of waterless urinals and is responsible for a product to achieve the same objective—IIT Zerodor.

Advantages and Opportunities Besides saving water and fighting odour, bio blocks help save or at least reduce on other major operating expenses like plumbing and fixtures, pumping water, electricity, extensive use of manpower and use of deodorizers among others. Amitabh Vardhan, CEO of PVR Cinemas, which had ladopted this technology a couple of years ago, says that there is a corporate social responsibility angle attached to the initiative as well. “We started from Delhi NCR and now we have extended the product usage to Mumbai, Punjab and Bengaluru to name a few places. We are using witty stickers in our urinals to educate the moviegoer about the initiative and from time to time we get a lot of feedback and queries regarding it,” he says. Some of the others who are using the

concept include ITC, McDonald's, Ernst & Young, Nestle, Tata Teleservices and Motorola, to name a few. Apart from bio blocks there are other ways of going waterless. However, in almost all such cases the urinals require retrofitting and fixtures and in some cases complete replacement of the old urinal with a new one. Replacing the urinal might end up fetching costs as high as Rs 15,000 or even more. However, with bio blocks there is no such retrofitting required. In case the customer is not happy with the blocks or gets apprehensive about not flushing the urinal, he can always switch on the water and go back to his old ways. Also, the fact that these blocks are currently imported and not manufactured in India, creates a buisness opportunity for home production. Swahney believes that as and when the demand and consumption of the blocks would rise and become steady one can easily invest on a home base for production. He is even envisaging that 3-5 years down the line, a bio blocks might even be sold in the retail format. He also sees opportunities in pitching for a Waterless Commonwealth Games 2010 as well as convincing public utilities like the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) or municipal corporations to take up the blocks for use.

Challenges and Barriers One of the major constraints or problem areas for this product is its cost. Because of the fact that bio blocks are currently imported, distributors in India are subject to a steep 25 percent duty and another 15-20 percent for freight. This raises the cost for the end consumer con-

HAS IT EVER OCCURRED TO YOU THAT SIMPLY BY FLUSHING A MEN'S URINAL WE WASTE 100,000 LITERS OF DRINKABLE WATER PER YEAR I.E. 8,333 LITERS PER MONTH? 58

siderably as each block costs nearly Rs 26. But this can come down considerably if we have more homegrown products. Another barrier is the housekeeping agency. Corporates ideally employ housekeeping agencies, for whom naphthalene balls or Odonil type of products come for a much lesser price than a bio block. The housekeeping agency would never buy a bio block as it adds to its budget. To cut across that, the owner of the building can buy the blocks for a special rate and then pass it on to housekeeping from his side for free. “For this I need to convince the owner that he is winning on a CSR angle as well as saving money on water supply and other charges. After all, any change would come with resistance!” says Swahney. The other problem lies in the mindset and lack of knowledge. Dr Chariar feels that we need a cultural transformation. “In the urban mindset we have always thought that we need water to flush away waste. But in the rural areas they still believe in throwing away waste into the soil and returning to the earth its original nutrients. It's an anti-ecological mindset to think 'Take all the waste out of my sight'. We need to come out of it,” he states. Probably by doing that and spreading awareness about such alternatives to save water, other industries like hospitality can also easily embrace such initiatives. Vijay Sehgal, Chief Engineer, ITC Green Center, echoes a similar thought as he maintains that while some of the ITC hotels have deployed bio blocks in the employee area, they are yet to be used in the front end or the guest area. As far as the future is concerned most believe the challenge for waterless urinals lies in a non-consumable variant that doesn't need to be replaced and yet lets us go waterless, odour-free and hygienic. R

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APRIL 2010 | STRATEGY | DARE.CO.IN

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Alternatives to

eBay eBay is by far the biggest global online auction site, where you can just about buy or sell anything from anywhere. Yet, there are several good alternatives to this giant of an auction platform, both global and India specific. DARE lists some of the best ones out. /Aman Malik

Bay is by far the biggest and the most popular online auction site in the world, and for good reason. It allows you to buy or sell practically anything from anywhere. And with its country-specific portals it has managed to garner the lion's share of the global online auction market. But as for everything else, the Internet is full of viable alternatives. There several other online auction sites (India-specific or otherwise) that either work on the same model as eBay or variants of it.

INTERNATIONAL 1. EBid: (http://us.ebid.net/index.php) EBid was founded in 1999 and is available in at least 18 countries. Opening a store is free and feedback is taken seriously. Setting up shop for no cost, and unlimited free re-listings are welcome.

2. Online Auction (http://www.onlineauction.com/) This has a fee-based model, where for a small fee, you can set up shop and then enjoy a seamless selling experience.

3. Swoopo (http://www.swoopo.co.uk/) 4. Plunder Here (http://www.plunderhere.com/) This otherwise free-to-join site offers a verified membership for a small fee. The model and interface are similar to most auction sites.

5. iOffer (http://www.ioffer.com/) The fact that this community is not very wide works to its advantage, with a close buyer-seller relationship forged like no other site. DARE.CO.IN | STRATEGY | APRIL 2010 61

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6. UBid (http://www.ubid.com/): One of the best alternatives to eBay, it offers a state-of-the-art interface and a wide product range--from watches to fine art, almost as wide as eBay's.

7. CQOut (http://www.cqout.com/): Although a general purpose auction site, it seems to have a preponderance of software and technology content on sale. The general look and feel could be greatly improved, although that, in no way affects its navigability.

INDIA-SPECIFIC SITES E-commerce, especially the B2C variety, is still in its infancy in India, primarily because less than a tenth of the country is connected to the Internet, directly or indirectly. Understandably, therefore, there are virtually no good alternatives to eBay India in the auction space per se. There are, however, some good sites where you can shop online, often at good discounts. The best of those are listed below:

1. Indiatimes Shopping (http://shopping.indiatimes.com/) One of the most popular out of the gamut of Indiatimes sites, it offers a good interface and the product rangeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from apparel to electronicsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is quite vast. Though not an auction site, it perhaps offers the best alternative to eBay India.

2. Rediff Shopping (http://shopping. rediff.com/shopping/index.html) The interface is rather bland and frankly even the product range could have been more comprehensive. All-in-all, the experience can be improved further.

3. TradeUs (http://www.tradus.in/) Launched in July 2009, this site offers a neat interface and the product range, at least for a site as new as this, is impressive. This is a site to watch out for. R 62

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The Microentrepreneurship of a Roadside Tea Vendor These chailwalas really do good business. At this time when you can get hold of a small restaurant serving tea and coffee with snacks at any corner, they are still surviving and have not got extinct. They are really making good profits. Even the road side vegetable vendors do good business inspite of air conditioned stores selling fruits and vegetables. In this cut throat competition its just a matter of survival. If you are good and provide customer satisfaction you will survive. Rashmi Priya

We Survived Recession and Growing Strong I started reading DARE magazine a few months back and I feel it has great content for budding and aspiring entrepreneurs. Pixzan Info Solutions was started by engineering graduates who took the brunt of recession and I am proud to be a part of it. I represent Pixzan Info Solutions Private Limited which was started in the year 2008 by me and a few friends. We were all hit by recession and had no jobs. We took a bold decision to start this company which deals with providing quality IT/ITES services. We followed a different strategy where we targeted the common man. We visited shops and small export companies and convinced them to use our IT/ITES services. We bombed a few deals initially but landed some decent projects later on. Our greatest asset is our determination because we have grown from a 6 member company to a 12 member company with around 50 contract staff (mostly students) from various engineering colleges in Chennai. We thought of IT as a tool which could cater everyone starting from the roadside stalls. Our current project is to garner the support of engineering colleges and provide them with earn while you learn scheme. The students will have an opportunity to know about the markets. We provide them with small office-typing jobs to creating blogs and journals for magazines. We started this business initially for the sake of escaping the wrath of our parents but things changed and we took it up well and survived recession. We are doing a decent business. We didn't profit but we are happy to say that our venture self -sustained. When middle class people like us with no financial support could survive recession just because of our determination then why not other youngsters. We would like to light the lamp of entrepreneurship in the minds of all youngsters. I believe there is no better way than doing it but through the earn while you learn scheme which we have started in a prominent college in Chennai. We need DARE's support and I hope our story would inspire many youngsters. S Vamsi Deepak

magazine

magazine magazine

A New Model for Early-stage Venture Capital Investments VC funds should take some risk & encourage new technology development etc. to make Indians self reliant, job generation etc. If Indians can be stars in MNCs, then why not in their own ventures in India? It is basically mistrust which should be done away with. VCs should look from that angle also. Don't go to Government of India (GoI) for funding as you will be in circles wasting time, as officials take pride in not sanctioning funds due to norms. My 38 yrs experience in GoI tells that. VCs must support because of this situation. Maj Gen PP DAS

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feedback

The Entrepreneurial Tripod— Water Crisis There is a need to make people conscious about the availability/scarcity of water right from the primary school stage. A rising tariff should be applicable for water consumption. Fix up norms, allocate quota per month, up to which normal tariff will be applicable, but beyond which, there should be,say, a fourfold increase in the tariff which will deter people from wasting water. I have seen cars being washed at homes, consuming about 400 litres of water per wash. Nowadays, waterless car washing has been introduced by some companies in India. Car dealers should be forced to adopt waterless washing at their service centers. Manoj Dosi

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photoblogsp Bubble Theory

o, how many places have you visited that have hawkers selling those bubbles floating in the air live from a hook in front of a hawker's mouth? I am sure, many. They are commonly visible at India Gate in Delhi, Gateway of India in Mumbai and such places of historical interest and other open places. These bubbles are a visual treat for kids, and almost every kid has had bought at least one bubble-making kit in her/his lifetime. We tried to make bigger and bigger bubbles in competition with each other. Although not very profitable, it’s an interesting proposition to sell. It has not been successful in branded space, since it’s a very low price commodity and has a very short life. Worldwide, there have been shows and world records by people, of making huge bubbles, often with circumference of few meters, which float in air in a continuum. The best symbol of non-permanent existence of humans, economies and nature itself has a life of few moments. Author: Nimesh Sharma

Healthy Juices - In vogue now

elling juice as a health proposition has been a very old business. One can easily locate local juice vendors or juice hawkers selling juice of oranges, pineapple, apple, mausambi, and number of other vegetables and fruits. These are popular because they taste good and don’t cost much, and can be made in seconds. However, one won’t easily find vendors selling juices of vegetables like karela(bitter gourd), wheat, jowar grass, etc. This photo is of one juice seller in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi who has recently started selling these exquisite juices with USP being medical, digestive, dermal, dental, carcinogenic, and respiratory benefits among many others, which have been widely publicized by our very own Baba Ramdev. It includes a mix of juices of aloe vera, tulsi, amla, gourd, white pumpkin, etc. There is another one in Karol Bagh market who sells juices of most vegetable varieties, though does not claim any medicinal benefits. It’s a good business to be in for someone interested in selling healthy drinks on roadside in branded space. Even beverage multinationals like Pepsi are diverting their focus towards healthy drinks in countries like India. So, there's a lot of opportunity for at least few serious players. Author: Nimesh Sharma 64

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sphotoblogs Jis Des Mein Ganga Behti Hai!!

hose of who (and almost all of you) who have been to Haridwar must have seen young boys collecting coins thrown (rather offered by people to Goddess Ganga) from the River . Well, that’s a risky job but has its share of returns for them. After serious thought, I would call it a profession (even if a low-class or so). It’s not illegal, it involves risk, it involves some self-training, and actually there's a transfer of resources from few hands to the others. Where does the wrong aspect come in? We might say that they are taking away our offerings to God, but that’s actually God’s redistribution to them. This boy in the image, is (hell-) bent over Ganga, dangling from a low bridge to 'catch up' with the divine offerings. At the time the photo was taken by me, Ganga was very cold, and the water flow was too fast to not let anyone flow with it. This was a daring act. People say, you just have to ask God to get something. These boys don’t even ask. They just grab it directly from her/his hands (in fact from Goddess Ganga's hands here). Author: Nimesh Sharma

Humpy Bumpy Rides

amel ride is one of the very interesting animal-engaging rides one can have. However, they are not found very commonly, which is because of the fact (I guess) that camels must be expensive to rear in non-desert areas. This photo was taken in Best Western Resort, Manesar, Haryana. The camel rearers are very poor, and often rides are offered in organized places, like this resort, as camels with rearers are hired by them. This is one interesting leisure sport that should be promoted. The camel riders get really scared by its pelvic thrusts when it rises to stand (one extreme end at a time, literally). And that is what pumps in adrenaline pressure for the 'less adventurous ones'. Just like our 1411 tigers, camels' population is also dwindling, as deserts are getting urbanized. A camel ride business promotion is what just may become the solution to this problem. Author: Nimesh Sharma

DARE.CO.IN | PHOTO BLOGS | APRIL 2010 65

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investor of the month

Vishal Vasishth is the MD of SONG Investment Advisors India, which recommends investments to SONG Investment Management Company that is managed by Soros Economic Development Fund, Omidyar Network and Google. With a fund size of $17 million, it focuses on high growth sectors like education and training, agriculture and food, healthcare, ﬁnancial services, etc. Vishal was the founder and CEO of Clean Partners, a business advisory and investment ﬁrm serving innovative businesses in the U.S. consumer space. He has earned a B.Tech degree in India, a Master’s degree in Sciences from North Carolina State University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

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We are giving growth capital but we are also open to early-stage SMEs as well. Our target spot is to invest between Rs 2-13 crore into a deal over the life of our investment.

ong Adviors is looking at providing growth capital to Indian SMEs which still have a lot to do to become competitive. Don't you think you are up for a big challenge? We are an economic development fund and we are focused on investing in SMEs. We are giving growth capital but we are also open to earlystage SMEs as well. Our target spot is to invest between Rs 2-13 crore into a deal over the life of our investment. Finding the right quality companies that are scalable, we have to actively go and search. It is not as if hundreds of them are coming to us. In growth-stage kind of deals, this whole family vs. non-family issue comes to the fore. How do you really partner with the family becomes an issue. In terms of a company which is very small and early-stage SME, the issue of scalability comes in. This is because India still has infrastructure issues. Other big issue is related to the exit strategy. At the operational level, the challenges are on governance, finding human resource, etc.

There is a huge mindset challenge with SMEs. How do you deal with it? We look at SMEs that are very much keen to professionalize their functioning. We have lot of meetings before we decide to move forward. It is always a challenge. If you have run a business, family or non-family, and if someone comes in to buy a share, how do you really listen to them and incorporate their views? It is ultimately relationship building with the firm you are investing in.

Which sectors are you focusing on? We are looking at healthcare, education, agriculture and food, financial institutions, basic utilities like waste, water and budget housing. We look for areas which have a mass appeal. Anything that is linked to affordability is something which is interesting to us from a consumption theme. Affordable education, healthcare products are interesting to us. In education sector, we are looking at management companies, technology providers, vocational training institutes, etc. There are geographical issues relating to the functioning of SMEs in India. How do you deal with this? If you are doing business in south India successfully it doesn't mean you will be successful in the north as well. So you have to look at the plan to scale and the ground realities. Most SMEs approach banks for funds, and there is lack of awareness relating to other sources.

planning level and business development, HR issues or operational issues, and financial balance sheet, etc. We bring a grounds-up approach whereby we become a partner rather than the financier. Are you looking at making some investments? We are looking at closing two transactions as we speak. There is a sense of interference that comes in when an investor comes on board. How do you allay such fears? This is an area where one has to manage it well as a mature investor. The mature investor knows that he/ she is an investor and not an operator. As long as there is clarity on the role of the investor and the operator, there should not be any issues. Are you also looking at providing seed capital? We are open to it.

Is that the gap that you plan to fill? Equity is not very well understood in the Indian market, so people don't know that this is also a way to raise capital. It is important for SME funds to educate them.

How much do you stress on the team? In early stage, it becomes very important because there are no tangible things for you to see. Ultimately everything comes down to people.

Helping SMEs scale is quite a challenge. How do you deal with that? We are a more active fund. We get actively involved before we invest. We create a broad three-year plan and a quarter-by-quarter first year plan and look at the key areas to focus on. We get involved in the strategic

What is the exit strategy? We talk about it very openly with our investee companies. How long do you plan to stay invested? We are a patient investor. We can look anywhere from four to seven years. R DARE.CO.IN | BIO | APRIL 2010 69

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Grand Finale of TiE UP’s

“The BizBuzz 2010” held with entrepreneurial ﬂavour TiE-UP creates big buzz at the BizBuzz 2010 event, inspiring budding entrepreneurs to discover their mantra and vie for the top slot.

he UP Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE-UP) along with Uttar Pradesh Technical University(UPTU) organized the final session of its business plan competition, “The BizBuzz 2010”, at Gaur Hari Singhania Institute of Management, Kanpur with the objective of stimulating and nourishing spirit of the budding entrepreneurs through competition open to the engineering and management colleges at PAN India level. Mr Anil Gupta, President TIE UP welcomed the dignitaries, participants and guests to the program. The program was inaugurated by Mr B.V. Chaubal, Chief General Manager, State Bank of India, Lucknow Circle. At his inaugural address, Mr Chaubal laid stress on the success of entrepreneurship on time management, quality and competitive prices, besides chasing a dream with a 70

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passion. During his keynote address, Professor Kripa Shanker, VC, UPTU emphasised on the skills required for developing entrepreneurship and gave importance to the real learning from the failures. However, according to him successes are only documented. In addition, he said that entrepreneurship is not necessarily taught in books and classes and it is all about team effort with junoon. The highly learned and effective panel and jury comprised of

Mr Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, Cyber Media Group, Mr Rahul Shukla, Senior Consultant, TCS and Professor Jayanta Chaterjee of IIT Kanpur. The panel deliberated on Entrepreneurship: Mantra for India's global stamp, giving their valuable opinions on development of entrepreneurship by advising to spot the right opportunities, have strong decision making powers, convince others to your ideas, besides believing and backing their own dreams till

the goal is accomplished. Mr Pradeep Gupta cited his own success mantra despite having a lucrative career in the corporate world. The event was sponsored by State Bank of India as the Platinum sponsor while Lohia Group and Rimjhim Ispat Group of Kanpur were the Silver sponsors. DARE was the media partner and mentor for the event. Thereafter, the final presentations by the seven finalist teams were conducted before the jury members. The seven participating teams were from IIM Lucknow, Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune, IIT Roorkee, HBTI, Gaur Hari Singhania Institute of Management and Research and Institute of Technology and Science, Ghaziabad. Based on the presentations made by the finalists, the jury assessed their performance and decided the winners as follows: Winner: ITS Ghaziabad team, comprising of Mayur Agarwal, Anjana Mathur and Pradyumna Kumar. Their business plan was on PET care. 1st Runner up: VIIT Pune team, comprising of Ketan Deshpande and Mayur Deshmukh. Their business plan was 'STUDENT FUEL', promoting education and counselling for 10 and 10+2 students for deciding their apt career paths. 2nd Runner up: GHSIMR, comprising of Faraz Javed, Najeeb Khan and Mohit Dwivedi. Their business plan was on retailing of tailoring. The winner was given a cash prize of Rs 50,000, first runner up Rs 30,000 and second runner up was awarded Rs 20,000. The program was anchored by Manoj Agarwal, Secretary TiE UP and the vote of thanks was given by Amit Tiwari, Convener of the event. R DARE.CO.IN | EVENT | APRIL 2010 71

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Jail as a Business Incubator:

Tihar â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A Case Study With active engagement from about 35 odd NGOs, government-owned ITIs, and others who are training prisoners in various vocational skills, there is a huge incubator ecosystem that has been built in Tihar Jail factory and is helping a lot of convicts and undertrials to earn a decent living within the jail and outside. /Nimesh Sharma

ow many business incubators does India have in total? 140 approximately! And taking a liberal average of ten companies per incubator, the maximum number of total incubated companies will not exceed 1,400 being propagated by about say 3,000 entrepreneurs. And these are entrepreneurs who are there by choice after being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug out of their zeal for starting up. On the other hand, India has 113 Central Jails having 1,66,000 prisoners. These prisoners, on their release, would have little choice but to start their own business, even if they don't have the passion or the skills. While they are in jail, they have plenty of time available which they can use productively. That is a huge

asset available to the society, which needs to be utilised judiciously. If we make incubators in even a small number of Central Jails and train the prisoners in varied vocational skills in their productive time and help them in starting their business after they are released, the number of incubated entrepreneurs given above would easily swell to at least ten times the current figure. "Its difficult to do something like this in a government-owned jail and no prisoner would do that!" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; some of you might say this. But, hold on, Tihar Jail in Delhi is already undertaking such a program. With active engagement from about 35-40 NGOs, government-owned ITIs, and others who are training prisoners in various vocational skills, there is a

huge incubator ecosystem that has been built in Tihar Jail Factory and is helping a lot of convicts and undertrials to earn a decent living within the jail and after their release. We spoke to the Tihar Law Officer cum PR Officer, Sunil Gupta, Seema Malhotra from ScopePlus, few other NGOs working with Tihar prisoners, ex-prisoners and a few other people to find out how the incubator ecosystem is working, what are the problems and how it can be extended to all across India, presenting Tihar as an example to follow. Well, of course incubator is a word being used only by us, but not in prisons or by NGOs. For readers' information, every Central Jail has a factory built with it as a government mandate, so that in-house supplies could be produced

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Seema runs an NGO ScopePlus that has been working with prisoners for the last 14 years. They have held training workshops for 18 police stations in South Delhi and 2100 policemen on Gender Sensitivity.

Seema Malhotra, ScopePlus

What challenges/problems do you face in your work in the jail? There are a number of problems we face: • Raw material storage inside the jail is not allowed and creates a huge logistical problem everyday • The inmates have to go to represent their cases and to meet or talk to relatives in the morning, so they often can't work then and in the evening its difficult for the NGO people to work as it gets dark. Off on Saturday and Sunday is another put-off • There is a shortage of human resources in terms of sales, marketing people especially during the daytime, as I, myself, am with the inmates at that time and phones are restricted inside • Either due to the social mindset or lack of business skills, we are not able to focus much on getting contracts through sales and marketing. So, we are not able to expand and help more people • Since we have no formal authority over prisoners, the latter often don't listen to our trainers and don't do what is told to them • If the inmates are not rehabilitated after their release, they continue their illegal activities again and training given to them goes waste. So, there's a need to establish a formal system to help prisoners start a business or a job, if the real purpose of social reform is to be achieved

How do you conduct your operations? We train the selected prisoners, get business contracts on our own from outside, get the production done and distribute the returns to prisoners as per jail norms. For instance, we get the orders for hand-made conference bags and other such items from corporate organizations and wherever we can. What help do prisoners get after release? The Social Welfare Department (SWD) of the Delhi Govt. is supposed to help them in their rehabilitation by giving them grants. However, this role is being performed by NGOs. So, at this stage a real difference is being made by NGOs like us for their transition from a prisoner to a mainstream citizen, with a social or economic identity. What additional cooperation do you get from Tihar authorities? A good thing is that Tihar Jail authorities are now open to exploring more possibilities unlike earlier times. Rohini Jail (which comes under Tihar Jail) has been waiting for us with 15 machines. But we don't have enough business orders to start the training and production. Are your products of decent quality? We specifically focus on competitive quality and get the production done from inmates only after they are trained. This way we have been able to command market prices similar to the other brands . How do you seek corporate help? If Maruti and Honda can work with blind schools, they can also chip in to help jails. Though some of the reputed organisations like IBM, ITDC, TiE, and Ministries like labour, youth and agriculture have already given contracts to us, more help by private companies is definitely required.

Process of training by NGOs • • • • • • •

Go to chakkar (vast area in center of a jail) Announce the starting of a course Interested prisoners give their names to Chakkar Munshi (supervisor) Chakkar Munshi gives names to Superintendent. Selection based on certain criteria Training starts within the prescribed timings of jail Wages paid according to jail norms when production starts

Timings of Jail (approx) meaning Constraints for NGOs (Khulli Ginti- Band Ginti)* 6 am – Breakfast 6 am - 11 am – Free to roam, go to represent cases, meet/ call relatives 11 am – Lunch 11 am - 3 pm – Kept behind bars; no NGO work allowed 3 pm - 6 pm – Free to roam; dificult for NGOs to work in evening 6 pm – Dinner Sat & Sun – No Work *

At all times, prisoners are counted while letting in and out

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and there's some productive output from prisoners. However, in economic terms, majority of them function like social/inefficient organisations with no profit motive or innovation. However, kudos to IPS officers like Kiran Bedi, there have been lot of new initiatives at Tihar, like allowing NGOs inside (in 1993), which have led to major social reforms.

respectively. The money is deposited in their personal accounts in jail, and they are given coupons of a maximum of Rs 250 per day, which they can spend on eatables and daily use items like soap, paste, etc. The remuneration from NGOs is also given in the same way. The raw materials for NGOs are however bought on their own.

How is the training imparted at Tihar Jail?

Market Access

The Jail factory provides training to the inmates through the “Vocational Training Institute” (VTI) established under the Skill Development Initiative Scheme run by Ministry of Labour. Currently, it is providing vocational training for 84 courses in 14 sectors, which range from 60-480 hours. The popular courses include carpentry, computer, bakery, envelope-making, weaving/embroidery, painting, etc. National Council for Vocational Training (and not Tihar Jail) awards the certificates after the trainee inmates are tested by an independent assessing body. An important point to be noted is that a large extent of training is conducted by mostly self-funded NGOs numbering 35-40 that have their own production units in jail, and conduct their programs separate from the VTI.

Financing/ Remuneration Terms Jail factory procures the raw materials for the factory through a proper tender process. After 25 percent of the profits from factory are reserved for Victim Welfare Fund, the prisoners are paid daily wages at the rate of Rs 40, 44 and 52 for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers

Jail factory markets and sells the products under its own logo and brand name – TJ's (Tihar Jail's). TJ's products are exhibited and sold at particular places like Tihar Haat, Trade Fairs, Dilli Haat, British High Commission, Gandhi Smriti, Khadi Gramodyog, Delhi Secretariat, many Delhi government departments and outlets opened by ex-prisoners, etc. Recently the factory has received an order worth Rs 12 crore for supply of 60,000 school desks for government schools from the Directorate of Education, Govt. of NCT of Delhi.

Graduating Out/ Rehabilitation The prisoners graduate from Tihar incubator after release and start up on their own using the skills, sales channels and tie-ups offered to them by Tihar. Some NGOs help the released prisoners to start their businesses. “This is despite the fact that some of them run away with money,” says Sandhya Sikka from Asha ki Kiran which gives tailoring and embroidery classes to 20 odd prisoners every month.

Segments in Factory The jail factory has an annual turnover of close to Rs 10 crore, led by carpentry unit with Rs. 3.50 crore

"RECENTLY THE JAIL FACTORY HAS RECEIVED AN ORDER WORTH RS 12 CRORE FOR SUPPLY OF 60,000 SCHOOL DESKS FOR GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS" 74

turnover. It manufactures school, office and household furniture. 'Tihar Baking School' (started in 1995) is the flagship unit of Jail Factory, with a turnover of Rs 1.30 crore. Its products like biscuits, cakes, namkeens, wafers, bread, etc are supplied to the 12,000 Tihar inmates as part of their daily diet as well as sold outside, which includes exports. Recently, Tihar women had also made a lot of herbal gulal to be sold outside for the festival of Holi.

The Difference Tihar is Making Earlier prisoners at Tihar didn't have much work to do and no vocational training was being imparted to them. Thus, after being released from the prison, they had no jobs or means of livelihood. Besides, it was a huge burden on the jail also to accommodate so many criminals. “Now, the changed prisoners are more content and are able to sustain themselves after their release” says Gupta. Prisoners also manage the running of the factory with the jail authorities, through the Panchayat system. Some of the prisoners have even delayed their release by a few days when they had to receive their training certificates, or complete business orders. One of them even paid his lawyer's fees from his jail income. Tihar factory has even got three ISO certifications in 2009.

What Difference Corporate Sector can Make? If the private sector sells Tihar products in their market outlets, it will be beneficial for both. The latter can be assured of quality, constant supply and stable prices, and the turnover for Jail Factory shall only increase, thereby making a huge difference in prisoners' lives and society. As Tihar gains the status of a model jail internationally, the day is not far when this incubator will churn seasoned entrepreneurs from amongst ex-prisoners. R

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blogs/opinion

Sprinters and Runners: Planning your Succession /Vijay Anand

If you are a founder who is planning an eventual successor, the rule that experts often quote seems to be one that I agree with; build the company as if someday someone else will be taking over.

Vijay 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.

Passing on the baton to your successor requires a lot of meticulous thinking especially when you are undecided about whether it’s your need or is it for the betterment of the company. The right choice can make you sprint towards your goal. Read on to get a clear insight.

hen you embark on the journey to look at an opportunity, to find a solution that solves a pain point for the masses and to build an enterprise around it, then you are as close as you can get to becoming a creator. Because the way a company as an entity is structured, it is given life, a new identity and a lifetime of its own—and everyone involved with it are nothing but employees along the dotted lines of its lifespan. Companies can outlast their founders. They have the innate capacity to do so, but a lot of it seems to depend on one or two crucial elements—the ability of the company to evolve its offerings over time, and secondly (and most crucially) the ability of the founder to find a successor to sit at the helm of the company and lead it as if it were her own vision. One of the things you will soon realize when it comes to entrepreneurship is that it is overrun by the case of extremes. In this scenario, you would find founders who are possibly very reluctant to pass on the

baton, and at times founders who are ever so eager to find someone who can take it up and run with it even before it’s ready to be handed over. Both the moves are rather risky, and you jeopardize the possibility of either handing over a company before it is ready for take off or a company that might have become too rigid to be able to adapt itself in the hands of the succeeding founder. If you are a founder who is planning an eventual successor, the rule that experts often quote seems to be one that I agree with; build the company as if someday someone else will be taking over. From that perspective it helps to keep the thought of a professional CEO at the back of your mind, because you will realize that you subconsciously start making decisions and setting processes within the company that will be efficient even in the nearto mid-term. You also get over the mental barrier that once a company is incorporated, you are no longer the owner of the company, but more like a super-employee—playing the

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role of an executor and stakeholder together but can never don both the hats at the same time. Here are some other tips that would greatly help: 1. It is always better to find someone within the company to groom and take over rather than bringing someone from outside; though that route equally has its advantages (especially in terms of fresh thinking). But it most probably would give you and your board the peace of mind to know that the successor is one with whom you have worked and who understands the vision of the company while being groomed. 2. When you finally get to the day when you are ready to let go, do so completely. Bringing in a CEO who will report to you, makes no sense—because in the true nature of all humans, you will undermine the strength of the successor. Step back and get out of the way once the initial trust is built 3. Communicate freely, and most importantly, disagree—remember that you brought in the new CEO so that he can do something radical that you haven’t been able to do; which also means that there will be some changes that will be made to make that work. So while you will initially be holding on to the edge of your seat, ensure that you communicate well, and most of all, have a mutual respect for each other so that even if you disagree on a decision, you will try to understand and accept it as things change and start to bear fruit. 4. Give the successor the trust of the team. 5. Step back, give up the spotlight, and find something to occupy yourself—if you don’t, you will find yourself wanting to take back that spotlight time and time again and you will soon find yourself losing the respect of your teammates.

While this is rather a short list of things to keep in mind, if you are asking when it is a good time to find a CEO, you are in luck of having read my mind. When to bring in a successor: I am often asked this question by some of the companies that I work with and ironically most of them fall under one extreme of the succession planning dilemma—they are all young, which is actually good news. Figuring out the timeline to bring in succession is a crucial one and this is what I would put some thought into: a) Identify the reason: Are you trying to bring in a professional CEO because of limitations that you carry as a CEO or is it because that you are hoping that someone would relieve you of some burden? The latter does not require a CEO but expansion of a team that can help. b) Understand team growth: The CEO is the apex of any organization. And whether you like it or not, the strength, vision and caliber of the CEO caps the immediate growth and momentum of any organization. And hence I would bring in a CEO as the last person on the list of managers who will come in. There is a certain rule to expand your team—marketing, finance, HR, strategy, operations, and then possibly comes the office of the CEO. It’s almost like the election for the Prime Minister when picking the CEO because the opinion of the other crucial "executors" will matter a lot in making the team work. c) Understand the growth of the company: Once you've passed through the initial stages of the company, you will be able to envision the way this company will grow, the momentum that it could garner, and some of the complexities that will arise as it wades that path. At some point you will realize that the complexities of the organizations will outbid your

ability to adapt and learn. And at every such point, bring in a manager who posseses that strength to bring it under control. The final seat would be that of the CEO. d) Think of career ladders: One of the mistakes that you can commit when looking for a CEO is find one who will lift the burdens off your shoulders to focus on other things, but then not be the perfect fit when it comes to building this company for the next five to six years. There is nothing worse for a company than it getting a new face every other year. If you are a company which has just gone past the first or second round of funding, then can you see the new CEO build this company for another two rounds or even evolve beyond that? Can you see her building the company's revenue stream on a 10 to 20 times growth path over the next five years? If not, don’t waste time. e) Be selfish: That sub-heading could get me into trouble, but I truly believe that a bit of selfishness helps here. In every company that you build, the one possible thing that it should lead you to is to push you to the limits of what you can envision, execute and lead. The world is full of stories about people who accomplished extraordinary things under rather extraordinary conditions, and the glory of an entrepreneur is in taking an organization to that point where you reach a new high; as an individual and a professional. Go through the points and think through them. They are basics but they can also help identify your own reasons as to why you are doing this, and this is not a decision you want to make for the wrong reasons. Most of all, don't forget to have some fun through the process—while you enjoy the likeness of a creator, so to speak. R DARE.CO.IN | COLUMN | APRIL 2010 77

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Ideas and Experiences Galore The Startup Saturdays in various cities lived up to their attendees' expectations by throwing up a lot of interesting, sometimes offbeat, ideas and offering experiences to learn from Kolkata Startup Saturday Kolkata had an open house session. The guest talk was delivered by Mayank Dhingra who ran kwippy.com until recently. He shared his insights on why bootstrapping startups should plan more to gain traction instead of getting rich quick.

Bangalore Startup Saturday Bangalore was held at North Pergola, IIM Bangalore. The hall was packed with about 100 people who had were enthused about the topicâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Angel Investment. Indus Khaitan of The Morpheus shared a 5-step plan to get funded with the audience. He also shared his insights on angel investments and informing people about alternative sources of funding, like government grants. Sujai Karampuri of Sloka Telecom too shared pearls of wisdom on how to go about raising angel investment. He also explained the nuances of valuation in a language that even newbies could understand. The companies to demo were JustBooksBangalore. com and Ookul.com.

Mumbai Startup Saturday Mumbai had a mixed bag, with first time entrepre78

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neurs sharing the microphone with seniors to create an environment filled with insights of running a business. There were talks by Suketu from BrewCrafts Microbrewing and Hari Kotain of DP's Fast Food. The companies that presented were iPaperClip.com, ShareUrJoy. com, QuestionPapers.com and MithaiMate.com.

Delhi Amitabh Jotwani and Kunal Dua from Random Loops talked about their SAAS productâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Rootein. Shruti Dhanda from Entract Consulting spoke about what it takes to raise funding and the major flaws that entrepreneurs make in the entire process. Abhishek Sinha from Eko Financial Services took the audience through a detailed talk on 'Branchless Banking - Mechanics and Business Model'.

Pune Startup Saturday Pune had a rather off-beat theme of "Nature" and invited startups across jal, thal and vaayu (water, land and air) to come and share what it takes to run a business in the line of recreation and adventure. Rohan More, Founder of Japalouppe; Anita, Founder of TemplePilots; and Parry, Founder WindSports Pune, shared from their experiences in the domain.

Hyderabad Hyderabad had HeadStart Happening, hence there was no Startup Saturday this month. R

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Bordering on the Bizarre Entrepreneurs are known to take the road less travelled. But some young entrepreneurs emerging from the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) are exploring roads untravelled. Here are their stories

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Snakes and Ladders The 22-year-old Sumanth Madhav has rescued 6,000 snakes, 6 leopards, 40 bears and 2 jackals in 9 years. This keen wildlife enthusiast, who is currently pursuing industrial engineering at Bangalore’s MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, regretted not taking up wildlife zoology till he joined his institute’s NEN E Cell. His exposure to entrepreneurship as an NEN E Cell member accelerated his idea of founding a wildlife organization. He started his non-profit venture ‘Vana Mitra’ in Feb, 2009, even before he graduated. “Starting a wildlife organization was just a stray thought; I never imagined I would do it so early. The credit goes to my friends in the E Cell, who were always so excited about their startup plans and that inspired me to pursue my idea,” says Sumanth. Sumanth’s passion for wildlife, particularly snakes, began at the age of 12, when he visited the office of People for Animals. He volunteered as a snake rescuer with various animal welfare organizations where he conducted intensive research on wildlife. However, he was disappointed to find that none of the organizations focused effectively on conserving wildlife. This is why he ensured that Vana Mitra dealt specifically with wild animals and not domestic ones. With a team of 3 core members and 35 volunteers, and funded through donations, Vana Mitra now conducts 5 to 6 rescue operations a day.

FACT BOX VANA MITRA Name: Sumanth Madhav Started: Before Graduation (Graduating in 2010) Education: MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology Age: 22 Founded in: February 2009 Location: Bangalore DARE.CO.IN | NEN | APRIL 2010 81

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Design Version 2.0 A friend losing his job may draw sympathetic sighs or a helpful lead to a job opening, but when Danny D’Cruz’s friend Angel Thomas lost his call centre job to a recession, it made Danny diversify his startup Kriya Design Factory. Danny, an Information Technology student at VLB Janakiammal College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, had initially planned to build Kriya as a logo-and web-design company—a business idea that came to him when he won a logo-design competition organized by his institute’s NEN E Cell. However, with only 2 orders in 14 months, he realized that the idea wouldn’t work. Quick to spot opportunity, Danny immediately hired Angel, a talented artist, and expanded Kriya Design Factory in April, 2009, to include a new range of products – customized murals. Bolstered by the real estate boom in Coimbatore, many new homeowners are now seeking Kriya’s services. Business is good, says Danny, with eight to ten orders a month and Rs 80,000 in revenue. “That’s up from Rs 500 I earned 14 months ago,” he adds.

FACT BOX Name: Danny D’ Cruz Started: Before Graduation (Graduating in 2010) Education: VLB, Janakiammal College of Arts and Science Age: 22 Company name: Kriya Design Factory Founded in: Feb 2008 Location: Bangalore

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Technopreneurs Two engineers got together to brainstorm on potential business ideas. Information Technology? Nah. Out of the 35 business ideas they listed, 20 were related to food! Says Nag, “Hanging around one night, we wanted a hot dog. But what you get is the usual boring stuff and most are unnecessarily expensive. That is when we came up with this idea of venturing into a specialty-food business. Even my father, who is an entrepreneur himself, thought we were crazy, but invested in us nonetheless after he saw our passion for it.” This is how Nag and Darshan, graduates from Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology borrowed Rs 1,00,000 from their families right after college to launch Hungry Hogs, a startup that sells hot dogs. They were joined by their third partner Rahul, a BBM graduate who worked with an MNC for six months before taking the plunge. With four different toppings, the response to Hungry Hogs has been so good that they’ve had repeat requests for catering. They already count five colleges amongst their clients. They also hire part time staff—college students who help out during college fests. Hungry Hogs plans to expand into five retail kiosks in six months to an year.

FACT BOX HUNGRY HOGS Name: Nag Manohar, Darshan R B, Rahul Cherian Company founded in: October 2009 Started: Immediately after graduation Education: Sir MVIT, Bangalore Age: 22 to 23 Location: Bangalore More articles on www.nenonline.org. Content provided by NEN DARE.CO.IN | NEN | APRIL 2010 83

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Organizations DARE.CO.IN

covered in this issue, in alphabetic order; first appearance

Adiva......................................................................19

Fox .........................................................................48

Nestle ....................................................................58

Advertising Standards Council of India..................25

Gaur Hari Singhania Institute of Management ......70

Nestle ....................................................................25

AirTel......................................................................49

Godfrey Philips ......................................................38

North Carolina State University .............................68

Amul ......................................................................34

Google ...................................................................47

Odonil ....................................................................58

Apple .....................................................................17

HBTI ......................................................................71

Omidyar Network ...................................................68

Asha ki Kiran .........................................................74

Hindustan Unilever ................................................25

Online Auction .......................................................61

Bhabha Atomic Research Center ..........................35

Honda ....................................................................73

PBS .......................................................................48

Bigslick Infotech .....................................................43

Hungry Hogs .........................................................83

People for Animals.................................................81

Bio-productions......................................................57

IBM ........................................................................73

Pepsi ......................................................................25

British High Commission .......................................74

Ideas Infinite ..........................................................43

Plunder Here .........................................................61

BSNL .....................................................................49

IIM Lucknow ..........................................................71

poolmycar.in ..........................................................22

Cadbury's ..............................................................25

IIM-A ......................................................................39

Procter& Gamble ...................................................25

carcabpool .............................................................22

IIT Delhi .................................................................58

PVR Cinemas ........................................................58

carpool.in ...............................................................22

IIT Kanpur ..............................................................71

Rediff Shopping .....................................................62

carpooling.in ..........................................................22

IIT Roorkee ............................................................71

Rimjhim Ispat Group ..............................................71

carpoolworld ..........................................................22

Indian Statistical Institute .......................................35

ScopePlus .............................................................72

carwale ..................................................................22

Indiatimes Shopping ..............................................62

Setu Ventures ........................................................43

Centre for Rural Development and Technology .....58

indimoto .................................................................22

Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology ............83

CERN ....................................................................47

Indofil Chemical .....................................................38

Social Welfare Department (SWD) ........................73

Clean Partners.......................................................68

Institute of Technology and Science, Ghaziabad ...71

Song Adviors .........................................................69

CNN .......................................................................48

iOffer ......................................................................61

Coca-Cola..............................................................25

ITC .........................................................................58

Commonwealth Games .........................................58

ITC hotels ..............................................................58

commuteeasy ........................................................22

ITDC ......................................................................73

Consumer Reports ................................................27

Jet Airways ............................................................25

CQOut ...................................................................62

Just The Facts .......................................................44

Cracked.com..........................................................47

Khadi Gramodyog..................................................74

Cyber Media Group ...............................................71

Kingfisher...............................................................25

DARE .....................................................................71

Konkan Railways ...................................................34

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) ...................35

Kriya Design Factory .............................................82

Delhi Secretariat ....................................................74

LinkedIn .................................................................44

Diamond Technology Partners...............................54

Lohia Group ...........................................................71

Digg .......................................................................26

Maruti.....................................................................73

Dilli Haat ................................................................74

Maruti Udyog .........................................................34

Directorate of Education ........................................74

Max ........................................................................21

Eagle Build-Tech....................................................57

McDonald ..............................................................58

eBay ......................................................................61

Microsoft ................................................................48

eBay India..............................................................62

Ministry of Labour ..................................................74

EBid .......................................................................61

Modi Enterprises ...................................................36

Epiphany Ventures.................................................54

Modicare Limited ...................................................36

Ernst & Young ........................................................58

Mother’s Pride Group ............................................19

Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune................................71

Facebook ...............................................................28

Motorola.................................................................58

VLB Janakiammal College of Arts and Science ....82

Federal Communications Commission ..................48

MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology .....................81

Vocational Training Institute ...................................74

Fintact.com ............................................................43

National Council for Vocational Training.................74

Yahoo.....................................................................48

Fortis La Femme (FLF)..........................................19

National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)............80

Yelp ........................................................................26

SONG Investment Advisors India ..........................68 Soros Economic Development Fund .....................68 State Bank of India ................................................70 StumbleUpon .........................................................26 Swoopo..................................................................61 Tata Teleservices ...................................................58 TCS .......................................................................71 The Indus Entrepreneurs .......................................70 TiE .........................................................................73 Tihar Jai .................................................................72 Toyota ....................................................................16 TradeUs .................................................................62 Twitter ....................................................................26 UBid .......................................................................62 UCLA’s Anderson School of Management ............68 United Progressive Alliance ...................................45 University of Pennsylvania .....................................54 Uttar Pradesh Technical University ........................70 UTV Bloomberg .....................................................29 VIIT Pune...............................................................71

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People DARE.CO.IN

covered in this issue, in alphabetic order; first appearance

Amit Tiwari ...........................................................................................................71 Amitabh Vardhan .................................................................................................58 Angel Thomas......................................................................................................82 Anil Gupta ............................................................................................................70 Anjana Mathur .....................................................................................................71 B.V. Chaubal ........................................................................................................70 Barack Obama.....................................................................................................48 Bill Gates .............................................................................................................29 Brian Dorricott .....................................................................................................44 Bruce Tincknell ....................................................................................................44 Danny D'Cruz ......................................................................................................82 Darshan R B ........................................................................................................83 Dave Powell .........................................................................................................44 Dinesh Goel .........................................................................................................42 Dr. VM Chariar .....................................................................................................58 Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah ........................................................................................19 E Sreedharan ......................................................................................................34 Faraz Javed .........................................................................................................71 Gaurav Saraf .......................................................................................................54 Homi Bhaba .........................................................................................................34 I.P. Swahney ........................................................................................................57 Jaap Schuddeboom.............................................................................................44 Julius Genachowski .............................................................................................48 Ketan Deshpande ................................................................................................71 Kiran Bedi ............................................................................................................74 KK Birla................................................................................................................29 KPS Gill ...............................................................................................................35 Krishan Kumar Modi ............................................................................................36 LN Mittal ..............................................................................................................55 Manmohan Singh ................................................................................................45 Manoj Agarwal .....................................................................................................71 Mayur Agarwal .....................................................................................................71 Mayur Deshmukh.................................................................................................71 Mini Menon ..........................................................................................................29 Mohit Dwivedi ......................................................................................................71 M.S. Swaminathan ...............................................................................................34 Nag Manohar .......................................................................................................83 Najeeb Khan ........................................................................................................71 Paranjoy Guha Thakurta......................................................................................45 P.C. Mahalanobis .................................................................................................35 Pradeep Gupta ....................................................................................................71 Pradyumna Kumar ...............................................................................................71 Prof. Jayanta Chaterjee .......................................................................................71 Prof. Kripa Shanker .............................................................................................71 Rahul Cherian......................................................................................................83 Rahul Shukla .......................................................................................................71 Rajesh Jain ..........................................................................................................49 R.C. Bhargava .....................................................................................................34 Rita Bakshi ..........................................................................................................19 Robert Evans .......................................................................................................47 Sandhya Sikka .....................................................................................................74 Seema Malhotra ..................................................................................................72 Shiela Dikshit .......................................................................................................45 Sukumar Sen .......................................................................................................35 Sumanth Madhav ................................................................................................81 Sunil Gupta ..........................................................................................................72 Tim Berners-Lee..................................................................................................47 T.N. Seshan .........................................................................................................34 Vana Mitra ...........................................................................................................81 Verghese Kurien ..................................................................................................34 Vijay Shukla .........................................................................................................43 Vishal Vasishth ....................................................................................................68

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Camel Safari Most bottom-of-the-pyramid entrepreneurs have to do multiple businesses to keep home hearths burning. Those who give tourists a ride on their camels in the desert of Rajastan are no exception /Krishna Kumar

or a tourist visiting Bikaner, Raisar is the nearest point where they can get an authentic feel of the desert. A sand dune, just before you reach the village is what most tourists on a short trip will head towards. And giving these tourists a feel of the desert are the villagers of Raisar. They meet you at the National Highway and take groups of tourists on a safari to the dune and to nearby villages. A typical group comprises of two or more camels (each camel seating two) and a camel drawn cart to carry luggage as well as tourist, when he tires of the uneven and bouncy ride atop the animal. Your safari could be a quick couple of hours' walk to the nearest point on the dune and back all the way to a full day walkabout in the desert. Rental for the camel team depends on the route you take and the distace traversed. Tourist season in the desert is winter. When the rest of north India is freezing, the desert becomes tolerable and tourists flock to the region. The season extends anywhere from four to five months till the beginning of March. On a good day, a team of two camels, with one of them drawing a cart, stand to

make anywhere from thousand to two thousand rupees, not counting tips. And like everything else connected to the tourism business, tips can be substantial, being even more than the fee itself, especially if the tourists are foreigners. According to the locals, business these couple of years has been low, thanks to lower numbers of foreign tourists. They put this down to the combined effects of the global slowdown and the rise in global terrorism. Like with most entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid, camel owners are forced to seek multiple income sources during the course of the year to keep home hearths burning. After the tourist season comes the summer, when there is nothing much to do beyond resting. This is the period when the camel drives no income, but continues to cost in terms of fodder, medicines and care. Camel fodder costs around a thousand rupees a quintal and lasts about a week. After summer, some of the camels are used in the fields for ploughing and related work.Those who do not have enough land to farm migrate to nearby cities in search of work as daily wage labourers. R

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An adult camel eats upto 40 kg of fooder in a day, while a baby can consume about 15 kg. Fodder costs around Rs 1,000 per quintal

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