FEBRUARY 2011
VOL 4 / ISSUE 5 / FEBRUARY 11
DARE
`50
Entrepreneur of the Month
J N Agarwal Jaipan Industries
HOW DO BUSINESS
INCUBATORS HOW DO BUSINESS INCUBATORS HELP YOU
HELP YOU
VOLUME 4 ISSUE 5
OPPORTUNITY
INTERVIEW
WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE
DELUGE OF OPPORTUNITIES IN WATER INDUSTRY
VINEET BAJPAI
NEETA LULLA
Magnon Solutions
Fashion Designer
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Feb 2011 VOLUME 4 | ISSUE 5
Cover Story: 40 How Do Business Incubators Help You - By Team Dare You have a great idea, a good business model, a blue-print of an innovative new technology but not a support system–Incubators are here for your help.
Opportunity 16 Deluge of Opportunities in Water Industry By Shinjini Ganguli Currently estimated at US $ 12 billion, the Indian water industry, burgeoning at 15-20 per cent every year, is the new rage among SME entrepreneurs
Movers & Shakers 20 All of Delhi under One Roof
40 Journey to the Top 62 Shiv Nadar, HCL
By Sharmila Das
Akshat Rathee’s Gurgaon restaurant, KopyKat, makes it easy to explore Delhi’s famous street foods
60 Child’s Play in Fitness Mode By Shradha Mohanty
Deepak and Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan say their recently acquired franchise, Jumpbunch, aims to inculcate a positive attitude among children towards sports and fitness and will help to keep them healthy lifelong 16
In this episode of ‘Journey to the Top’, Shiv Nadar talks about the inception and evolution of HCL empire and also his visions of philanthropy
Green Venture 56 Buy Green, Buy Well : Aparna Bhatnagar, Green and Good Store By Shradha Mohanty
Going green the digital way? Aparna Bhatnagar saw this as an opportunity for her online retail business when she started the Green and Good Store
Business Feature 68 Profits Peak Only when the Consumer Wears the Crown By Sharmila Das Delivering improved consumer experience consistently is a vital strategy to increase your consumer base and ensure repeat consumers
I’m New 36 Alchemist to Entrepreneur: Pooja Kumar, SMEJoinUp By Shinjini Ganguli Here’s a service provider for the much-ignored SME segment 4
FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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BOARD OF ADVISORS N R Narayanamurthy
44
Interview 78 Much Ado About The Much Appreciated Vineet Bajpai spills some secret remedies from his recently released rule book, The Street to the Highway, for SMEs
Insight
J N Agarwal, Jaipan Industries
Entrepreneur of the Month 32 Ingredients of Success: Innovation, Growth and Teamwork By Shinjini Ganguli Started in 1984, Jaipan Industries under J N Agarwal is touted as one of the biggest manufacturers of home appliances and non-stick cookwares today Social Entrepreneur 66 Sumita Ghosh: Helping artisans shape their own destiny By Shradha Mohanty Rangsutra helps artisans and craftsmen from disadvantaged communities to put their creative skills to good use and ensures them a guaranteed source of income
Emerging Entrepreneur 71 Half Way Through : Kunal Bahl By Shinjini Ganguli
The man who popularized couponing business in India
Women of Substance 74 Neeta Lulla: The living legend of Indian Fashion By Sharmila Das Few call her a mysterious lady, few know her as an ace fashion designer, the work of this Indian fashionista has proved all of them right. Meet Neeta Lulla, the czarina of Indian fashion
CORRIGENDUM This is with reference to Jan 2011 issue of DARE magazine: The correct designation of Mr Dilip Modi featured as Entrepreneur of the Month is Managing Director, Spice Mobility Limited.He is not the Chairman of Spice Telecom as has been reported everywhere in the profile, including the cover.We apologize for the error.
19 Vijay Anand 24 Anurag Batra 30 Anjana Vivek 54 Vimarsh Bajpai
Tech Corner 50 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning for Enterprises By Gurjot S Sachdeva
Others 08 News 10 Feedback 12 Exchange 77 Innovation 82 Statistics 86 Unwindings
Chief Mentor, Infosys
Kanwal Rekhi
Chairman, TiE
Romesh Wadhwani
Chairman & President, Wadhwani Foundation
Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande Saurabh Srivastava
Chairman, Sycamore Networks
Chairman, Indian Venture Capital Association
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Chairman & MD, Biocon
R Gopalakrishnan
Executive Director, Tata Sons
Philip Anderson
Professor of Entrepreneurship, INSEAD
Abraham Mathew Prashanth Hebbar
President Senior Editor
ANALYSTS Binesh Kutty Nimesh Sharma Sharmila Das Shinjini Ganguli Shradha Mohanty COPY EDITORS Shilpi Kumar Sridhar Raman OPERATIONS Ajay Dhoundiyal Product Manager Prasanna Srivastava Product Manager Debabrata T Joshi Manager Events VIjay Rana Design Anil John Photography SALES & MARKETING MA Jaideep Associate VP Ankur Kalia North Manas Mishra South Kingshuk Sircar South-East Asia
PRINT & CIRCULATION SERVICES Rachna Garga VP T Srirengan GM, Print Services Sudhir Arora Senior Manager Circulation 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 MUMBAI Road No 16, D 7/1 MIDC, Andheri (East) Tel: 42082222
Event 26 DARE Entrepreneur Week, January 2011
80 Headstart: Welcoming New Year with the spirit of Starting Up 84 NEN: Campus: Marking the First Dot
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 DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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from the editor
editorial
Amiga’s Ultimate test By Prashanth Hebbar
ewind almost a decade. There used to be a product called Simputer and one of its avatars was cutely called Amiga (meaning Buddha), developed by scientists at IISc. It was a handheld device running a Linux core and had a stylus and handwriting recognition. Its closest cousin was the more successful Palm and Handspring Visor. I had tested Amiga for writing and connecting to the Internet using a Reliance dial-up modem specifically made for it. It cost just about `10,000. This was some ten years back. I had written my verdict in The Times of India then that it is a good device but much depends on how well it will be marketed. Well, it did not do too well. It was a brilliant piece of engineering. It had much going for it except that it was ahead of its time. For people who could afford a palm-top, a Palm was a natural choice though expensive. For others, the utility of Amiga was too farfetched. They just did not believe they would pay `10,000 for a glorified digital assistant. Today, the same crowd is milling about the Internet asking whether to buy an Apple iPad or
R
Beyond theory, how did RCA convince that the TV is a radically new medium and made it a commercially successful product?
a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Well, in short Amiga was way too ahead of its time for a mass take-off. In the same TOI review, I had also passed on another comment on another revolutionary device which promised to bring Interactive TV to Indian masses. The technology here too was ahead of its time. Even Bill Gates is supposed to have looked at the technology at a demo on his India visit and acknowledge that the technology was ahead of what Microsoft had at that time in their IP TV. Today, Amiga is only a memory. However, the other device lives on with a totally different approach to interactive TV technology but again revolutionary. It is far superior to Apple TV and Google TV. It is way cheaper than Rokobox or Slingbox or even the Western Digital set-top box. The big question is how can it hit the masses and bring about the much needed revolution. What does it take for a product to capture the imagination of the consumer and make it big? We all know of the critical mass. We know how it is important to build something the consumer wants. We know how pricing it right is ex-
Incubators can create an ecosystem for startups
tremely important. We know that positioning is the key to success. All this is theory. How did RCA convince that the TV is a radically new medium and made it a commercially successful product? Every Amiga is finally tested in the marketplace. How to get incubated This issue we bring you a special story on incubators. Our team of analysts compiles information from a wide spectrum of stake-holders in the business incubation ecosystem. Read our report and let us know if it helped you or your friends. Interact with me on Twitter @phebbar DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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news
news
national M&A increases three-fold from April-December 2010 The first nine months of 2010-11 (April–December) have witnessed more than three-fold increase in value terms in the Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) growing from US$ 13.54 billion in the corresponding period to US$ 58.73 billion. The major mergers and acquisitions occurred in telecom followed by energy, metal & mining, pharmaceutical and BFSI sectors. During the first nine months of FY ‘11, telecom sector topped the list with 28.26 per cent share of the total valuation of M&A deals that took place in India, followed by energy sector accounted for 23.59 per cent, metal & mining sector accounted for 23.19 per cent while pharmaceutical and BFSI sector accounted for 8.20 per cent and 5.74 per cent respectively. Source: Assocham
With 30% CAGR, Consultancy Biz To Touch Rs. 22,000 Cr. by 2011
PE investments in 2010 almost double to $7.9-B
In light of the rising
Private Equity firms invested
opportunities and growing
$7,974 million over 325 deals
consultancy spectrum as
in India during the 12 months
a result of high demand,
ending December 2010,
consulting industry
compared to $4,068 million
in India is well poised
across 290 deals during the
to grow at CAGR of
previous year. After a volatile
about 30 per cent to
3 year period, PE investment
carry forward its size to
activity in 2010 reverts to the
over Rs. 22,000 crores
levels of 2006 (which had
as against current size of
witnessed 358 investments
nearly Rs. 16,500 crores. It
worth $7,485 million). The
also holds that the consultancy
largest investment reported
opportunities for domestic project
during the year was the $425
managers would enhance engagements and occupation,
million raised by power
numbering over 3.5 lakhs in next three years in nearly
generation firm Asian Genco
9500 to 11000 consultancy firms in the field of projects
from investors including
management including turned key projects, engineering,
General Atlantic, Goldman
designing, financing & auditing consultancy, besides
Sachs, Morgan Stanley,
consultancies in medical services, travel & hospitality.
Everstone and Norwest.
Source: Assocham 8
Source: Venture Intelligence
FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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corporate US Shopping Major Groupon Acquires SoSasta.com Chicago-based international collective buying portal Groupon has acquired SoSasta.com, a bulk discount website in India. Groupon, an e-commerce website is present in more than 40 countries. SoSasta, now to be renamed as Groupon India, will personalise the Groupon services according to the Indian consumers’ need. It will add better deals, more product verticals, and explore newer avenues to attract and benefit the customers. Groupon has recently completed the $950m round of financing from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, DST, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.
Moser Baer’s Anuppur Thermal Power Plant Attracts Investment of Rs. 580 crore Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF) and the SBI, on behalf of the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust will together invest Rs. 580 crore in Anuppur Thermal Power Plant of MB Power (Madhya Pradesh) Ltd. (MBPMPL). MBPMPL - a subsidiary of Moser Baer Projects is developing a 2,520 MW thermal power plant in multiple phases at Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh with an investment of Rs. 13,700 crore. The first phase of 1,200 MW which is likely to cost Rs 6,240 crore is fully funded with the current investment from MSIF and SBI. MBPMPL obtained debt of Rs 4680 crore for the first phase of the project in Nov 2009 with SBI and Axis Bank as the lead banks. Edelweiss was the financial advisor to MBPMPL for this transaction.
international MoU Signed between the EXIM Banks of India and Korea Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and the Minister of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea, Yoon Jeung-Hyun met today along with their official delegations for their 2nd bilateral meeting. A MoU was signed between the EXIM banks of the two countries for the purpose of promoting trade and investment. Prabhakar Dalal, ED, EXIM Bank of India and Ki-Sub Nam, ED, Korean Exim Bank signed the MOU. The cooperation between the two countries covers all areas of bilateral relations, namely political, economic and commercial, defence, information technology, science and technology, cultural exchange, etc. Source: PIB DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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feedback
readers
website: www.dare.co.in, email: dare@cybermedia.co.in, SMS: ‘DARE <your msg>’ to 56677 and twitter.com/daretostartup
Suggestion for Legal Portal Dear Vijay I’ve just read your article ‘The two sides of Entrepreneurship’ on DARE. I want to grow my ideas, but I am also not looking for any formal title. Having a background in law, I have just started a legal information-based portal. This is my dream project, which began through a simple idea of popularizing legal information to the masses. I would be honored if you kindly look at my site and provide me some guidance and suggestions for doing the best in future. - Ashrujit Basu, asklegalmart.com Response by Vijay Anand: Dear Ashrujit, I am not sure where you are based out of. But in any case, information - especially that related to legal matters - can be useful for entrepreneurs and it seems to be a valid service that you are providing. I would recommend, however, that you think about whether you want to provide this as a service (for free) or build a business around it. Depending on your answer to that question, it would be easier to decide the amount of money and effort you could invest to grow this initiative. Hope that helps! - Vijay
Mystery shopping scam I have mystery shopped last year and all the companies are terrible on payment. Either they delay your payment and pay you after 3 to 4 months or they conveniently say that the report is not of good quality and reject it. So you don’t get paid while others just outright stop taking your calls for your pending money. They pay a menial amount like Rs 350-400 per assignment in which the travel and purchase cost is yours. So you hardly save Rs 100, and for that much money filling up their stupid, long surveys is not worth it. Abroad, as a mystery shopper I used to make decent pocket money but in India, the companies treat you horribly and don’t even pay decently. So I stopped doing assignments here. - Priya
How to get money to start a new business: Amit Nahar Hi Amit, I seek your advice on getting funding for starting a unisex salon in Delhi/NCR. I have been a banker for the last 6 years and now have started a salon in Pune in partnership. Though the salon has become a prominent salon in Pune in a year and is yielding good profit, I am facing issues due to my partner. (www.panache-salon.in) Now I want to move out of Pune and open a salon in New Delhi or NCR or in tier 2 cities like Jamshedpur, Ranchi. I have done a survey there and feel that there is a definite scope for good business. Quality of service and hygiene are the two primary drivers of this business, which I am pretty confident of providing. I have some seed capital, around 10 lacs, but I need more as a typical setup cost would be around 30 lacs including working capital for atleast 2 months. I would be indebted to you if you can advice me on how to proceed ahead. - Siddharth Kumar
The healthy dose of business Do you know, wellness can be the next generation business, where we can find a huge market of more than `5000 crores? But now the industry is dominated by the giant AMWAY group and they are some what doing in the best available method, i.e. direct marketing and by that the customer also earns. So if we have a plan to enter into this field, be ready with a better plan than the existing. - Viswa Raj
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180 nominees 50 shortlisted entrepreneurs The Jury NR Narayana Murthy Gururaj 'Desh' Deshpande Kanwal Rekhi Saurabh Srivastava Pradeep Gupta
March 2011 Coverage of the 50 shortlisted entrepreneurs in DARE magazine
Felicitation of 13 FINAL WINNERS at a mega award ceremony (5 Entrepreneurs Above Rs. 250 Crore, 8 Entrepreneurs Below Rs. 250 Crore)
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Want Investor for IT and ITES based company
I am a 38-year-old businessman
I have developed a small kit, 6x6 inches size and 800 gm weight,
I want an investor to invest up to
contacts and an interest in e-
which runs on a two-wheeler
`10 lakh for an IT and ITES with
waste project.
battery that contains 5 different
a good business strategy and
liquids and produces wonder
business plan that can assure you
gas that increases the mileage
good returns. For further details,
of a two wheeler by 50 - 90%.
contact me on my email ID or
Looking for mentor for Import-export business
Maintenance is negligible. Cost
phone.
My partner, whom I met from
Magic Mileage
of unit is around `4000 only. This technology is available for sale.
- Srikar Photon Technologies, Hyderabad
New start-up for retail services
- S Sridhar
DARE exchange, and I are starting an enterprise in the import/export business. We are
Contact me for buying. - Natwar Patel
from Bangalore with good local
Partners required to set up an e-waste management project
looking out for a mentor who can help us by guiding in the selection of product/ commodity
I am currently working on a plan
and the capital involved. Could
I am planning to launch a
to set up an e-waste management
you kindly help us move further in
start-up, which will be in retail
project in Bangalore. If somebody
our endeavor through guidance,
services or consulting. Are there
is interested and would like to join
expertise, and contacts?
any companies or individuals
me, kindly contact me with brief
in this business in India? If you
details of your experience and
are interested in sending me
strengths. - Umang Agarwal
suggestions or want to partner
- Girish
Legal formalities for starting a company in India
Response
I would like to start my own
I am Abhishek Chhajlani, currently
mineral water manufacturing and
Response
in second year MBA program at
bottling plant. I would also like
Send me the details. I want to join
IIM Lucknow. Can you please tell
to have my own brand of mineral
you. I am staying in Mumbai. Call
me more on what you mean by
water. Can you guide me on how
me on my mobile.
e-waste management?
to start and the special approvals
with me, please get in touch. - Shrinivas M Bakale
- Ishwar Jivani
Marketing partner required for
- Abhishek
required for water business from
jute-based social enterprise
section of marginalized of social enterprise involving a kind a It’s ive. tiat Eco is e nam e My company’s vas bags under the brand nam jute bags, cotton bags, and can and s people. We are manufacturing fair in as g malls as well it through retail outlets/shoppin , GreenCarry. We are marketing Germany, Australia, NZ, Holland , ada orting now (US, UK, Can exp of king thin are We as . ions king exhibit is interested in wor e (energetic, committed) who eon som d nee we and ) etc. re, are UAE, Singapo pany in the overseas market. We sion basis) on behalf of our com rs a orde big a marketing agent (on commis for g goin are thinking of r (500 – 2000pcs) right now and se plea ort, exp looking for small quantity orde t our first battle to star helping us out in overcoming in ed rest inte y bod Any r. late little - Amit Pal revert on my email or phone. and Response es mentioned. Could we meet in Kerala and all foreign countri both ng, keti mar ut abo n kee I am products? - Joeboy Pereira discuss and have a look at the
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the government? Are there any subsidies from the government to start this type of business? - Mahesh Panwar
Want finance partners to develop my dog training center
Need angel funding
, aged, and disabled ty working for the old cie so a for ty ed ed ne Help ty is a registered socie Hem Memorial Socie ia. Ind , nd an ha ild ak bu tar in Ut ates. We want to 12A, and 80G certific nt having a PAN Card, is available. If you wa nd s and needy. La es lpl he for me ho e old ag gh email. ct my secretary throu to help/donate, conta - Harish Dhondiyal
I am running a pet shelter for homeless, abandoned dogs and cats for whom I am unable to
Selling insurance salvage
welcomed. Franchisers may also
provide adequate space and
My firm has been dealing in
contact me. I plan to start it latest
feedings every month. Now I
salvage product from the past 20
by Feb 2011.
have adjured a training center
years. We buy all types of salvage
and boarding house to support
of Indian and imported vehicles.
my shelter and cemetery for
For further inquiry, call us.
abandoned dogs and cats. Though
- Neel
it might seem like this is only for
- Tanuj
Expertise for setting up your own school We are a group of professionals engaged in providing consultancy
poor, urban orphanages, old-age
Export market for Betel leaf oil
people, and children by enabling
Can someone guide me on the
up and the further development
them to earn a living. And another
export market for Betel leaf oil? I
of preschools, K-12 schools,
important thing is that there are
am planning to produce Betel leaf
colleges, franchisee, liaisons
lots of organizations and trusts for
oil and want to export it outside
from state and central govt.
helping people but very few that
India. Any help is welcome.
for various permissions and
animal welfare, it can also help the
help animals. Basically, I belong
since the last 20 years in setting
- Gourav Lodha
to the fisherman community of
affiliations, UGC, NAAC etc., management consultancy,
Want to start a crèche/ day care
accounting, taxation, project
develop an organization to render services for animals. But I am
I wish to start a day care / crèche
and regulatory requirements
Chennai, India. I would like to
financing, and other statutory
unable to do so due to financial
at my own house - 1 BHK, 3
crises. I need financial help to
floor in Laxmi Nagar (East Delhi).
also take the projects on turnkey
develop my dog training center.
I would let my entire house for
basis. Anyone who requires our
the procedure. Partnership is also
professional consultancy in the
- Senthil Kumar
rd
for educational institutions. We
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exchange • partners • mentoring • funding • guidance • advice • ideas...
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field of education may write us on our email with brief details about yourself and your requirements in order to proceed further. - S.G., EduBiz Consultants
Need genuine clients for inbound process
r real estate startup
rtners fo Looking for active pa
l estate startup which a strong team for a rea I am looking to build e business is the ther by the team. Th fur en tak d an ed nn will be pla will be changing know. However, we all we ich wh e on same old post if anyone’s . Kindly reply to the ne do is it w ho of es the rul r. all talk about it furthe - Uday interested and we sh
I am looking for some good inbound process, if you have any information regarding this then
Response
conversions. It follows a simple
please do let me know.
This is very noble cause. I am a
four part process to increase sales
business consultant and I would
from clients website:
like to contribute to what you are
1. Attract potential customers to
- Tushar Sen CMD, Sen Software Solutions
Marketing partners sought for gourmet chocolate venture
doing. Please see my profile on
your website using Pay Per Click
LinkedIn. Please let me know how
campaigns: Google Adwords,
we can collaborate.
Yahoo Search marketing! &
- Shweta Aggarwal
We are a recent startup in the
Microsoft adCenter. 2. Optimize your website &
are actively seeking partners and
Planning to open an online optical store
affiliates to promote our brand
I have an optical shop in my
especially with corporates. Please
city and dream of making it into
consumer about your product/
get in touch at my email ID.
a retail chain. However, due
service via email marketing
to lack of funds, I am currently
campaigns.
Gourmet Chocolate industry and
- Indulge Chocolates, Bangalore
trying to open an online store
Keen to start a vocational training center for disabled people and ex-serviceman
landing pages to collect your customers contact information. 3. Educate & Engage the
4. Increase online sales by driving
for my business. Since I have no
the customer back to your
experience in this, can somebody
website.
help me with this?
We are now looking specifically - Shahid Ali
I have been working in the
for a creative web designer / art
development sector in the area
Response
director to join our team. Anyone
of sustainable livelihood for the
I have got an online store
with exceptional talent and a
last 15 years in Madhya Pradesh
front which can act as a online
passion for startups can contact us.
with a long term presence in
store front for you. For further
Mandla (130 villages) and Bhopal
information and pricing please call
Response
city slums. We have a federa-
me on my phone.
I am interested in joining your
tion of 165 NGOs in Madhya
- Dilip Kurup
Pradesh and have a close network
- Arjun
core team. I am a PG in Marketing from FMS BHU. I have worked in the field of marketing. Presently
training center for people with
Partners required for internet marketing company
disability and ex-ervicemen lead-
We are looking for entrepreneurs
Google Webamaster, Analytics,
ing to employment in corporate
(successful or failed) to join
Adwords, keyword tools). I’m
sector or self employment. We
our team at First10. First10 is a
proficient in cloud computing,
are looking for experts, partners,
fast-growing, direct marketing
SEO and other important online
ideas, advice and mentors on the
company based on the internet,
marketing skills. Do revert back
subject to proceed further.
and has emerged as one of the
on my mail id or call me.
of more than 45 like minded NGOs. We are keen to setup a vocational
- V.P. Singh
few firms in India that focuses on
I’m working as an SEO (Search engine optimizer) (Working with
- Shwetha Ramnath
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www.dare.co.in/mentoring
YOU GET EXCLUSIVELY MENTORED BY Anurag Batra exchange4media group Anurag Batra is a first generation entrepreneur who raised funds twice in the last 10 years. He has built one of India’s largest and successful new age internet-cum-offline media company. Starting with a very low sum as capital, his company logs healthy revenues today. Anurag is an entrepreneur like you, who was forced to revise business plans by his angel investors till he got the right mix. Anurag is the considered to be a savvy business maker by the deal street. Now, learn how to build effective business plans directly from Anurag. While Anurag has built successful businesses, he has also failed at some and believes failure teaches you more.
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DONE
What’s at offer: Online webinar based delivery Batra delivers the webinar and hand-holds you to develop a business plan Assured deliverable: You will build a business plan at the end of the program Extensive resources online Standard business plan templates
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opportunity
water industry
Deluge of Opportunities in Water Industry Currently estimated at US $ 12 billion, the Indian water industry, burgeoning at 15-20 per cent every year, is the new rage among SME entrepreneurs By Shinjini Ganguli
16 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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uch to the delight of the various domestic and foreign operators operating in the Indian water industry, the sector is witnessing an astronomical growth. As per a report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the total Indian water market is estimated to be about US $12 billion currently. And, it is said to be growing at 15-20 per cent every year. On the other hand, as per the figures released by a report from the house of Kotak Institutional Equities, the annual business potential of the water sector in India is estimated at US $30 billion annually. The report further suggests the likelihood of opening up of scores of investment opportunities in the sector with the private sector becoming more involved in what was till now considered as a public good. The growing market and it’s potentiality to deliver higher dividends has caught the fancy of many. “The
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rienced a super-hike. The report says that the demand for water continues to grow and will grow by 40 per cent from 750 billion cubic meters (bcm) currently to 1050 bcm by 2025. Despite the current situation, about 90 per cent of the total wastewater in India continues to be discharged without any treatment. About 1.3 billion liters of raw sewage and 250 million liters of industrial effluent is added to the Ganges every day, states the report.
Boon in Disguise While the situation poses a serious threat, it also opens up an array of opportunities for players across the board, especially from the SME (small and medium enterprises) segment. Subramaniam says, “The water industry is highly unorganized and fragmented.” While there are quite a few large companies, the industry has a large number of small and medium enter-
The annual business potential of the water sector in India is estimated at US $30 billion annually
fast rising water industry in the country is expected to attract private investments of around `50,000 crore from Indian and foreign companies,” says H. Subramaniam, CEO of EverythingAboutWater (EA Water), a water management solutions provider.
Demand & Supply Due to the increasing scarcity of water, and the simultaneous realization of the same among the industrial and domestic sectors, commercial activities around the water industry have witnessed an unprecedented growth. As per the report by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the per capita availability of water in India has been reduced from 5277 cubic meters in 1995 to 1970 cubic meters in 2010. This figure is projected to further slump down to about 1000-1700 cubic meters by 2025, making India’s water condition critical. And as the rule goes, with the depletion in water resources, the demand has expe-
prises. “There are 1500 SMEs in the water industry,” he says. The low entry barriers in the industy has enabled the SME segment to build businesses and create impact. In fact, looking at the strong need for reach and local presence rising from the growth of this industry in the Tier II cities many have turned into channel partners and distributors.“We expect the SME sector to continue to be vibrant and atleast 50 per cent of the total business would continue to be served by them in the water sector for the next 10 years,” says Subramaniam.
Segments & Opportunities The water industry can be predominantly classified into four categories—Municipal (water supply and sanitation), Industrial, Building/ Institutional (hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, apartment complexes) and Residential (home purifiers). The sector also includes DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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water industry treatment and purification, pumping and water transportation, process water treatment and wastewater treatment/ recycling.
Drinking Water segment The increased scope in the drinking water segment has attracted several players in the last few years. There are close to 200 bottled water brands in India, of which nearly 80 per cent brands are local. Increased health consciousness among the masses, the deteriorating quality of water, and increased disposable income has opened up several opportunities for companies working in the area
gapore, India was ranked third for water pollution. India, which has always been rich in its water resources, has been facing some serious water shortages lately. The fact that a large amount of untreated domestic sewage, industrial effluents, and affected water from chemical-intensive agricultural farms go without treatment has been adding up to the shortage. The issue, however, has heightened the scope of the market. Subramanium says, “The overall water and wastewater sector is estimated to be worth over `60,000 crore, with the treatment market
servicing of water treatment plants. “There is also a huge unbranded water purifier market of filters, UV and RO systems where SMEs have a strong presence through their local reach and service capability. Design and engineering consulting for water projects is another area where SMEs are doing very well,” says Subramaniam.
Challenges One of the main challenges for SMEs is related to scaling up of their business and growing above a certain level. However, neither do they have the financial strength or reputation to take projects on
We expect the SME sector to continue to be vibrant and atleast 50 per cent of the total business would continue to be served by them in the water sector for the next 10 years.
— H Subramaniam CEO, EverythingAboutWater
of potable water filtration as well as companies working in the bottled water industry. As per the report, the sale of bottled water grew from $189 million (USD) in 2003 to $599 million in 2008, a growth rate of 216 per cent. And with this figure projected to double in the next five years, India is being seen as one of the fastest growing bottled water markets in the world.
Water/Wastewater Treatment segment Water pollution is a persistent problem in India. In fact, as per a new study based on an evaluation of environment impact on 179 countries, conducted by researchers in Harvard, Princeton, Adelaide University, and University of Sin-
being the most attractive segment at `6,000 crore.” Several domestic and international players are joining the race. The Indian companies, who score over their foreign counterpart in water-treatment equipment prices, are trying to import some hitech designs and technology for water treatment plants. Indian entrepreneurs see the situation as an opportunity, and therefore, instead of importing municipal and industrial watertreatment equipments, they are equipping themselves with the right technology for manufacturing it in India at a cheaper rate. However, the maximum scope for SME entrepreneurs is in the installation/ commissioning and
BOOT basis ( Build Operate Own Transfer). “They should collaborate with established players in the market to reach that scale,” says Sandeep Dadepogu, Process Engineer, OVIVO. Also low entry barriers has often led to employees starting their own business.
Conclusion Water, which was until recently considered a natural resource with no costs attached, has grown dearer with the increased demand in the recent past. With a fleet of industries like cement, chemical, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, power, etc., depending on water, the water industry players are likely to have a very bright future.
18 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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insight
startup
Those radical decisions The enterprising spirit asks to push the ultimate limit so that it can bring the desired output hile the whole world is in awe of the enterprising spirit of the west, I can’t help but wonder how one can tribute the enterprising spirit of India. Bear with me here. There is a significant difference in the way people go about building companies in these two regions. One region has an enterprising entrepreneur and the other has an enterprising investor or banking institution - the latter is the route of the west. Time and time again when you meet the tycoons of India, and when you trace back the story of how it all began, it probably started off with mortgaging the family house, property or jewelery to start a business. Those who managed the cash flows, margins and had an acumen to evolve to the needs of their customers soon grew to satisfy more customers. This is not a story you would hear in the west — by most entrepreneurs. But its common place in most of India. In every decision in life, which leads to something extra ordinary, takes a stance of extremity to reach that point. And when you do, you run the risk of either gaining high or losing everything. Wisdom also says that, in order to win whats beyond the reach of the norm, one has to be willing to bet everything at some point or the other. An extra ordinary life also demands an extra ordinary act by someone involved in the value creation process. Every story of entrepreneurship in this country has not one but probably have several such incidents where everything was risked on the table - be it the growth, direction or strategy of the company. If there is an entrepreneur who is willing to bet that high on it, there are also equal number of those who stand tall to prove that guts. The support of those they love, and intuition goes a long way - not to say its all on assumptions though, these folks have keen observing skills to spot an opportunity and insight that most simply overlook Its crucial to understand this, because this is a core of how enterprises are built in India. An un-
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Vijay Anand
derstanding of this makes the difference between how we function in normal life, the goals we set for ourselves and for the companies we build, most of all the company we keep-especially as we elect our board of directors. None of these decisions are made by the entrepreneur alone - the chill on one’s spine is way too much for most. This is where the structure of a company makes all the difference. Today, it is said that there are anywhere between 26-32 million SMEs in the country and about 5 million of them are considered to be of small and medium, quite a bit of the rest are micro enterprises. About 96 per cent of these companies are proprietary and partnership firms, and like they say in the world of design, form follows function. The fact that there is not any significant growth in the SME segment, even when its quite functional and significantly contributing to the GDP of the country. This is because of the lack of such abnormal and daring decisions. Life is constantly a war between one and the other — one that we hold, and the drive to achieve the other, and the greed to want to hold on to both. Companies that are grown are not grown by holding onto control, but by vision and by the ability to attract people who can share that vision and taking that support to ramp up what you do best. Most of all the factor that matters is the audacity of one, to make the leap from one to the other. If you are an entrepreneur, and are running a business, its time to ask yourself that question when was the last time you made that daring move? If it has been a while, its time to start looking into avenues to do that before the rust catches up with you and complacency sets in. Vijay Anand is a serial entrepreneur, the founder of Proto.in, and the Vice President (Incubation) at IIT's RTBI. He tweets at @vijayanands. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Vijay Anand'. The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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opportunity
movers&shakers
All of Delhi under One Roof
Akshat Rathee’s Gurgaon restaurant, KopyKat, makes it easy to explore Delhi’s famous street foods By Sharmila Das 20 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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elhi is famous for its street food. Practically every mohalla in the Capital offers a signature treat for the connoisseur. Akshat Rathee was savvy enough to realize that while people swore by the flavours of Delhi’s street food, not everyone found it practical to go to particular markets to taste them, especially those who lived in faraway Gurgaon. So, in 2008, Akshat set up KopyKat, a young and vibrant restaurant that is creating quite a buzz in Gurgaon, a satellite town of Delhi. KopyKat offers Delhi’s signature street foods – from South Extension’s Bombay Bhelpuri to paranthas from Paranthe Wali Gali in Chandni Chowk – with the same taste and quality and in the same form. Akshat is a computer engineer from Manipal with an MBA in international business from Paris. He is a serial entrepreneur, who has three more businesses, in addition to KopyKat. He has set up ventures in consulting, biofuels, telecom and BTL marketing. But, as he says, “food is something that has fascinated me from childhood and I am a hardcore foodie. In my professional life, this has translated into associations with numerous restaurants (for consulting,
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turnarounds, etc.), all of which culminated in my opening my very own place, KopyKat. I have always been very fond of street food and Delhi, as everyone knows, is a street food lover’s delight. But because I live in Gurgaon, I was unable to indulge in my favourite bhelpuri and paranthas as often and as easily as I would have liked. And I was not the only one. There were many in Gurgaon who craved the delicacies of Delhi’s streets and the only thing stopping them was paucity of time. That was how the seeds of what would later become KopyKat first got rooted in my head. Instead of people going to the food, was it possible to bring the food to the people? The answer was yes, and today, KopyKat stands testimony to that fact.” Akshat started KopyKat with an initial investment of Rs 25 lakh. He raised the money from various angel investors. Why KopyKat? He explains, “The restaurant derives its name literally from the concept on which it is based. At KopyKat, we serve the exact replicas of the food that you would find in any of the famous street food areas of Delhi. The vendors provide us all the ingredients, down to the salt that is put in each dish. Our DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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opportunity
movers&shakers assemblers have been personally trained by the vendors in preparing each dish. Thus, at KopyKat, we mimic the real vendors of Delhi and serve their delicacies to our customers.” Currently, KopyKat enjoys a loyal customer base of which 40 per cent are repeat customers. Another 40 per cent drop in because they have heard good things about the restaurant. Akshat says the remaining 20 per cent come here because of its location. They don’t know about KopyKat, but visit it to see what it has to offer. KopyKat is located in a busy part of Gurgaon, which is crowded with
plete faith in his business model. He says, “I spent close to 15 months raising money and forming the company. Yet, nothing was as challenging as meeting the various vendors and convincing each one of them to be a part of this venture. The toughest part was winning their trust and assuring them that their brand would not be compromised. It was a long journey, but one that was truly worth it.” Akshat is optimistic about the future of the restaurant business in India. He says, “With growing urbanization, changing lifestyles and rising incomes, the restaurant industry is currently valued at Rs
of them and a new entrant would find it difficult to match that. They would also need to be well funded to be able to spend that much time on relationship management and setting up the supply chain without having to worry about losses.” KopyKat plans to launch five restaurants in the next eight months. Akshat is targeting a pan-India presence in five metros within 15 months. His subsequent strategy with his investment partners focuses on international expansion to the UK, the US, Dubai and Singapore. Akshat tells us, “Currently, we have a turnover of Rs 3-5 lakh from
The restaurant derives its name literally from the concept on which it is based. At KopyKat, we serve the exact replicas of the food that you would find in any of the famous street food areas of Delhi
restaurants of all kinds. Despite that, it has a loyal customer base. So, what keeps it abreast of the competition? Akshat says it is the food that KopyKat serves that sets it apart – nowhere else can you get all the famous delicacies of Delhi under one roof. He asserts, “Like in any other business, as we expand our network and variety of products, the competitive landscape will also change in the future.” Starting a venture and establishing it among its target customers is a gradual process, which requires perseverance. Akshat had com-
580 billion, with huge potential for growth in the future.” The segment is a brilliant one for an aspiring entrepreneur because the demand for food is universal, which makes it practically recession-proof. The need is to recognize the gaps in the food business and tap the market at the right moment. Akshat says that replicating the KopyKat business model would be difficult for a new entrant: “For new entrants, the main hurdle will be to get what we already have – vendor relationships. We spent a substantial amount of time with each
our first location. We expect a location to stabilize at an approximate turnover of Rs 10 lakh per month, with an EBITDA of Rs 2-3 lakh. Our corporate turnover should touch Rs 10 crore with our first phase of five locations.” (EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization; it is an approximate measure of a company’s operating cash flow based on data from its income statement, and is calculated by looking at earnings before the deduction of interest expenses, taxes, depreciation and amortization.)
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insight
startup
Practice What You Preach, It Works We are all so occupied with our daily routines that though we give bundles of advices to others we often tend to forget the latest learning we have added to our kitty. We have kept on playing the same tunes over and over again
Anurag Batra t’s been more than two and a half years that I have been writing for DARE, sharing my learnings, experiences, challenges and my conversations with entrepreneurs, my dilemmas and I can say my soul when it comes to the entreprenurial thought process. Anything and everything I come across in life as a person, as an Entrepreneur and as someone who constantly aspires to learn and my thought process and my encounters while being an entrepreneur have found way into my DARE columns. I have always believed that writing is cathartic, it helps you reflect, it helps you share, it in some ways makes life more fulfilling. My experience with DARE columns has been the same. Last week I conducted a webinar in association with DARE, a first ever in my life, educating entrepreneurs on preparing effective business plans. I was in my office and there were more than 100 people across the globe tuned into the webinar. I was amazed, delighted and taken aback by the whole process. Simple and so effective! Learning never stops and it indeed was a great learning experience for me. However, the whole episode raised a question in my mind...“Do we practice what we preach?”
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I am in the information,communication and technology enabled business and we play with technology everyday but I never experimented with this very simple yet great tool for disseminating information and connecting with others. Not that I was not aware of it, but I somehow did not get down to use it and explore the unending opportunities it can offer to my business. I accept that while I taught others I missed on adopting things myself. But if I see around, I’m not the only one, this is the case with many entrepreneurs and innovators today. It’s been a personal experience many times. I have met many technology entrepreneurs who have technology issues inside their own firms, many website solution providers whose own websites don’t really look the best, many social media marketers who themselves don’t use these mediums effectively, many green entrepreneurs who haven’t really adopted the green way of life and many social entrepreneurs who often tend to forget the social lessons imparted to their clients! Have we become lazy? Or maybe we do not have the time to look at our own activities. Learning the nuances of business is essential for any entrepreneur to succeed and innovation is the
24 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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key to success. The pace of life has become so fast that there is no time to pause and think about doing the right things at the right time within the right framework. “Experimenting with different sounds is great, but when it comes down to it, you’re still playing a guitar” – Daisy Berkowitz I guess we are all so occupied with our daily routines that though we give bundles of advices to others we often tend to forget the latest learning we have added to our kitty. We have kept on playing the same tunes over and over again. Networking is a buzz word today but how many people have you connected with after meeting them
One main reason I find for the same is the dearth of time with everyone to sit back and ponder over their own actions. If you are reading this, it would be my request to think back for 5 minutes the things you have been thinking of experimenting in your own organizations. Give yourself a return on investing your time in this article and take an action you have been thinking for very long. Practice today what you have always preached and haven’t done it yourself. As the saying goes—A leader leads by example. If you think you can’t practice all you preach, maybe you can preach only what you practice, it will probably make you strive to practice more! I am ceratinly trying to practice what I have preached in my DARE
Learning never stops and it indeed was a great learning experience for me. However, the whole episode raised a question in my mind: “Do we practice what we preach?” once? When was the last time you really sat down and thought which training or what tools can really add to the efficiency and output of your employees? Do you remember the last time you sat down with your team to ideate on the goals of the organization? Is your own LinkedIn profile updated? These are very simple questions that you might have asked someone else in a gathering or while mentoring a budding entrepreneur but the point is if you have implemented them all yourself? An article I read recently stated that people will usually depend on third parties to manage their lives and will start Outsourcing Self Control in the new world.
columns. I have to live according to and upto my deepest convictions. I am reminded of the famous Thomas Carlyle saying—Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct. Anurag Batra is real life, first-generation entrepreneur who is Much Below Average (MBA) from the prestigious Management Development Institute, MDI. Anurag is the founder and editor-in-chief of exchange4media group which includes exchange4media.com. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Anurag Batra'. The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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event
e-week
DARE Entrepreneur DARE’s 2nd edition of Entrepreneur Week was successful in answering “How to make India a better place for entrepreneurs?” The 5 day webinar series had eminent speakers who discussed about the various ways to build a supportive environment for Indian entrepreneurs. Here is a brief synopsis
DAY 1
(Jan 10, 2011): The second edition of DARE’s Eweek started with Satish Kataria, MD of Springboard Ventures, giving an insight on how funding should be carried out to make India a better place for entrepreneurs. “Funding is the biggest challenge that every venture faces,” said Satish. He also added that in a survey conducted by The Economic Times - Synovate sometime last year, only about 58 percent of the start-ups received mentoring support, meaning a whopping 42 percent did not have any guidance on how to move beyond ideation. According to Kataria, the existing start-up enablers should come together on one platform and synergize their resources with each other. For instance, incubators can exchange their mentors, and start-up fund houses can share their investment Satish Kataria processes. That way one plus one will make eleven, not two! He said, "To enable MD of Springboard Ventures more and more people to become a part of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem one needs investor education." The ecosystem needs to train them on how to invest, where to invest, etc. SEBI and RBI should come together to review regulations. The government will also have to take a proactive measure; for example, the National Innovation Act has not been passed in the Parliament which gives a lot of benefits to start-ups. Kataria said, "By using the provisions of the Act, the start-up can attract a considerable amount of funding towards itself."
DAY 4
(Jan 13, 2011): MouthShut’s Faisal Farooqui shared his opinion on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Here are a few of those tips: Burn all options: The most important thing that an entrepreneur needs to keep in mind is to not follow his/her ideas half-heartedly. Do not fool yourself. Burn all your options and take the plunge. Exploit your resources: After you have decided to make your move, look around you. In a country like India, you will find no support from anywhere other than home. Your friends and family will have more connections than you can think of. Try expanding through them.
Faisal Farooqui Founder & CEO, MouthShut.com
Anyone can do it: You do not need degrees to make yourself a successful entrepreneur. Most of the entrepreneurs around the world are not as qualified as we think they are. If you study more, you become a professor, not an entrepreneur. All you need to do is spend enough time to scrutinize your business model. Spend wisely: When I started MouthShut, 9/11 happened and I lost a lot of potential investors. I was expecting it. You should prepare yourself for contingencies like these. I did not spend much on marketing. In fact, I invested a lot of money in developing technology, hiring the right programmers, etc., which was crucial to my business. 26 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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Week, January 2011 DAY 3
Sandeep Parekh Founder & CEO, FinSec Advisory Firm
DAY 2
(Jan 11, 2011): Sandeep Parekh spoke on regulations and its impact on businesses. He said he would like the government to regulate the market as opposed to controlling the market. Sandeep said, “A lot less control has to be put in place, and there has to be single window clearances for business. Clearly, there has to be certain regulations as we cannot have pollution or have another Bhopal Gas tragedy, but given those regulatory safeguards, I think Indian entrepreneurs need to be set free. There should be fewer impediments to the availability of capital and technology. Indian entrepreneurs are hungry enough to capture the world, so I hope the regulations don’t come in the way too much.”
(Jan 12, 2011): Professor Rao appreciated and emphasized the growth of first-time entrepreneurs, which has been fueled by advent of organizations, media, platforms, and initiatives like TiE, DARE, ET- Power of Ideas, NEN, DST, etc. He said that the seeds of Prof. Rao, M. Suresh entrepreneurship should be sown Center for Entrepreneurship, SPJIMR in the youth while they are still studying in schools and colleges, although he also stressed on the problem of availability of faculty for teaching entrepreneurship in institutes. Mentioning teaching of entrepreneurship as a phenomenon of last decade, he said that until about 10 years back, not many media platforms were talking about entrepreneurship, startups, and mentoring. He said that there should be formal entrepreneurship centers established to help entrepreneurs with proper ideation, mentoring, and other support available to them. Prof. Rao talked about the issues of funding such plans on part of the government and the priority of institutes in setting up such facilities for entrepreneurs as it requires bandwidth on part of the management who are engaged in running daily operations. The solution to such a situation is Public Private Partnership (PPP). However, this would be successful only if the government declares it a national mission to promote entrepreneurship.
DAY 5
(Jan 14, 2011): “I don’t come from a business family,” is how Vipul Prakash, managing director, Elixir Web Solutions, a leader in recruitment process outsourcing, and who is currently running his 5th, 6th and 7th business, started the session. Defying all myths about how important it is to have the entrepreneurial bug in your gene, he said what is important is the passion, the drive, and networking. All he had achieved so far, he said, was because of his networking. He met various people through various associations and friends who helped him a lot. He is a member of Young Entrepreneurs’ Association, a group of 6000 members all over Vipul Prakash MD, Elixir Web Solutions the world. The members he met through this association have particularly been of help. The association makes groups of 6-7 people from different walks of life. They help each other by advising peer members on their projects and by sharing their own experiences. Recently, when he was planning to set up a business in Nigeria, people from his network helped him overcome various challenges that are involved with starting a business in that country. “It is important to build a network and share both your problems and opportunities,” said Vipul. As a concluding note, he said that building the culture of helping each other is crucial to a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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e-week
E-Week Wall I am highly motivated by the owners of PCTE. I believe they are true entrepreneurs. Their story of being successful entrepreneurs itself is an inspiration for the young people. Their consistent hard work and dedication towards their goal have made a bookmark in the books of business. A very well known institution “PCTE” in Ludhiana is owned by them. It is one of the best business schools in India, and their serious efforts have also been recognized globally. - Amrit Pal Singh
Mentors Available Vadhiya Jayantkumar N. MD, Trio Healthcare Pvt Ltd (Ahmedabad) Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Production and Marketing issues
Vaibhav Tewari CEO, O2S360 – Bangalore Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Ideation, scaling of business, building teams etc.
V.Vijay Anand Sriram Executive Director, RIPE Institute Private Limited Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Business Plan, Project Viability, Innovative Marketing Ideas, Project Management, HR Development & Retention, CRM, RISK Management
Dr. Sunil Gupta
Gurjeet Singh Gulati
Head-IT, Economic Research Unit, Ministry of Steel (New Delhi) Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Information & Communication Technology, Leadership, Management, Motivation
CEO, Netsoft Informatics Pvt Ltd (Chandigarh) Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Ideation, Funding, Implementation for projects related to IT services & Products, Retail, Logistics.
Jayant Tewari Out-Sourced CFO, Out-Sourced CFO & Business Advisory Services (Bangalore) Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Financial Strategy and Implementation for Small & Medium Enterprises, preferably in the Technology space. With over USD 82 Million of Equity Funding experience behind me, I believe I have tremendous value to offer !
Kailash Sharma Managing Director, Four Pillars Communications Pvt. Ltd Total Experience: More than 10 years Willing to mentor in: Projects Management
Wish to become a mentor? Visit http://dare.co.in/eweek/mentor.htm to list yourself as one. Want to contact one of the listed mentors? Send us a detailed email at dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line ‘Seeking Eweek Mentor’
28 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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ENTREPRENEUR WEEK (February Edition)
Beerud Sheth
UR Tata
Rohit Mahajan
SMS Gupshup
CGTMSE
Saviance Technologies
Anant Koppar
Sameer Guglani
K2 Technologies
Morpheus Ventures
Industry Experts Insightful Topics of Discussion How to get free loans? Febcollateral 07 – Feb 11, 2011 Dailybusiness 4:00 pm to 4:45 and pm Build a great Investors Register for free at: www.dare.co.in/eweek Building an IT product company What can you do on Entrepreneurs’ Week? 1. Network With Others. You can connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs between 4pm – 4.45pm (IST) and listen to a prominent entrepreneur who has crossed the Rubicon in a webinar. Visit http://www.dare.co.in/eweek and register today. 2. Show Your Gratitude. In the past couple of decades, a slew of new and fearless entrepreneurs have emerged and have brought a sea-change in our economy, from a slow-paced to a burgeoning one. If you know any of these path-breakers, thank them. And if you are one of them, take the opportunity of thanking all those who have helped you give shape to your dream. 3. Be A Mentor. Do you recall that one person who constantly pushed you to start your first business or helped you bring your first big idea to life? If you do, join us and return the favour. Find an aspiring entrepreneur, who you can mentor through all times, good or bad. Happy entrepreneurs’ week everyone and do spread the word! Visit dare.co.in/eweek to register yourself.
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insight
women entrepreneurship
Creating a culture of enterprising women Defying all hurdles, an increasing number of Indian women are joining the league today
Anjana Vivek
any talented persons take up roles at work where they may not be in a position to be enterprising or creative. Being enterprising involves thinking out of the box, pushing the limits set, looking at issues and problems in a slightly different way, and much more. Children are often appreciated if they score high marks. As adults, those in high profile jobs, drawing a high salary are admired. Only a few entrepreneurs have been able to capture the imagination and respect of society. In fact, in earlier years, being an entrepreneur was associated with many negatives. Today, we do see a significant number of professionals moving away from employment to start their own venture. Entrepreneurship is a good alternate option for women who are looking to get fulfillment in their careers as well as in managing their lives. This is despite the fact that being an entrepreneur is not any less difficult or challenging than being an employee; in fact, it is often more challenging. As increasing number of enterprising women succeed, and society will take note of these role models. Such women will be more visible and asked to share their experiences in juggling multiple roles
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and managing different responsibilities. Articles in magazines and discussions around these topics will also spread the message of enterprise. Programs in educational institutes can create an awareness of the benefits of enterprise to women and to the society. The Harvard Business Review issue of JanuaryFebruary 2011 touches upon this very effectively in an article on Lois Quam, who now runs her own company. At the age of 28, she was a working mother with two big jobs, as she chaired a new health care reform commission in the state of Minnesota, USA. Within a short span of 23 months, she had three babies (including a pair of twins) and took on two high profile jobs. Reading about this enterprising woman is inspiring. Her desire to lead and make a difference, on her terms and conditions, lead her to discover herself and, as she has said, made her a better manager. How did Lois Quam achieve so much, both on the professional front and in her personal life? How do several other women manage to be enterprising in the face of challenges? The impetus for igniting enterprising women can come from the environment and from the woman herself. By looking at role models of successful, enterprising women,
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one can aspire to grow and evolve into a human being who contributes in multiple ways. Women can take cognizance of the fact that the world today is very different from even a couple of decades ago. We need not be limited by what happened in the past, when the world was dominated by the industrial workforce and most jobs were from 9 to 5. Technology is enabling and liberating, particularly for those who want to be enterprising. Meetings can take place through video conferencing, and jobs can be finished late into the night without fear of travel to and from the workplace at odd hours. Being enterprising carries an element of risk and failure; it does not guarantee success. An individual
tem helps. It can give you the confidence to believe in yourself and that can, in turn, be the trigger to help you experiment, and be even more enterprising. So, if you think you are an enterprising woman or want to be more enterprising, take time to reflect and introspect, and to listen to your inner voice. What do you want to do with your life over the next 5 or 10 years? Take life a step at a time, break it up into months, and chalk out an action plan. Create a support system of those who believe in you and care for you. It could be family, friends, or others in your network, such as classmates or other successful women who encourage you to take your own path. Be prepared for failure. As you trip and fall, pick yourself
Entrepreneurship is a good alternate option for women who are seeking fulfillment in their careers as well as in managing their lives needs to be prepared for this. She needs to be aware that she may not achieve as much as someone else who might not have taken the risks nor put in the efforts that she has. The enterprising woman also needs to develop a thick skin. If not, there are many comments, some intentional and some unintentional, which can really demotivate and even hurt feelings. Such comments can be a big drain on one’s mental energy! It is not easy to be enterprising in the face of such negativity. In such situations, having a good support sys-
up, shake off the dust collected when you fell down, and move ahead. Focus on the journey and enjoy the fact that you are in charge. You are making an impact— on yourself, the next generation, the country, and so the world. Anjana Vivek is the founder of VentureBean Consulting and a guest faculty at IIM Bangalore. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Anjana Vivek'. The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
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bio
entrepreneur of the month
J N Agarwal MD, Jaipan Industries
Started way back in 1984 with a production range of 25 mixergrinders and 100 nonstick cookwares, Jaipan Industries under the leadership of J N Agarwal is touted as one of the biggest manufacturers of home appliances and non-stick cookwares today
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Ingredients of Success: Innovation, Growth and Teamwork By Shinjini Ganguli hen and under what circumstances did you start your entrepreneurial journey?
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We have a strong background in manufacturing and marketing home appliances in India. We started with marketing mixer-grinder in Mumbai in 1981. However, in order to cater to the rapidly growing market, we soon started our own brand of mixer-grinder, Jyoti. Having spent a considerable amount of time in the market marketing mixer-grinders I had a cer-
tain edge. I could understand the market requirements and therefore could immediately modify and produce various type of home appliances. I was the ďŹ rst in India to introduce three-jar mixer grinders. At a later stage we introduced our brand Jaipan to have global vision of our brand.
You are competing with giants like Philips, Bajaj, etc., how do you differentiate yourself from them? Our vision is to produce good quality home appli-
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entrepreneur of the month ances at economical rates for our customers belonging to middle and upper middle class. We manufacture a wide range of reasonably priced home appliances like--mixer grinder, JMG, non-stick cookware, Roti maker, pressure cooker, iron, toaster, etc. for all those whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s priority is value for money. That is how we have been able to sustain our brand among giants like Philips and Bajaj in India. However, we are not bound by boundaries, we have a strong market for our products in Middle- East, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and African countries.
What business strategies did you adopt in view of your vision to set up the largest domestic appliances factory in the world and to provide the Indian consumers with the world class domestic appliances? We take part in various overseas exhibitions, seminars, conferences, etc where we try to do two things-
We have also acquired a large factory for manufacturing pressure cookers. Pressure cookers have the highest growth rate in India.
How do you see your company performing over the next financial year? We have set a target of achieving at least 20 per cent growth in the next ďŹ nancial year. To achieve this, we are opening up new territories, appointing new distributors, and formulating various marketing schemes. Also, we are introducing various new products in our kitty. We have tied up with the media for telemarketing of products that are impulse purchases. We have also set up a direct marketing channel to reach the target.
What kind of marketing strategies have you adopted to get an edge over your competitors? Just recently, we have launched a scheme wherein we are giving our dealers and distributors across
Underst Understanding the needs of our consumers con um helps us translate them creating world class appliances to into cre suit their needs - adopt latest technologies and try to learn more about the needs of Indian customers. Understanding the needs of our consumers helps us translate them into creating world class appliances to suit their needs. We are constantly innovating our products to make them world class. We have state of art factories in Silvassa and Mumbai.
What growth initiatives has your company planned in the near future? We are importing two new automatic lines (plants) for our non-stick cookware products. Also, we are planning to set up automatic mixer motor manufacturing plant to cope with the growing demand of the domestic and overseas markets.
India an opportunity to go on an overseas trip. Though it is difficult for such a small appliances market, we are still confident that these marketing schemes will kill the competition.
How do you keep your workforce motivated? The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s workforce is equally responsible for achieving success and growth. We have various incentives for our production teams at various levels to achieve the targets. Also, we promote bright candidates who come up with new techniques to be implemented in factories to cut cost and improve overall efficiency. We have training programs at regular intervals for quality control,
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at one end, and for management, at the other. We have motivational lectures for all levels for beating stress and being healthy. We also have a targetbased incentive scheme for our marketing teams. Promoting the right people at the right time is key to our success.
Why did you decide to expand in the mobile hand set business? What specific plans do you have here? In order to diversify, we decided to expand in the mobile handset business, which is currently growing at an alarming rate in India. We had conducted a market survey for mobile businesses across India, which showed that it is undoubtedly the best business proposition for an entrepreneur considering his options. With the introduction of 3G, we feel that sky is the limit for this business. The rural market is still untapped, and there is a huge potential in there for this technology. And again, the right product at the right price will definitely succeed in the Indian market.
How has the tie-up with Kmart (a chain of discount department stores) helped you? We had supplied a huge quantity of nonstick cookware to Kmart, which was our gateway to the US Market. This has helped us in identifying serious buyers in the US. With Kmart, we had very difficult challenge of competing with global leaders and delivering the best. We also supplied good quantities to Dollar General, One dollar, and various other clients in the US. We understood the requirements that were unique to each customer, unlike in India. This experience gave us a different thrust and boost to our conďŹ dence to be able to produce and supply in a very stringent time frame with the best of quality and quantity. It was a very satisfying experience for us.
Apart from home appliances and consumer durables, and now mobile hand-sets, do you plan to diversify in any other sector? We plan to diversify into various other products, from small appliances to white goods. The transformation is difficult but not impossible. We are studying the market vis-Ă -vis the brand loyalty among our customers. Customer expectation is very important, and to be able to understand and deliver it, is the challenge. White goods is a very big market compared to the small appliances market, and we hope to introduce some very good products, which
again will be value for money for our loyal customers. By this diversiďŹ cation, we will be able to achieve our target growth in a big league.
As a progressive entrepreneur, how important has innovation (in products) been to you? How has it helped you grow? We are constantly innovating our products to suite Indian consumer. We believe, innovation can kill our competitors and give us an edge over our competitors.
How do you ensure customer satisfaction? How much of your workforce have you allocated to after-sales services? We have a strong dealer and distributor lineup across India and have a dedicated workforce for after-sales service across India to cater to the large Indian consumer. Due to a strong after-sales service setup, we are able to satisfy our consumers; so they are loyal to us. We are also holding exhibitions to promote and educate consumers about various new products and also have free demonstration facilities at various places.
Three crucial learnings from your journey so far: Innovation, growth and teamwork are key to our success. I have learned this through my journey. Innovation is truly the key to success in any field. Today my requirements are different from yesterday and will be different again tomorrow, so we have to change ourselves according to the rapidly changing environment around us. This is applicable to business as well. Next is growth. If we do not grow than we will be left behind. Growth is life and stagnancy is dead. So, if we have to live than we have to grow, and only if we grow, we can contribute to our society. Growth is very important for our life, but you cannot grow alone. For achieving success we must work as a team. It is a team that takes us from one level to another and one milestone to another. This is my learning of business, and I still strive to succeed more in my new ventures with these three factors in my mind.
How difficult has it been to build a product company in India? To succeed is an enormous challenge in India. First, we have to create a product, then create a market for it, and then sell the product. Each task in itself is huge. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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i'm new
SMEJoinup
Alchemist to Entrepreneur
Here’s a service provider for the much-ignored SME segment By Shinjini Ganguli oelho did it for me,” avers the newly turned enterpriser. Inspired by the power-packed words tucked in the pages of The Alchemist by the world-renowned Brazilian wordsmith Paulo Coelho and with unflinching support from her spouse, Pooja Kumar decided to quit the misery of 9 to 5 and joined the league of young turks with SMEJoinup— a venture that can possibly revolutionize the SME sector. SMEJoinup is an integrated online platform for owners of small and midsized enterprises with turnover between zero and 250 crores, where they can find solutions to their business needs. It basically aims to create an ecosystem for SMEs and thereby help them in three core areas— procuring funds, creating and expanding market, and outsourcing needs.
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The idea of creating something of value for this ignored segment of entrepreneurs occurred to Pooja during her stint with HSBC Bank. “While working with HSBC Bank and dealing with SMEs, I felt this desire to create something valuable for the community and explore my creativity and passion for the SME segment,” says the über jubilant entrepreneur. Pooja, who is a chartered accountant by qualification, has a total work experience of nine years post CA, where, for about six years, she dealt with the SME sector closely while attending to various roles in the banking sector. It is during this time that she saw an inherent need to formalize a structure to enhance the growth of this segment that employs a substantial number of people in the country. So together with her husband, Vikas Kumar, who brings with
him an equally impressive experience in technology and strategic consulting, she started SMEJoinup with an investment capital of `1 lakh. Though a small amount, it was sufficient to get the portal going, hire some junior-level staff, subscribe to membership of a few chambers, etc. As people started seeing value in their offering, an increasing number of entrepreneurs joined the race. Today, SMEJoinup has 170 SME owners on the platform along with a network of close to 1000 SMEs present offline. Counting on the increased recognition that helped the venture break even in the very second month of its inception, and anticipating a consistent growth trajectory, Pooja is planning to expand her reach to Tier III cities. She is also targeting the international markets. Through a new
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Pooja Kumar Director, SMEJoinup
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SME segment
Rangarajan Sridhar JAFCO Asia
Interesting Concept Member Acquisition will be challenging and will require significant offline customer acquisition efforts including many feet on the street. The SME market is far from homogeneous with significant differences depending on industry cluster, type and size of business. One size fits all approach to customer acquisition will not work.
Revenue Model may need tweaking as service providers will be reluctant to give away 10-30 per cent of their revenue share. A pay per lead approach may be a better way to go.
Trusted Network will be the key. The degree to which the company can create reliable, replicable and scalable processes to screen and guarantee quality of service providers will be critical to whether SME’s keep coming back for more, rather than revert to using the local/offline channels they are more comfortable with. Over time, this may even allow the company to charge members a finder’s fee.
Competition exists, particularly in the gointernational.in business initiative. Its’ not clear how SMEJoinup will differentiate itself from more established B2B companies like IndiaMart and TradeIndia.
Ratings by the Expert
Market attractiveness: Execution complexity: Ability to build a large company: Innovation element:
portal—gointernational.in, which is currently at the launch stage, she aims to bring those SMEs to the fore who are keen on international exposure to expand their business. However, convincing the predominantly orthodox SMEs to join the portal, a platform and its benefits they were oblivious to, wasn’t exactly a cakewalk. From her experience with the SMEs, she knew not only were the SMEs unaware of the advantages of the online space but they preferred their own traditional ways of working. But with extensive counseling and practical exercises, she made them see the power of tools like social networking, online marketing, etc. and the value in attending meetings, conventions, and seminars instead of hiring a marketing professional for a fat package. Another factor that helped SMEJoinup increase the count of its members is the cost-free membership to the owners of SMEs. SMEJoinup does not work on the traditional model of business and customers. “We generate revenue from the service companies we empanel for the visibility and successful referrals provided to them,” says Pooja. Basically it operates on two models— one that involves retainer plus a certain percentage of the revenue for the services extended (mostly related to visibility) to the service company, and second, a share of the revenue earned from every successful referral provided by SMEJoinup. “The revenue sharing percentage ranges anywhere between 10 and 30 per cent depending on the service,” says Pooja. Additionally, it also charges the SMEs for any direct consultancy or services provided to them as per the project undertaken. “In less than four months, SMEJoinup has attained a turnover of close to a lakh,” exults Pooja, who has no entrepreneurial gene in her blood as she comes from a family of lawyers. For someone who had never consciously imagined being an entrepreneur, things seem to be falling in place. We wish her all the best.
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cover story
HOW DO BUSINESS
INCUBATORS HELP YOU
You have a great idea which requires specific equipment and skilled resources. You are convinced about your business model but are not able to muster up enough resources to support the initial run. You have the blue-print of an innovative new technology but require expert help on taking it to the market. Your innovation promises a particular lifestyle revolution but you would rather go for limited market test before jumping head on with your business idea... By Team DARE
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f you read through the lines on the facing page with a smile and think “how familiar they sound,” then you are a prime candidate for an incubation center. Business incubation in India goes back to 1984 when the Department of Science & Technology (DST) set up the first scheme to help entrepreneurs bootstrap their business. Twenty six years later, the business incubation landscape is actually going through a catch-22 situation. They are not seeing enough quality projects to incubate. So the ball is in the budding entrepreneurs’ court. Go submit your proposal to an incubator close to you. We spoke to a wide spectrum of incubation managers and incubated company CEOs to put together a small Do-It-Yourself kit—for those of you looking for a bootstrap plan. We have tried to answer various questions you may have and have attempted to give you a larger picture of the incubation landscape to help you make up your mind. The learning we came away with, is this: India is a prime destination for incubation centers. The Technology Development Board has an interesting program running. There are over 60 incubators sponsored by TDB and another 30 to 40 incubators run privately. Yet, the state of incubators is far from being desirable. Every stake-holder acknowledges this fact and extends hope that there is only one way to go from here—upwards. Yet, it cannot be denied that a winning incubation program is a two-way street. A good incubator requires good projects. If more students and wannabe entrepreneurs bring their plans to an incubation center, it naturally enhances the quality of the ecosystem. On the other hand, government support has to increase, a corporate culture should be brought to the incubation management and a nation-wide ecosystem should be actively nurtured.
I
Who can get into an incubator? The answer to this is a short, ‘Yes’, thankfully. Most of the incubators sponsored by NSTEDB (National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board) are open to everyone and not necessarily to the students of the parent institution alone. There are very few exceptions such as IIT-Bombay which requires at least one member of the founding team to be its student or a faculty member. Once you decide to get into an incubation center the procedure is straight forward. You will be submitting your project proposal to a screening committee. The selection process is stringent. Manohara Pai, in-charge, MUTBI & Associate Director-Innovation Centre, MIT, Manipal says, “We look at promoter’s credibility and future potential while selecting a project to incubate.” According to Prof. Mrutyunjay Suar, Director, KIIT School for Biotechnology, the success rate of applicants is roughly 10 per cent. “I have learned that a lot of people come here with the sole intent of getting money,” says Prof. Suar . The evaluation committee picks out only those who genuinely need help from the incubator’s ecosystem. If all goes well you should be operational within months with ready office space and connectivity. Since most incubators operate out of educational institutions, theoretically at least there should be no dearth of skilled manpower. Once inside an incubation center, your next stop should be to look “to graduate.” To do so means, you have been funded by a venture capital or you have struck a self-sustaining commercial deal and you move out to set up your own shop. Typically, incubated companies take three-four years for graduation.
What does an incubator do? An incubator provides infrastructural, technical and
How does an incubator help start-ups? An incubator provides mentoring and business advisory services to a start-up and networks it with businesses, thereby reducing the chances of failure and speeding up growth. Incubators provide the following services: • Infrastructure and connectivity • Financial support • Access to technology, mentors and advisory services • Networking with potential investors, partners, clients and employees • Mentoring Sushanto Mitra CEO, Society for Innovation and • Networking and experience sharing with other start-ups and entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship (SINE-Incuator), • Branding and credibility. IIT Bombay
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cover story business mentorship to start ups. If your start-up is essentially technology intensive or requires a process management rigour as its USP then an incubator which has access to such unique skill sets is perfect. Comcubator’s Roshan Kumar says, “An incubator offers, among other things, a mentorship network, access to investors, quality infrastructure and above all a vibrant ecosystem.” Not all start-ups are incubator-friendly. Dr. Jitendra Kumar, Vice President, Life Science Incubator, IKP Knowledge Park puts it succinctly, “Incubators like innovative product or service companies that could make a difference to large, underserved populations.” An incubator typically is headed by a manager at the vice-president level and is assisted by people with
Murthy or Mark Zuckerberg? While this sums up the inherent expectations and a slightly upside-down world-view. However, this question requires to be answered so that we put it away permanently. Tenet’s (IIT-Madras) Vijay Anand, hits the nail on its head when he says, “The outcome of an incubator is an enterprise, not necessarily an entrepreneur.” Anand goes on to list substantial exits (graduations) and success stories from incubators: SMSGupshup, Seclore from SINE (IIT-Mumbai), Desicrew, ROPE, Uniphore from RTBI, Gridbots from IIM-A and the list goes on. “It has taken Infosys about 25 years to get to where it is and for N.R. Narayanamurthy to get his credits. Our own Narayanamurthy might yet be in the making,” says Anand.
How important is the role of an incubator in promoting entrepreneurship? An incubator can play an extremely vital role in promoting entrepreneurship. There are three levels at which an incubator should operate: Fundamental Level: An incubator should engage in changing the mindsets of the youth, especially young students, while they are still in college. It is extremely important to make a shift from the job seeking mindset to the value creating mindset and the incubator must enable this shift to create a sustainable framework. Operational Level: An incubator must provide start-up assistance (infrastructural, legal and business mentoring, to name a few).
Tarun Mishra Director, Covacsis Technologies Incubatee@ IIT Bombay
Policy Development: This is something that is becoming increasingly important for the country. There are hardly any government policies that support start-up companies. For example, the government should have discounted or subsidized infrastructure facilities for technology start-ups. Tax exemption policies would also be extremely welcome.
the skills required to nurture new-born companies. It is supported by academic or scientific institutions and is funded by the government or a private sponsor until it is strong enough to run on its own.
But they don’t support my domain! So the common refrain is: None of the incubators in the country support my domain. Well, the diversity of incubators in India is something which is not matched by many countries. We have specific incubators for agri-based technologies, biotechnology and nano-technology, energy and power electronics. (See listing at the end of this story).
What is the focus of an incubator? The frequently asked question is: Why incubators in India have not been able to produce a Narayana
Why aren’t there enough companies being incubated? There appears to be a serious deficit of good incubatable projects. For instance, Dr Vinay Panda who is building a bio-informatics laboratory from scratch at the Strand-Gwenyth Labs in Bangalore talks of a total lack of concern for tooling and instrumentation in India. This may come as a surprise to those who still believe India to be a tinkerer’s heaven. “We really do not make even the simplest of the instruments in India anymore,” says Dr Panda. “We wanted a shaker for our lab which is made of a simple motor and we had to import them. What was available was of very poor quality which could not be used,” said he. Dr Panda is not alone in airing such views. Prof Suar says, “There are actually not many startups that are doing anything innovative in technology.”
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How do you think incubators are performing in the country today? I think the government is very proactive about supporting incubators but things are not moving fast enough to assist them. Our incubator has been faring well because of the support we got from the NSTEDB. In my opinion, if the government recognizes something as an incubation center, they should at least provide seed funds to them. Without giving them support if you ask how many got graduated, you’ll probably not find a good number, because of lack of quick support. In my case, I know where to get money, where to get support, it is has been an individual effort. But there should be institutional or government effort. There should be a mechanism in the Government which provides at least seed fund of 1 crore to each incubation center and then question performance.
Let’s take a look at the benchmark of innovations in Indian technology landscape: The TR 35 (Technology Review India) list of young entrepreneurs under 35 years. In 2010, the editors of Technology Review India shortlisted 20 innovations from hundreds of nominations. Out of these 20, six innovations were from MNCs. And 13 of these 20 were from ICT domain. Innovation in India is still largely led by multinationals and it has more than a fair share in the ICT domain. What about the hundreds of business plans one receives during contests? “You will be surprised to note that only 5-10 per cent of them are worth considering.” Has this got anything to do with the bad showing by incubators in India? “Yes,” says Prof Suar. “The answer to why we receive so less number of entries at our incubator lies in the fact that many of the startups are me-too, some are just not feasible, while some may not make sense at all with respect to financial modeling.”
What is wrong with our incubator program? From the administration point of view, we need to fix our Business Incubator program. The good intentions of the Technology Development Board notwithstanding, the progress made by the various academic
Mrutyunjay Suar Director, KIIT School for Biotechnology Incubator: KIITCIE
incubation programs are inadequate and unjustifiable for a country which has over one fourth of a billion people who virtually peg their future on the advent of technology and its applications. In major Indian cities and 200 odd economically active towns, we see people yearning for progress and look up to academic and public funded institutions (including CSIR and defense research labs) to give them the power to gain competitive advantage. We are just not measuring up. The reasons are manifold. Dr Panda sums it up well when he says, “The divide between industry and academia in India is pre-historic.” Dr Panda’s cryptic opinion is unravelled by what Sushanto Mitra of SINE, IIT-Bombay has to say about the problem in our incubators. “It is very important for incubator managers to have some business experience for them to guide the startups on their entrepreneurial venture.” But since the managers of the incubators are generally academicians with no or little hands on knowledge in business, startups are unable to get complete direction. Anand brings up two vital issues: One is of close relationship with educational institutions and the other about territoriality. “The biggest weakness of incubators in India is that they are all tied-up with some or the other educational institutions. As a result,
What is lacking in Indian incubators? Incubators are still a new concept in India as compared to the First World countries. So, the process and time required to get funds is slower than the benchmark.
What changes or modifications do you recommend for Indian incubators? Incubators need to provide seed funding and consistent mentoring to their incubatees. The intention should be to help the incubatees complete the prototype stage and reach the level where their business plan complements user feedback and market response during pilot testing.
Pankaj Sehjowalia
Founder & CEO, Lotusutra Incubatee@ National Design Business Incubator
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cover story How much can an incubator help an aspiring entrepreneur? An incubator can be a great place for entrepreneurs, especially for those who are in the initial stages of their ventures, anywhere from conceptualization to early stage operations. The incubator acts as a handholding guide, mentor and support system and acts as a shield from the outside world so that the entrepreneur can learn to stand up on his own much more smoothly and swiftly. An incubator offers, among other things, a mentorship network, access to investors, quality infrastructure and, above all, a vibrant ecosystem, all or any of which may not be accessible to those outside. These go a long way in the maturing of both ideas and the entrepreneurs themselves, which helps them grow in their respective businesses.
What are the conditions that make an enterprise eligible to be incubated?
Roshan Kumar
Manager, Comcubator (Incubator), Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)
The idea should be exciting, innovative and implementable. More importantly, the person or team behind the idea should have the right skills and capability to learn, develop and weather the storms that will inevitably come their way. Ideally, the enterprise should have shown some proof of concept. That shows the seriousness of the entrepreneur(s) and also helps to decode what is needed for success more effectively. However, this is not compulsory; we also take absolutely new ideas if we see the potential.
Why should incubators be promoted in India? Incubators can go a long way in creating an ecosystem in India, which is lacking in a big way. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is what has made Silicon Valley what it is today. Incubators bring about the belief that there are people to help you, people who believe in you, and that there is a system that you can fall back on for help in times of crisis. At the outset, incubators help a lot of budding entrepreneurs firm up their courage to start up, which they may have been reluctant to do otherwise out of fear of failure or lack of support. Hence, incubators should be promoted in India.
the ones tied-up with B-schools are way too management oriented and the ones with tech-schools are extremely technology driven.” Tarun Mitra, CEO, Covacsis, incubated in SINE, IIT-Bombay, lists out the changes he wants to see in the way we run our incubators a) Incubators should run professionally with enough resources available (however, they should be a non-profit making entities) b) Incubators should have representation in government to devise conducive policy for startups c) Incubators should not only be limited to educational institutes Bureaucracy and lack of funds is an issue most incubators see as a roadblock. Dr Venkata Ramana, Professor and Dean of School of Management Studies, Univeristy of Hyderabad says, “The missing link is that they (incubatees) have to pass through many levels of approvals and suffer at the hands of the bureaucracy.” And Prof Suar says, “If you recognize something as an incubation center, it should be given at least seed funds.” What is ironical is that the NSTEDB began offering grants to incubators for seed funding as far back as 2004. Yet the word does not seem to have gone around. HK Mittal, Secretary, Technology Develop-
ment Board says, “Most of the incubators have a kitty of `3 crores of rupees and the limit is `50 lakhs.” But Mittal admits that what NSTEDB and TDB is set out to achieve has not been widely publicized.
The New Ecosystem The government and the industry have realized that business incubation is the way to go. The University Grants Commission has a program to set up Entrepreneurship-Cell (E-Cell) in engineering colleges across the country. The government through its communication services through PSU, BSNL, is planning to provide high-bandwidth internet connectivity to all colleges which have set up an E-Cell. Venture capitalists and angel investor networks such as Indian Angel Investors and Mumbai Angels make regular rounds of various incubators scouting good investment opportunities. In a survey conducted by Cybermedia on behalf of NSTEDB, it was found that over 30 per cent of the NSTEDB incubators were doing well. NSTEDB is now readying to take its program deeper into the country. If you have a great idea and want help, it appears that this is the best time you could have. Consider getting incubated.
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Prominent Incubators in India IKP Knowledge Park-Life Science Incubator (Secunderabad- AP) www.ikpknowledgepark.com
Thrust Area: Life Sciences
Contact: Ms. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, CEO Email: deepanwita@ikpknowledgepark.com
Agri Business Incubator, ICRISAT ( Patancheru- AP) www.agri-sciencepark.icrisat.org
Thrust Area: Agri Business
Contact: Dr. K. K. Sharma, Principal Scientist & Head Email: k.sharma@cgiar.org
TBI - University of Hyderabad (Hyderabad) www.uohyd.ernet.in
Thrust Area: Pharma Biotechnology, Renewable Energy and IT
Contact: Prof. V. Venkata Ramana, Coordinator Email: vvrms@uohyd.ernet.in
Indian Angel Network (New Delhi) www.IndianAngelNetwork.com/incubator
Thrust Area: IT, ITES, Internet/Web, Telecom, Mobile VAS, Education & Healthcare Technologies
Contact: Padmaja Ruparel, President Email: padmaja@indianangelnetwork.com
National Design Business Incubator (Ahmedabad) www.ndbiindia.org/
Thrust Area: Industrial Design, Design Consultancy, and Design Promotion
Contact: Mr. Mahesh Krovvidi, CEO Email: ndbi@nid.edu
Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship ( IIM Ahmedabad) www.ciieindia.org
Thrust Area: Market oriented products/ technologies
Contact: Mr. Kunal Upadhyay, CEO Email: kunal@iimahd.ernet.in
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Dairying (NDRI- Karnal, Haryana) www.ndritbi.com
Thrust Area: Dairy technology
Contact: Sudhakar Sharma, MD Email: sudhakardamodar@gmail.com
Composites Technology Park (Bangalore) www.compositestechnologypark.com
Thrust Area: Composites based on Coir, bamboo, jute
Contact: Dr. R. Gopalan, ED Email: drgopalan2003@yahoo.com
E health – TBI ( PES School of Engg . Tech Park, Bangalore) www. ehealthtbi.com
Thrust Area: Bio-pharma, Medical Devices and Healthcare
Contact: Prof. Shivaram Malavalli, CMD Email: shivaram.malavalli@gmail.com
National Institute of Technology, Calicut nitc.ac.in/nitc/misc/tbi/
Thrust Area: Information Technology and electronics
Contact: Ms. Preethi M., Manager TBI Email: tbi@nitc.ac.in , preethi@nitc.ac.in
Technopark TBI (Trivandrum) www.technopark.org
Thrust Area: IT and Bioinformatics
Contact: Mr. Marvin Alexander, CEO Email: marvin@technopark.org
Amrita TBI (Kollam, Kerala) www.amritatbi.com
Thrust Area: e-learning, IT and innovative tech.
Contact: Dr. Krishna Shree, CEO Email: Krishna@amrita.edu
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship(SINE) (IIT Bombay) www.sineiitb.org
Thrust Area: Innovative technologies across all sectors
Contact: Mr. Sushanto MitraCEO Email: sushanto.mitra@sineiitb.org
MITCON Biotechnology Business Incubation Centre (Shivajinagar, Pune) mitconindia.com/
Thrust Area: Agri Biotechnology
Contact: Dr. Pradeep Bavadekar, MD
Venture Center, National Chemical Laboratory (Pune) www.venturecentre.co.in
Thrust Area: Material Science Centric Products, Biotech, Chemical Sciences
Contact: Dr. V. Premnath, Director Email: director@venturecenter.co.in
KIIT - Technology Business Incubator (Patia, Bhubaneswar) www. kiitincubator.in/
Thrust Area: Biotechnology & ICT
Contact: Dr. Mrutyunjay Suar, CEO Email: msbiotek@yahoo.com
TBI - Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) (Pilani, Rajasthan) www.discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/tbi/
Thrust Area: ICT
Contact: Prof. Arya Kumar, Co-ordinator , Email: aryakumar@bits-pilani.ac.in
TBI - Kongu Engineering College (Perundurai- Tamil Nadu) www. www.tbi-kec.org
Thrust Area: Digital Signal Processing, embedded systems, Electronic PCB
Contact: Prof. S. Balamurugan, ED Email: tbi-kec@kongu.ac.in
VIT University - Technology Business Incubator (Vellore- Tamil Nadu) www.vittbi.com/
Thrust Area: Automotive Engg., Biotechnology and Leather products.
Contact: Sh. Balachandran, General Manager Email: vittbi@vit.ac.in
Technology Business Incubator - Centre for Biotechnology (Anna University, Chennai) www.annauniv.edu
Thrust Area: Biotechnology
Contact: Dr. S. Meenakshisundaram, Business Manager Email: meenakshi@annauniv.edu
University of Madras – TBI (Chepauk, Chennai) www.unom.ac.in/taramanitbi.html
Thrust Area: Health related Herbal and Biotech industries
Contact: Dr. G. Gangi Reddy, MD Email: tbi_unom@yahoo.com
IIT-M’s Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI) (Tharamani, Chennai) www.rtbi.in
Thrust Area: Technology-Enabled Enterprises for Rural and Emerging Markets.
Contact: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Chairman RTBI Email: rtbioffice@tenet.res.in
BIT-TBI, Sathyamangalam (Erode, Tamil Nadu) www.bittbi.com
Thrust Area: Agri-Biotech
Contact: Dr.K.Balakrishnan, Principal Scientific Officer Email: tbibit@rediffmail.com
Periyar Maniammai University – TBI (Thanjavur, TN) www.periyartbi.org
Thrust Area: Herbal health products, medicinal plants
Contact: Ms. A.P. Aruna, CEO Email: ap_aruna@yahoo.co.in
Information Technology Business Incubator (ITBI ), JSSATE-STEP (Noida , UP) www.jssstepnoida.org/incubator.as
Thrust Area: Innovative products and services enabled
Contact: Dr. R. Raghunanadan, CEO Email: ce@jssstepnoida.org
Amity Technology Incubator (Amity University, Noida , UP) www.amity.edu/aii
Thrust Area: ICT
Contact: Mr. Aseem Chauhan, CEO
TBI - Krishnapath Incubation Society (KIET- Ghaziabad, UP) www. tbikiet.com
Thrust Area: Information Technology, Electronics and Mechanical Engineering
Contact: Dr. Ajay Sharma, Chairman - TBI Email: tbi@kiet.edu (This is not an exhaustive list) DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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ecosystem
cover story
Making capital of seed money With its successful seed capital scheme the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board has kicked many snoozy incubators to vibrant life. Find out how this is spurring enterprise
What was the objective of constituting The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board? It was founded in 1982 with the idea of promoting technology-oriented knowledge-based enterprises for science and technology graduates. Back then we were still a closed economy and the ecosystem for high-tech ventures was not all that exciting. So, the board was born a little ahead of its time.
So do you think it has met its primary objective? How about its growth path? Initially we struggled. People wanted to get inside the protected environment of incubators and Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks just to avoid the inspector raj. We promoted 16 Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEP). Over a period of 15 years, six of the 16 parks did very well. As for the rest, six proved to be average performers and the other four were
ďŹ&#x201A;ops. The parks were doing everything other than promoting entrepreneurship like running MBA programmes and computer classes to keep themselves alive.
What led to the expansion of incubators and parks? The new decade dawned with the liberalization of the economy and by then we too had gained substantial knowledge about promoting incubators and parks. In 2000, coinciding with the dotcom boom, we started with our incubator program. Today we have 60+ incubators and STEPS located in institutions of excellence, almost all old IITs, some of the IIMs, National Institutes of Technology, some private engineering colleges and few research labs like NCL, Pune.
How did the concept of infrastructure parks evolve? Infrastructure parks made an entry after we no-
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H K Mittal
ticed that young engineers who were working with big names like TCS, and Wipro wanted more than a secure career. They had several creative ideas but no outlet. So, we thought of starting incubators for them. We have supported two of them, Technopark in Trivandrum and the ICICI Knowledge Park in Hyderabad. The former is incubating 20 start-ups and has turned out to be one of our most successful projects. They have good networking with the local support system and surprisingly today, Kerala is leading in terms of innovators. To spur entrepreneurship, NSTEDB took the unprecedented step of providing seed capital to startups. Tell us about it. Until sometime back all entrepreneurs were dependent on external ďŹ nance even for the initial amount of `5 to 10 lakhs. To change this we started a seed support system in 2004 under which we placed about a crore of rupees with incubators as a grant from NSTEDB. The incubators were thereby em-
Photo: Anil John
Adviser, Member Secretary, National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Secretary, Technology Development Board (TDB)
powered to disperse the money as an investment, by way of soft loans, term loans and equity participation. etc.
Are you happy with the results? Do you think that you have been able to strike a balance between giving opportunities and ensuring that the support is sustainable? The results are encouraging. The foothold in the incubator has increased. Earlier, despite providing a platform and all the requisite guidance, we failed to get any traction as startups wanted tangible beneďŹ ts. But with the seed fund schemes in place, we have witnessed increase in enrollment. The increased participation in fact encouraged us to raise the grant amount with the incubators. And we followed up the existing scheme with lot of schemes worth `2 crores. So, now most of the incubators have a kitty of `3 crores of rupees and the limit is `50 lakhs. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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tech corner
technologies
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning for Enterprises Being ready for a potential disaster is not something new for organizations, but the domain of standard threats has grown beyond natural calamities. We deep dive into why DR BCP solutions are all the more vital today, key points for and beyond strategizing and solutions at offer By Gurjot S. Sachdeva ccording to a very recent survey of mid to large Indian enterprises on tech challenges and opportunities by us, we found that DR and BCP was on top of the deployment chart for most midsized enterprises. This is a clear indication that even mid-sized enterprises are extremely sensitive about protecting their information so that their business doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come to a stand still. They possibly understand the implications of application downtime for their business. The terms DR and BCP come together as the former is just a subset of the other. It is just not enough to recover from disaster, but also to swiftly make your organization get back into business. However, one point of differentiation between the two terms is that while the former comprises of a technology strategy, the latter entails more of a business plan.
A
Why you should consider DR and BCP? Until recently, there have been just two reasons for
having a DR and BCP strategy in place. One, readiness during natural calamities and two, human interventions. A third reason that has been observed more recently is the constant exposure to security breaches and attacks. In a recent DR survey done by Symantec, the most important factor driving the need for DR adoption is virtual or physical security breaches. There is a constant fear of losing critical data among enterprises. Computer system failures, virus attacks, changes in technology infrastructure, pressure from customers and competitors and compliance factors are some other prominent reasons why most enterprises are looking for DR solutions and BCP strategies. In India, as for the rest of the world, virtualization is a key reason thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enforcing a majority of mid-sized enterprises to reconsider their existing DR plan. This can be clearly attributed to the challenges that a virtual environment poses because processes that apply to physical environments may not necessarily be ap-
It is estimat estimated that most large companies spend between 2% and 4% of their IT budget on disaster recovery planning, with the aim of larger losses in the event that the business cannot continue avoiding la function due to loss of IT infrastructure and data. Of companies to functio that had a major loss of business data, 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years, and only 6% will survive long-term 50 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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plicable to virtual environments. Though imagining a disaster in a completely up and running business environment in normal day-to-day life is difficult but the factors stated above can anytime become a major concern for IT management heads and CIOs. So, it is of utmost importance to have a DR solution and BCP strategy in place.
DR BCP Strategy and DR System Tests We have been covering DR and BCP strategies that enterprises should formulate and what are the best practices to formulate these strategies. A quick recapitulation for the uninitiated - a DR plan has to revolve around four basic pillars of - Data, Equipment, Alternate site locations and People. These factors have to amalgamate well with an organization’s business continuity plan comprising of some key metrics of recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO). As per one of the surveys by Symantec India, 22% of Indian enterprises conduct full scenario DR tests only once a year or less because of perceived fear of business disruption and lack of resources to conduct tests. Reasons cited include: lack of staff availability (56%), disruption to employees (58%), budgetary issues (44%) and disruption to customers (46%). In addition, 32% admit DR testing could affect sales and revenue Besides, planning and implementation, another very important aspect of the DR-BCP plan is the time-to-time testing of the efficiency of the DR solution in place. What is the benefit of deploying the best DR solution if it does not stand up to expectations at the time of disaster just because of lack of regular test drills checking the efficiency of the solution?
Sanovi Disaster Recovery Management Suite Considering the fact that DR and BCP planning is on top of the minds of a majority of IT decision makers, we review some of the latest DR suites available in the market today - Sanovi Disaster Recovery Management Suite. Sanovi DR is a management software for system applications and databases that helps in DR infrastructure monitoring, testing and automated recovery of business applications to meet service level objectives. Built on a standards-based platform that leverages your existing database replication and storage subsys-
tem replication solutions, it offers real-time monitoring, testing, reporting,events, policies and automated recovery features needed for end-to-end visibility and confidence in your DR infrastructure. Sanovi DRM overlays on top of existing recovery systems and interfaces with recovery components. SANOVI DRM FILE REPLICATION METHOD Sanovi DRM uses its replication software called Panaces File Replicator (PFR) which comes embedded with the DRM software. Since PFR runs as a service on the OS, we need to start the Panaces File Replicator Services from the Window Services. The replicator allows an administrator to distribute content and data across servers and different platforms across different locations (Image 1).The process is called Normal Copy Execution which is a recurring process and terminates during the time of disaster.
1 WHY SANOVI DRM SUITE? The entire basis of the Sanovi DRM revolves around two main objectives: RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective). RPO is an acceptable amount of data loss from the last good backup prior to the point of failure while RTO is the time taken for the business to be back online after a disaster i.e. the time taken to get back to Business Continuity. Both these parameters are set by the solution provider as per the demand of the client and the criticality of application. Thus, it makes a lot of sense for enterprises to pay just exactly for the desired configuration, policy-based corrective responses and the desired level of criticality of objectives than to go for one standardized fixed price DRM suite. As discussed earlier in the article, time-to-time testing of a DR and BCP solution is as important as choosing a DR solution. Sanovi DRM suite offers ease of performance of operations of ‘switchback’ and ‘switchover’ that are actually test drills to put DR site in active mode and PR site in standby and vice versa, respectively. This is possible at a click of a button in the application UI. A similar feature is available for making DR active in case of an actual disaster. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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tech corner
technologies 22% of Indi Indian enterprises conduct full scenario DR tests only once onc e a year yea or less because of perceived fear of business disruption and lack of resources to conduct tests. Reasons dis tion a cited include: lack of staff availability (56%), disruption to cit d inclu employees (58%), budgetary issues (44%), and disruption l to customers (46%). In addition, 32% admit DR testing could affect sales and revenue The dashboard view of the application UI offers a complete one shot overview of the entire network, hardware components and application processes that can get effected during a disaster. This enables real time monitoring of your organization’s complete IT health. Anytime downtime in any of the components is alerted and maintained real time as event logs in the application. HOW WE TESTED? We created a typical disaster recovery management environment, where we have a primary database (PR site) and a physical standby database (DR site) which becomes active in the event of a disaster. The two sites share a common network. The test bed comprised of 3 machines on our labs network: Machine 1 (Sanovi DRM Server Site), Machine 2 (Production Site) and Machine 3 (DR Site). Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition was installed on machine 2 and machine 3. Oracle 9i database was installed on both machines. On machine 2, the Oracle database was in Read/ Write mode by default. On the other, it was configured on Standby mode. Machine 1 was a Dell R810 server with 750 GB (5x150GB) HDD of which 2 HDD were configured in RAID 1, which was a prerequisite for the installation of Sanovi DRM Server. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 was installed on this machine followed by Sanovi DRM Server installation. Sanovi Agents were installed on the PR and DR machines which can be used to monitor, troubleshoot and perform actions likes switchover (test drill to make DR site active), switchback (an action to roll back ‘switchover’ action making PR site active again), failover (action to make DR site active in a real-time disaster scenario), etc. We created two sites Delhi (PR) and Haryana (DR) on machine 2 and machine 3 respectively. The creation of sites, detecting network components, OS, etc can be done by logging on to the Web-based Sanovi DRM client at: http://:8080/PanacesGUI/
Next we opened the ‘Discovery’ tab to set up our network, and performed the following tests on the Sanovi DRM software: TEST 1: MONITORING/ TROUBLESHOOTING TEST To test whether the environment has been configured properly, we performed 2 monitoring/ troubleshooting tests. First, we stopped the listener services of Oracle (Image2).
2 The Relationship tab in Monitor window of the Sanovi DRM client showed status of DR site to be ‘inactive’ (Image3). The status refers to the non-working condition of site.
3 Then, we stopped DR Panaces Server from Windows Services. The status became ‘Unknown’ (Image 4). This status is displayed when any of the Sanovi services are down.
4
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TEST 2: SWITCHBACK/SWITCHOVER We tested features of switchback/switchover which are test drills that an enterprise can perform from time to time to check the DRM solution working in place. To launch switchover, we opened ‘Test’ tab of the Sanovi DRM Client, and selected ‘Test List View’ and clicked on ‘Start Test’ against ‘Switchover’ (Image 5). The Normal Copy execution has to be manually stopped before this drill. A workflow got activated (visible in ‘Workflows Action’ tab) which ended by making DR site active changing its status from standby to read/write mode. During this process, archive logs and redo logs from the DR site get populated to those of the PR site.
7 The Normal Copy execution was terminated manually and to make DR server active, the ‘Initiate Failover’ was launched in the Manage tab (Image 8).
8 The process runs a workflow (Image 9) which finally makes the DR site active and the database gets into Read/ Write mode to accept new records in the database.
5 ‘Switchback’ operation can be similarly launched and it reverts the above action (Image 6).
9
6 TEST 3: MAKING DR SERVER ACTIVE BY MAKING PR SERVER UNAVAILABLE To test the DRM solution, under a real time disaster scenario, we disabled the network card of the PR site, in a way,making the production server unavailable. DRM client ‘Monitor’ tab displayed ‘Inactive’ status. In the event log, the issue with time-stamp and severity got registered and the status of the functional group changed to ‘Degraded’ (Image 7).
SANOVI DRM AT WHAT COST? Sanovi DRM Enterprise edition is available in the following license packages options: Sanovi DRM Recovery Monitor and Manager, Sanovi DRM Drill Manager and Sanovi DRM Advanced Reporter. Pricing of the enterprise edition is based on the number of servers, number of database instances and number of storage based replication instances. Customization of Sanovi DRM to meet customer business needs is offered on a time & material basis. Sanovi also offers an Easy DR package where customers with less than 3 applications can deploy a complete DR solution that offers monitoring of RPO, automation of failover recovery and includes Sanovi’s replication software for under `5 lakhs. Go ahead to make your enterprise disaster proof and BCP ready! The content for this article is sourced from PCQuest Visit their website: www.pcquest.com
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insight
communication
The Eyes Have It Don’t undermine the power of nonverbal communication while dealing with your customer, investor, or business partner
Vimarsh Bajpai
great product or a service is not worth a dime if you fail to communicate its benefits to your target customers. Similarly, a groundbreaking business idea would only fetch a zilch if you were to sit on it without talking about it to probable investors. The role of impressive communication in running a successful business has been stressed time and again. Peter Drucker, the renowned management guru, once said that 60% of management problems in any organization are a result of poor communication. A recent survey of over 2,000 top executives and senior managers, conducted by US-based NFI Research, found that 94 percent of the participants considered “communicating well” as the key skill to succeed in business today. Communication plays a critical role in both professional and personal conduct that involves dealing with
A
people who could be friends and family, business associates, customers, employees, and investors. For any business, communication is internal, external, and interpersonal. Much of it is written and verbal communication with exchange of emails, newsletters, presentations, reports followed or preceded by meetings, conference calls, and one-on-one discussions. However, with all the effort we put into choosing the right words and framing the right sentences, we tend to lose out on another key component of communication, which is nonverbal. The body never lies. It says what words cannot. Therefore, how you move your hands and shoulders while making a presentation and how your facial expressions change during a business meeting can have a lasting impact, greater than the content of your slides and speech.
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Here are a few points you might want to focus on: Perception: It is explained by our own behavior as consumers of a variety of products. Walk down a store in search of a detergent, and what you pull out of the shelf shows what you “perceive” about that product. The very fact that you prefer one washing powder over the other is a result of your perception about that product as a consumer. Similarly, to sell your product or service as an entrepreneur, you need to work on this aspect quite hard. You’ve got to be clear in your mind as to how you want your customers and employees to perceive you and your organization. Then, work on it using various channels of communication. Seek constant feedback to find out how far you have succeeded in creating
requires getting over the fear of public speaking. You might have penned great ideas but you ought to stand in front of a group and share it out loud. Practice is the key here, and the more you do it, the better. Facial Expressions: While everybody loves a pleasant face, there is no reason why one should have a grin when making a presentation. If you are out there to sell, a tired and bored look is a big negative. Facial expressions show whether you are really interested in dealing with the person across the table or just whiling away time. Try and make sense of what your customer is saying. If he is getting bored, politely end the meeting and seek a
With all the effort we put into choosing the right words and framing the right sentences, we tend to lose out on another key component of communication, which is nonverbal. The body never lies. It says what words cannot the right perception. It begins with the way you design your visiting card, your website, and your logo. Social media is a wonderful vehicle through which you can communicate with your customers and create a lasting brand identity. Body Language: It could be hard to believe, but your eyes can both listen and speak, and this happens more often while you are making a presentation or listening to someone. Shying away from making eye contact can cost you dearly and so does putting your hands in your pocket while strolling across the hall. A loose handshake conveys you are not so confident, and crossing your hands close to your chest shows you are defensive. So, the right body language is an important part of nonverbal communication. Much of it
fresh appointment, instead of forcing a load of information in vain. Voice: Shouting over the rooftop will not get you customers; however, a polite presentation would. You can lose valuable employees by howling at them during team meetings and making enemies at workplace. Raising your pitch to make a point and be heard is a bad idea, unless you are sure that your listener has a hearing problem. Modulating your voice does require some practice. Vimarsh Bajpai is a content and communications consultant. As the founder of Samvad Sutra, he works with organizations and individuals to help them communicate better. Interact with him on Twitter @vimarshbajpai. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Vimarsh Bajpai'. The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
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green
green venture
Buy Green, Buy Well Going green the digital way? Aparna Bhatnagar saw this as an opportunity for her online retail business when she started the Green and Good Store. The entrepreneur says responsible consumerism is the need of the hour, especially in a country like India By Shradha Mohanty
Aparna Bhatnagar
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reen sells in the huge marketplace that is the world today, and few marketers have leveraged this fad as successfully as Aparna Bhatnagar of the Green and Good Store. Aparna started the online retail store in September 2009 with a focus on using consumerism to bring about environmental change, which is closely linked to a number of other factors. “You have to look at the entire picture of sustainability: environment, social and economical empowerment, poverty, traditional knowledge – all these issues are very closely linked,” explains Aparna. Quite a number of the store’s products are sourced from NGOs and other green and social oriented businesses. In fact, the Green and Good Store works with more than 25 artisan and NGO groups, retailing products made by arti-
G
sans from all over India. These range from apparel and home furnishings to stationery and jewellery. Sadhna, an NGO based in Udaipur, which works with tribal women, sells its apparel through the store. Ahimsa silk products form part of the store’s collection, as do cruelty free leather products from Artisans Alliance of Jawaja. “The most popular products are organic cotton maternity wear. Ahimsa silk stoles sell very well. Candles made of beeswax and natural extracts are seasonal and sell well during festivals like Diwali,” says Aparna. Indeed, the Green and Good Store is taking the initiative to make festivals more eco-friendly. It retails Holi colours made by an organization called the AvakayamCHECK Cooperative, which works with young people with intellectual disabilities. These young
people make colours from the flowers they collect from temples and hotels in Delhi, which would otherwise have ended up in the River Yamuna and polluted it. “So, when people buy these natural colours, they buy absolutely healthy colours for themselves, prevent the Yamuna from getting polluted, and also bring employment to people with intellectual disabilities, who find it really difficult to find jobs. These people get to be part of society and financially independent, too,” explains Aparna. In addition, her store sells Rakhi CHECK thalis from Umang, an NGO in Jaipur, which also works with people with intellectual disabilities. The thalis are made of cane and handmade paper. Aparna says they have more initiatives coming up to make festivals green.
How are they different? • Not many players have focused on utilizing the online space. • Most only focus on one aspect of sustainability. • There are a range of products from which to choose. • They also spread awareness about their partners.
Challenge “This concept is not very easy to grow. It needs a lot of convincing and talking to people,”
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green
green venture Profits “We have been in operation for slightly more than a year. So, we have not broken even. As of now, we have had sales of Rs 5 lakh,” reveals Aparna.
As green as possible • The store’s carry bags are made of biodegradable plastic. • The product tags are larger than normal, so they can be used as bookmarks. • The store’s website is powered by a green server. Spotting an Opportunity Aparna saw the green platform as one from which she could introduce her associate artisans to the world. “Even though many NGOs have come up to help artisans sell their products to retailers and exporters, they have still not tapped into the Internet,” says Aparna. She explains that language acts as a barrier as the artisans do not speak English. So, no effective exchange takes place. “There was an instance of a buyer being unable to purchase a product from Artisans Alliance of Jawaja even after writing to them. They were not able to get a response due to the language barrier, so they referred the matter to us and we helped them close the deal,” she says. Aparna says that in today’s consumer driven world, millions of rupees are spent every day: “A whole chain of things happen when a person buys a product. Our motto is that we encourage people to buy products that are good for the en-
vironment and we also ensure that the products that are sold in the market benefit people on the lowest rung of society.” Thus, those who buy from the Green and Good Store contribute towards a social and economical cause by ensuring that artisans are not exploited and receive minimum wages. “We can channel this consumption power to the development of the country and make sure that we are not exhausting the limits of our natural resources,” says Aparna. She says the initiative also helps in preserving traditional knowledge. “We faced such a situation when we received an order for Kavad. This is a traditional handicraft of Rajasthan, which is on the verge of extinction. Only 20-25 families are involved in making this now. We put it up on our website and got an enquiry from a customer in the UK, who wanted to use it as an educational aid. They said they had been looking for something like this for over a year. Because it went online, they were able to
see it and connect to the artisans,” says Aparna. It hasn’t been as easy as she makes it seem. “This concept is not very easy to grow. It needs a lot of convincing and talking to people,” says Aparna. “We have been in operation for slightly more than a year. So, we have not broken even. As of now, we have had sales of Rs 5 lakh.” But they are looking forward to increasing their sales to Rs 12-15 lakh next year. Aparna says she wants to include more personal care products next year in the Green and Good Store. She says they have recently launched corporate gifts, from which they hope to get a bigger audience and, thereby, more awareness. She also has plans to tap the export market, which has a lot more demand for and awareness of such products and concepts. “But for now, we really want to sell our products in India. There is a huge potential in India and there is a huge need in India for responsible consumerism,” she says.
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opportunity
movers&shakers
Child’s Play in Fitness Mode Deepak and Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan say their recently acquired franchise, Jumpbunch, aims to inculcate a positive attitude among children towards sports and fitness and will help to keep them healthy lifelong By Shradha Mohanty n a world full of PSPs and Wii, how do you get kids to play real sports? By creating a special sports and fitness programme for them, which is what Deepak and Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan are aiming to do in Bangalore with Jumpbunch India, the first international master franchise of the US based Jumpbunch. “Jumpbunch is a fun fitness and sports programme. There is something new every week and the children are always excited and looking forward to what is in store for them,” says Dhanalakshmi.
I
The focus of the Jumpbunch programmes is to get and keep children, aged 15 months to eight years, interested in sports and fitness activities. This is done by introducing them to a different kind of sport every week. “You have to deal carefully with children of this age because they have a very small focus level. This is one major factor that has been taken into consideration while designing the curriculum,” she says. The programme targets children in schools, day care centres and other similar facilities.
With children aged 15 to 24 months, Jumpbunch works at helping them master their ability to focus and follow instructions. For this age group, the teacher-student ratio is around 1:6. For older kids, the ratio goes up to 1:10 or even 1:24. In schools, Jumpbunch runs a weekly programme, introducing children to a whole range of international sports, including lacrosse, croquet, ice hockey, baseball and soccer. The Jumpbunch programme is run in tandem with the already existing sports curriculum of the schools.
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“If they have two hours of basketball or cricket practice, we ask them to give us half an hour within that time-frame,” explains Dhanalakshmi. “We make sure that we expose them to something different from the sports with which they are already familiar, such as cricket and basketball.” A typical half-hour Jumpbunch session has five minutes of warmup, five minutes of stretching, 20 minutes of sport activities and five minutes of cooling down. The idea is to educate children about sports and the proper ways of playing. The Jumpbunch programme can also be customized: Within the same age group, children can be grouped according to their learning speed to make it a good learning experience for them. Jumpbunch has been running successfully in the US for 14 years. The Srinivasans bought its first international master franchise for Rs 1.2 crore and set up the Bangalore centre in July 2010. The Srinivasans are also the founders of Fun Factory in the city. Dhanalakshmi says most schools that cater to younger children have no predefined physical education curriculum. “We saw that they have no idea of how to handle the kids. When we approached these schools, they were very enthusiastic about the idea,” she says. Jumpbunch provides all the equipment that is needed, such as foam and bean bags, sourcing it from the US. It has six members in its team, all US certified, who conduct classes and also carry out marketing activities. Its curriculum is designed for indoors, so the schools are asked to provide space to carry out the activities. Since the programme provides everything and does not involve any extra hours, the idea sold well, says Dhanalakshmi. In all, Jumpbunch gives each school 32 classes in a year. “We de-
HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT? • Jumpbunch operates with a smaller age group as compared to other start-ups. • It is not a sports clinic and it does not train children in one particular sport. • Its motive is to make sports a fun experience and increase the interest level among children. • It has equipment certified from the US and it is not authorized to use anything else. • It is inclusive and also works with special children.
cided on that number so that the schools can accommodate government holidays and breaks.” The programme usually starts three weeks after classes start. Jumpbunch offers an inclusive programme and also deals with children with special needs. “For example, at Kara for Kids, we ask them to get one personal helper for each child, who can help the child keep pace with the programme,” explains Dhanalakshmi. These special educators are trained according to the Jumpbunch curriculum and the pace of the programme is increased or decreased to suit the children’s needs. “These children, who have cerebral palsy and autism, learn to develop motor skills. The equipment for them is slightly larger so that they can hold it more easily,” she adds. “Selling the idea was easy, but initially, the schools were sceptical about whether we could deliver quality within such a limited time-frame. That made us very quality conscious and, in the process, we delivered better,” says Dhanalakshmi. Jumpbunch India has already made its presence felt in two schools in Bangalore, the Sri Kumaran Children’s Home and the Canadian International School. Since it started its operations in July after the academic year had already started, most
schools asked the Srinivasans to come back the next year. They plan to rectify that this year and are already into marketing their product. There is a huge market to be tapped in India, says Dhanalakshmi, and the programme is set to evolve as it slowly establishes itself. By June 2011, Jumpbunch India plans to start work with 6,000 students from schools in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. “That would probably mean four-eight schools. But it depends on the number of children in each school. For example, Kara for Kids wants to get into co-branding with us in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai and it has linked us up with 300 kids. Canadian International has more than 1,000 kids in its potential network,” explains Dhanalakshmi. In the US, Jumpbunch has 20,000 children in its programme every week. “In the US, the situation is a lot more different. They are looking at child obesity. We are now where the US was 20 years ago. We have no space for such activities, no motivation, no direction. If you have a great time, you really remember it. That is what Jumpbunch is all about. We want kids to look at sports in a new light and make them a habit,” says Dhanalakshmi. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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special
journey to the top
Journey To The Top Shiv Nadar tells HCL’s success story In this episode of ‘Journey to the Top’, entrepreneurturned-philanthropist Shiv Nadar talks about the inception and evolution of HCL empire and also his visions of philanthropy What made you to choose your company name as HCL? Who selected the name? Can you remember the date and venue of selecting the name? Which are the other names that were shortlisted? Anonymous It was 34 years ago on August 11, 1976 that I, with my 5 fellow founders, left a secure corporate job with a dream that the microprocessor would change the world. With around Rs 1.8 lakh, a fire in the belly and a desire to truly impact an emerging Indian business and economic landscape, we set out for this journey. We got into a joint venture with the UP Electronic
Corporation. It was a sort of first, being a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), as it was then easier for PSUs to get a licence to do business. The company was formed as a ‘private limited’ company with the Uttar Pradesh Government holding a 26 per cent stake. This therefore enabled the company to use the name “Hindustan” Computers Limited. We wanted a brand of a national reckoning, which would have been difficult to achieve in a completely private setup. Another name which the UP government had proposed was “Uttar Pradesh Computers Limited”; however, we went with the former choice because it had a nationwide resonance.
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Your company name was Hindustan Computers Ltd. Why it was changed to HCL then? Dr. TG Subhash, email: drtgsubhash@gmail.com Hindustan Computers Limited was the mother company established in 1976. At that time the name of the game was hardware and our business was focused on manufacturing world’s first computers. As we evolved into more areas of operations we came out with multiple businesses – HCL Infosystems, HCL Insol, NIIT, HCL Consulting, HCL Perot, HCL Deluxe, HCL Comnet, HCL Peripherals, HCL OA. With this diversification it was essential to retain the original identity of the company. Therefore it was only logical to go ahead with the abbreviated version – HCL. If you look at companies like HP, IBM, the trend has been to evolve into abbreviated name forms as you grow into many domains. However, all our businesses have today come under 2 listed entities – HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems.
Why HCL took the route of product development and continued, while some of the companies shifted to services? Anuradha, anu_1970@yahoo.com HCL is a pioneer of modern computing. Even before the world had any cognizance of India as an economy, HCL had made a mark with its microprocessor in the 1980s. Since its inception, HCL’s core focus area has been technology and product development and hence we continued to remain in the high end of technology throughout the 1990s. We were a late entrant in the services domain; however, in 2000, as soon as HCL Technologies was listed, we emerged as one of the top 5 IT players of India of the 21st century. Since then, there has been no looking back. In the long term, the focus on high-end technology has worked well for HCL. Most of our peers are in the IT / application-based business while HCL has a more robust service portfolio. India continues to see HCL as a technology major vis-a-vis most of our peers, who fall in the IT sphere.
How do you look at the journey of HCL since its inception in 1976, and where is the group standing now? What are your future plans to make HCL the top-most company? Also, I would like to know why did you stop your development in testing? Praveen R We are not just in the business of technologies; we are in the business of building lasting institutions of excel-
lence. Therefore both HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems have emerged as institutions in their own right, which will last beyond the lifetime of their founders and their technologies will continue to touch lives for many years to come. At this point, both the companies are professionally managed and run by an extremely competent board of directors and their respective CEOs at the helm. As for me, I had stepped back and handed over the reins in the 1980s to Ajai Chowdhry for HCL Infosystems, and to Late Shri S. Raman, and then Vineet Nayar, for HCL Technologies. This has given me time to do what I do the best – reflect and strategize for the future; however, my involvement with the group companies has come down. Now I am increasingly spending time on the Shiv Nadar Foundation where I am building institutions of excellence of a different sort, whose impact will perhaps be equal, if not larger, to that of HCL. Many people are aware of what the Shiv Nadar Foundation is doing – my vision is to empower individuals with transformational education to mould leadership. At these institutions, education isn’t about literacy, numeracy or self sufficiency alone, but the kind that builds world changers. The key initiatives of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, the SSN Institutions and VidyaGyan, have today come to become India’s top private engineering college and school respectively. Their core focus is to provide access to world-class education to extremely challenged but meritorious sections of the country.
What made you open an art museum? Kiran Kiran Nadar Museum of Art is being driven by my wife – Kiran. Kiran has been passionately collecting art since the past two decades. Eventually she decided to set up an art museum as she always felt that art should receive its appreciation for what it is. On January 23, 2010, we launched the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), India’s first philanthropic private museum, to instill a deep appreciation and enjoyment of art, by making it visible and accessible to the global public in a world-class museum. While the Shiv Nadar Foundation is focused on the area of transformational education, it is certainly not limited to classroom training. The focus of Shiv Nadar Foundation is rather on the underdeveloped disciplinary areas in India related to philanthropic transformational education, creativity and art.
Source: CIOL (www.ciol.com)
DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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MIT@
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Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Director, Changing Places Research Group and MIT House in Research Consortium and the MIT Living Labs initiative MIT Media Lab at MIT
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Director, Laboratory for Advanced Biomaterials and Stem-CellBased Therapeutics Harvard Medical School Brigham & Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hospital, Past TR35 Awardeeb
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N N O V A T E S 1/29/2011 4:40:11 AM
social
entrepreneur
Helping artisans shape their own destiny
Sumita Ghosh’s Rangsutra helps artisans and craftsmen from disadvantaged communities to put their creative skills to good use and ensures them a guaranteed source of income By Shradha Mohanty umita Ghosh says that her company, Rangsutra, was started in 2005 with the sole belief that craftwork could be a sustainable and lucrative business for artisans. Although clothing, incorporating traditional Indian craftwork, has become hugely popular in the international market today, the artisans who are involved in creating the craftwork earn a mere pittance. “I felt that the traditional ‘charity model’ of grants to improve the lot of artisans was not enough, neither was the purely rights based approach of advocating for better wages and opportunities from the government and private players. The artisans needed to be fully involved in shaping their own destinies,” says Sumita. The arti-
S
sans associated with Rangsutra produce a range of apparel for men and women, home furnishings and accessories.
How It Operates Rangsutra works with small ‘producer groups’ in villages and towns and other remote areas of the country. These groups comprise artisans and weavers as well as people who manage the group’s activities. The role of a producer group is to organize artisan producers into small groups and to ensure that work is given out to all members and shareholders. Since the artisans work out of their homes, one of the major functions of the producer group is to make sure that the designs they
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Rangsutra provides the artisans with design support, market linkages, procurement of supplies such as yarn, education about matters such as using the right dyes, and technology. It also conducts workshops to help the artisans. For example, a design workshop teaches them about using
Rangsutra runs its operations through a working capital loan from Axis Bank and term loans that it has procured for infrastructure. “We invested in a mechanized yarn dyeing machine to ensure timely and quality dyeing. We were also fortunate to have the committed support of two venture funds, Aavishkaar Micro Ventures and Artisans Micro Finance. The latter is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fabindia. They had
They prepare their own designs and do their own sampling. Then they decide on what wages are to be paid after making an evaluation of the time taken for a particular piece of work and the level of skill needed. Other factors that help in deciding wages are the minimum wages stipulated in the state and the comparative wages prevailing in the area for similar work. “If an artisan works for a whole day (eight-nine) hours, he can earn `6,000-8,000 a month,” says Sumita. “We work on a high volume, low mark-up model as our goal is to ensure sustainable livelihoods to as many artisans as possible.” Most of Rangsutra’s products are sold to Fabindia. A small part of its products are sold to the ethical trade market in Europe. Soon, it hopes to expand sales to the international
the right dyes for their work, while a skill development workshop helps them to use technology effectively. Awareness workshops on quality, equipment and time management are also conducted. “We have a central design and marketing office in Delhi, and production bases in and around Bikaner for western Rajasthan and Varanasi for eastern India,” says Sumita. They work with artisans based in Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Mirzapur. They also connect with artisans based in Lunkaransar, Bajju, Phalodi and
faith in the venture and this gave the artisans also the courage to put in their own hard-earned money into the company. Many of them had to take loans,” reveals Sumita. As of now, Rangsutra has 2,000 artisans working with it. The profits earned from sales go back to the artisans, who are shareholders in Rangsutra. “Rangsutra’s core value is respect for both the producer and the customer. We ensure a fair price to the producer as well as quality products to the customer. The aim is thus twofold,” explains Sumita.
market. Last year, it sold `4.25 crore worth of goods; in 2011, it hopes to notch up `8 crore. Sumita says that until now, the major challenge has been to combine making profits with ensuring fair wages to the artisans. She hopes to tackle the problem by involving more and more artisans in the company. “We want to create excellent products for our enlightened customers, for whom a style statement is not only what the product looks like, but also the story behind it,” she says.
need to use in their work are understood and implemented as per the required quality and on time. The group also facilitates overall production processes such as sourcing of yarn and dyeing. “This is helpful as most of them, especially the women, are part-time artisans, so they combine this with work they have to do in and around their homes. So, it acts as a much needed regular source of income for them,” says Sumita.
What It Provides
Ranikhet in Rajasthan and in other places such as Bongalgaon and Hyderabad. “We plan to expand more in eastern India, where there are rich handicraft skills and also a real need for providing employment to increase the incomes of the craftspeople,” says Sumita
How It Started
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biz feature
consumer experience Delivering improved consumer experience consistently is a vital strategy to increase your consumer base and ensure repeat consumers By Sharmila Das
Profits Peak Only when the Consumer Wears the Crown chieving success in today’s highly competitive global marketplace requires more than just delivering quality products and services. Entrepreneurs realize that irrespective of the quality they offer, their products and services will most likely become commoditized in a relatively short period of time. Moreover, today’s global online marketplace provides consumers more choices and unprecedented access to information. It empowers them to shop as per their preferences and as per what is most im-
A
portant for them, whether it is brand, price, service or any of several other things. The differentiator that separates companies now is the experience they create for their consumers. It is thus easy to assess that companies which recognize the importance of creating better consumer experience and which are proactive in their efforts, achieve significant revenue and reputation benefits. Companies that embrace such initiatives could see a rise in their product and service purchases. Given the
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Companies which recognize the importance of creating better consumer experience and which are proactive in their efforts, achieve significant revenue and reputation benefits. Companies that embrace such initiatives could see a rise in their product and service purchases
volatility in the marketplace, there is no better time to optimize the experiences your consumers have every time they interact with your organization. Do remember that consumers view their interactions with a company holistically. Yet, most organizations put consumers through complex websites, sales processes and consumer support. Consumer-centric companies must be willing to look at and address the end-to-end consumer experience, including the related people, processes and tools. By focusing on the consumer, every aspect of a company’s business can be optimized to have the greatest impact on the consumer experience and, ultimately, the company’s bottom line.
Tools to Create Improved Consumer Experience 1. Companies should start making consumer-centric strategies to deliver an impressive consumer experience. However, defining and implementing consumer focused strategies are far more dependent on the people employed than infrastructure. Companies must set the priorities and strategic direction for consumer strategies and reinforce their commitment and involvement in related efforts. 2. Companies that take the time to develop crossfunctional teams have been the most successful in envisioning and implementing more robust consumer strategies. Consumer insights and intimacy are needed to develop a meaningful consumer strategy. There are many well-known ways to gather consumer insights, but the most valuable and also the most under-utilized two sources are the consumers themselves and employees or partners who interact directly with the consumers. 3. Once a consumer strategy and vision have been defined, it is important to ensure that they are manifested in key consumer touch-points. The key to a good consumer experience is to support consumers
in every interaction. Do not try to manage them to do what you want, but rather, learn what they want and respond appropriately to their needs. Incorporating the voice of the consumer into business processes is critical, as most organizations do not intuitively know what experiences their consumers want or expect. 4. All employees, and not just frontline employees, in a company are responsible for delivering experiences that delight consumers. It is important for all employees to understand the role they play and to feel enabled to deliver experiences that are aligned with the defined consumer strategy and vision. To deliver improved consumer experience, make sure you have considered the following: • Are your employees provided with the training required to build the knowledge, skills and behaviour that will enable them to perform successfully in the long run? • Are your employees empowered and given the freedom to make real-time decisions to positively impact the consumer experience? • Are the right incentives and rewards in place to encourage and recognize desired behaviour? 5. Optimizing consumer experience initiatives should be approached with a test and learn mentality because it is as much an art as it is a science. Entrepreneurs must begin to make informed decisions about how to engage with their consumers based on the qualitative and quantitative data available at the time. Prior to implementing any consumer experience changes, clearly articulate the expected benefits and develop a measurement plan that will enable your company to evaluate whether the expected benefits were realized. If the desired results were not realized, be willing to continue refining the process. Not achieving the desired result should be viewed as a vital learning experience that should be incorporated into future enhancements. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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biz feature
consumer experience What Industry Experts Have to Say Arun Kharat, founder and director, Wings Travels, suggests ways to deliver improved consumer experience: “Design a product or service that has mass appeal. Plan a product; once it is done, first try it out on yourself and your close associates. Your own feelings about the product and the feedback from your associates will help fine-tune and refine your product, which will then have instant appeal when you launch it. You need to place yourself in the consumer’s shoes. This will make your product more relevant and effective and increase trust in the company and in the product.” Aparna Bhatnagar, founder, Green and Good Store, says, “For an entrepreneur, this is easier said than done, as funds are often limited and you need to provide a good experience within a limited budget while competing with larger organizations that can spend much more. I think it is important to remember the basics and execute them as best as possible. Essentially, giving a good consumer experience is about respecting the consumer just as you respect a member of your family or a good friend. It is all about relationship building. Respect their right to decline your product or not like your product or service. Listen to them, especially when they complain, because that is the best way to find opportunities for improvement.” Anup Jain, director, marketing, Pizza Hut India, reveals, “Over the last few years, we have observed a change in the behaviour of food lovers. Taking this into account, we have simultaneously taken steps to reposition our brand and offerings. Pizza Hut has transitioned from a quick service restaurant to an affordable, casual dining restaurant to provide an enhanced dine-in experience to our consumers. We have laid great emphasis on every small detail that is essential to achieving this transformation, right from revamping the restaurant ambience to initiatives such as the ‘Chef ’s Table’, which have been highly appreciated by our consumers. We
have begun serving wine at our outlets in Bangalore and will soon take this to other cities, too. Understanding the pulse of our consumers and reacting quickly to their needs is the key to success and it has given us the opportunity to get closer to our consumers and grow our business.” Sundeep Malhotra, founder and CEO, HomeShop 18, says, “Our philosophy is to build credibility and gain consumer trust and confidence in building India’s best alternate distribution platform. This is evident from the fact that we have over 25 per cent repeat consumers. We believe in what we call the ‘More for Consumer’ strategy and regularly launch promotional activities that directly benefit our consumers. Improved consumer experience is directly proportionate to enterprise growth. The constant growth in our repeat consumer base from 0 per cent to 25 per cent in just two years in line with HomeShop18 reaching sales of Rs 330 crore in 2009-10 (80 per cent greater than in the earlier fiscal) proves that improved consumer experience and enterprise growth are highly integrated.” Pankaj Agarwal, cofounder, Click India, an online classifieds company, shares, “Similar to a shopping experience at a store, where we only stop and pick up a product that is attractively displayed, for an online company, too, presenting yourself and your products and services well can make a world of difference to how you are sized up in the market. Listening to and analysing consumers’ latent and spoken needs are critical. We try to understand things from the consumers’ point of view and configure our platforms to meet their needs. It is very important to take user feedback into account. We use various technological tools to research and track user behaviour and effect product changes accordingly on our website.” Thus, in optimizing consumer experience, it is vital to recognize that consumer demands shift as companies and consumers mature. Therefore, entrepreneurs must continually assess consumer experiences to make sure that their consumer strategies are still relevant and achieving the desired results. The vital point is to make the consumer experience unique, to deliver an impactful consumer experience.
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emerging
half way through
Half Way Through:
Kunal Bahl Twenty-seven year-old Kunal Bahl has changed the face of retail India. Foreseeing the problem of excess capacity owing to increased investments in retail India, Kunal with his partner decided to capitalise on the opportunity the impending crisis was likely to open up. With Snapdeal today, they have given the retailers reasons to rejoice.
As told to Shinjini Ganguli grew up in the historical center of India, Delhi, among my parents, my brother, and my awe-inspiring grandfather. My grandfather, an ex-bureaucrat in the Defense Ministry, had been a man of strength and grit. The stories of his struggles during the partition and the ordeal that followed have always inspired me. I studied at DPS R.K. Puram. Not particularly an industrious student, I managed to fetch decent grades. In fact, school books were my last preference. It was boring and involved no excitement. I loved everything besides studying. I loved making doorbells, fixing irons and TVs, reading, and especially watching TV. I remember, every day I quietly waited for my mother to step out, and the moment she did, I scooted to her room and sat myself down in front of the TV set. And with the faintest sound of the clickety-clack of her heels, I would return to my books like I had never abandoned them.
I
It was difficult to make me sit steady with my books. My mother’s very enticing bait of a pizza at Nirula’s and a movie cassette for the one who scored full marks in the unit test failed to lull me into the static exercise of studying. As undeserving as I was, I still got to savor the cheesy pizzas as my brother never missed the mark. I always piggybacked on his academic prowess. It worked so perfectly! Anyway, after school I decided to take a year off. I sincerely needed some time off studying and the mechanical schedule I had been following since I was five. To occupy myself with something of interest, I took up a job at a plastics manufacturing company where I joined as a shop floor employee. Appointed for a salary of Rs 6550 per month, I was responsible for conducting quality inspection 12 hours a day. To this day, I don’t remember a more fulfilling experience than this one – the feeling DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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emerging
half way through of independence and fulďŹ llment is completely unmatched. After working for sometime, I joined the University of Pennsylvania, from where I completed engineering. Next, I enrolled myself in The Wharton School for a business degree. I also took up an executive marketing program at Kellogg School of Management. Post completion of which, I bagged a job, much to the delight of my mother, who had always stressed on the security provided by a steady job. Many years back when my father decided to quit his job with some large family-owned enterprise and take the risk of becoming an entrepreneur, he fell prey to the miseries of uncertainty and instability that come with entrepreneurship. He struggled for years before he could stabilize his business or his income. As a partner who had shared the affliction imposed by the circumstances, my mother naturally grew biased towards good jobs for the security and the social standing that they offered. I guess she always wanted to tell her friends and relatives that her son(s) worked at McKinsey. However, my father was approving of both career optionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; job and business. Incidentally, both my brother and I chose to toe the enterprising line of business. My brother, after collecting his degrees from the best institutes in India, IIT Delhi and IIM Kolkata, joined the family business. And I, on the other hand, started an enterprise of my own. I cofounded Jasper, a marketing company that uses multichannel direct marketing solutions, with my friend Rohit Bansal in June of 2008. Our ďŹ rst angel investment was of Rs. 40 lakh, and Rohit and
The man who popularized couponing business in India
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I put in an equal amount from our savings. In 2006-07 when we saw lot of investment happening in retail in India, we knew that the same problems that surfaced in developed retail markets were likely to arise here as well; i.e., excess capacity, post which merchants will seek tools to drive customer acquisitions. To capitalize on the opportunity, we decided to build a couponing business in India. I had some experience in couponing from my college days. In the US, I had cofounded a de-
launch Snapdeal after some retailers told us that they had seen some customers come in through some internet portals doing group buying. In eight days, by February 4, 2010, the site was live with deals across Delhi. Going online, however, led to certain challenges. Having attained the new status of a tech company from a hard-core marketing business, attracting quality technical talent was a major challenge. However, we overcame that with time. Additionally, having a partner
Ventures. They agreed to invest in our business despite the choppy market condition as they believed in our capability. With their trust and support, we soon met our first biggest milestone. We hit a consistent number of 100 deals per day, a significant milestone as the figure in some way validated that there were at least a few hundred people out there who liked the service. Eventually, of course, we have moved to numbers in a different paradigm, running into thousands of deals per day being sold on the site.
I remember the time around November 2008 when we were scouting for funds and the economy had just tanked, no venture capitalist was interested in making an earlystage investment
tergent company. Being a bootstrapped venture, it had no marketing budget. And in absence of funds, we used couponing and sampling to drive consumer traction for the business. However, after about 20 months of building out the couponing business (primarily offline), and a large retailer network of over 50,000 merchants across 30 cities, we realized that we had to keep innovating and start leveraging technology in a better manner for our business. On January 26, 2010, over a cup of coffee at Costa Coffee near our office, Rohit and I decided to
like Rohit played a key role in maintaining sanity in any situation, and keeping things in perspective. We are very supportive of each other’s ideas and concerns. I remember the time around November 2008 when we were scouting for funds and the economy had just tanked, no venture capitalist was interested in making an early-stage investment. A VC had, in fact, reneged on their term sheet stating the changed market condition. But we didn’t let our confidence go down and eventually, we caught the attention of one of the best VCs in India, IndoUS
Started with two people in a dingy, rented basement office in a residential community, today, two and a half years later, we are a strong team of 300 personnel with presence across 50 cities and five countries, and with a good portfolio of products and services. Jasper has overcome various challenges to be where it stands today. And we will continue to scale our business efficiently and aggressively, and innovate with new marketing platforms, with the eventual goal of building a marketing powerhouse company in India. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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women of substance
startup
The living legend of Indian Fashion:
Neeta Lulla
Few call her a mysterious lady, few know her as an ace fashion designer, the work of this Indian fashionista has proved all of them right. Meet Neeta Lulla, the czarina of Indian fashion By Sharmila Das 74 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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he head start for any career sometimes comes from within and sometimes from family. For Neeta Lulla, the Indian ace fashion designer had got the push from her husband who wanted her to do something with her life. Neeta who was married in her teens later graduated from Shreemati National Damodar Thackersey Women’s (SNDT) University and for the last 20 years Neeta has been serving as the visiting faculty there.
T
Neeta Lulla entered the fashion industry more than two decades ago. Her designs have not only been recognized in India but have been acclaimed globally. Neeta Lulla is a name today to reckon with in the glamour and modeling industry. After having conquered Bollywood, she has successfully transformed into an entrepreneurial role. Neeta’s designer labels are sought after creations that suit
Lulla receiving SME Entrepreneur of the year award at Franchise India Small Business Award, 2010
“Fashion for me is a lifelong pursuit of excellence, an honest endeavor to interpret the mysticism that lies beneath the woven thread,” says Neeta Lulla, Diva of fashion designing.
many occasions. She has launched five premium labels: Diffusion, Luxury Prêt, Trousseau Consultancy and Bridals each addressing a unique segment. Like any other fashion designer Neeta
runs a host of fashion shows in India and abroad. She has done several shows in different parts of the world including US, Canada, Monte Carlo, London, Dubai etc. Her forte is concept based shows where Neeta gets to work as assiduously as she does on a film set. The world of fashionista almost lost Neeta to choreography when she joined Jeanne Naoroji, a noted fashion choreographer, as assistant choreographer. Having trained as a costume designer her heart was set on fashion designing. As destiny would have it, her break came from within the family. Prasan Kapoor, married to her sister, was planning his next venture Tamascha. Prasan was looking out for a fashion designer. Neeta jumped at the opportunity. She had just then graduated with the Best Designer of the year award for 1983-1984. Prasan readily agreed to give Neeta a break. Thus started Neeta’s tryst with fashion design from which she never looked back. Neeta’s work in Tamascha was well received and got her more offers in the industry. She received her first big recognition in the movie Lamhe, for which she received National Award in costume designing. Over the years Neeta mastered her art, stepping through various genres, she imprinted her own unique stamp in Bollywood. One has to look at such blockbusters as Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Taal and Jodha Akbar – all coincidentally Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer – to appreciate the mindboggling breadth of Neeta’s work. She won the President’s Award for Lamhe, Devdas and Jodha Akbar.’ Neeta has over 375 films to her credit and she has extended her design expertise to Hollywood projects like ‘Bride and Prejudice,’ ‘One Night with a King,’ ‘Mistress of Spices’ and ‘Provoked.’ DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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women of substance
startup
Personal Agenda
Loves: to cook Favourite Shopping destination: Dubai and Rome Favourite past-time: Painting Signature Character: Perfectionist
Awards and recognition: • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • •
Best Designer of the Year Award – SNDT University in 83 & 84. The SNDT Alumni Award dor Best Designer in 1993. National Award for Costume Designing 1992 – Yash Chopra’s ‘Lamhe’. Salaam Bombay Award – Winner of the Best Costume Designer in 1996 The Screen Videocon Award in 1999 – for Best Costume Designer in Subhash Ghai’s ‘Taal” in 2000. The Bollywood Award Trophy, New York – Best Costume Designer for ‘Taal’ – 2000. The IIFA Award for ‘Taal’ – 2000 Women Achievers Award – 2000 by Lion’s Club Lioness ‘Alka Phatak’. The Alumni Award for the outstanding work done by the student in the 25 years of history of SNDT College. Designer of the Year 2001 – Bollywood Show New York Bollywood Awards, New York - Best costume Designer 2001- for Mission Kashmir Salute Bombay Fashion Awards - Best costume Designer 2001 Mikano’s Woman Achiever Award Felicited by Mukta Arts for her contribution in the momentous success of Mr. Subhash Ghai as a film maker The Presidents Award for ‘Devdas’ – 2002 Bollywood Fashion Award for ‘Devdas’ – 2002 The IIFA Award for ‘Devdas’ – 2002 Kingfisher Fashion Award for “Contribution to Fashion” – 2005 The President’s Award for ‘Jodha Akbar’ – 2008 Award for ‘Shivaji - 2008
Neeta Lulla is a perfectionist and hates to miss even a minute detail while designing her creations. Before she takes up any project Neeta prefers to visualize the character she is designing the costumes for. She religiously visits the film location to get the feel of the story and the characters. When it comes to handle the work pressure, Neeta says she takes the challenge as it comes. She says, “Life is not set on any rules. It is supposed to be lived the way you love and do your best at work.” Ask about any milestone of her career that she cherishes, Neeta says, “In my career and journey of 25 years there
Neeta Lulla receiving the President Award for the film Devdas
Neeta Lulla receiving the President Award for the film Jodha Akbar
have been many milestones and I regard them all as my biggest successes.” Neeta says she practically never faced any challenge in her successful career. She says, “Life is a challenge every day, if you pursue excellence you will come across hurdles but experience teaches you how to go over them steadily, it’s about keeping your mind, eyes and instincts.” Neeta launched Neeta Lulla flagship store in 2005 to cater to her growing clientele. She also heads NSL Fashions Pvt. Ltd. that deals with exclusive bridals and trousseau packages. Her boutique and online stores serve as the retail
touch points for consumers. As a women entrepreneur she believes, “Women entrepreneurship in India is on a rise in the last couple of years. The hidden entrepreneurial potential has been gradually coming to the forefront with the growing sensitivity to their role as well as economic status in India. Women today are not restricted to any field may it be retail, finance, hospitality or even biotechnology. With the development of tier II and tier III cities in India, as well as the increased exposure to the west, I am certain that women will be leaders on every front in the years to come.”
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innovation
products SuperCop: Remote Phone Management Lost your handset? Never mind. With a simple message from a partner phone you can now lock up your missing mobile, make it scream and even send an alert if a thief tries to change its SIM. Not surprisingly, this cool new software from a Bangalore-based company is called SuperCop. In a market lousy with dumb trackers, here finally is an application that’s apparently got some brains.
Product: SureCop, Cost: `400-`500, Availability: Now, Source: www.surecop.com, Company: 42 Gears Mobility Systems
Make notes digitally with eDiary Here finally is an electronic diary that helps you store handwritten notes in a computer with zero fuss. All you need do is write normally on the “paper pages” of the eDiary using a special pen that comes with the device and let the electronics do the rest. The eDiary can save up to 100 pages of written notes, which you can download into a PC over an USB connection. The device comes with an app that helps you convert notes into text and search files by name, date and words. Product: eDiary, Cost: `9,350, Availability: Now, Source: www.hitech-in.com, Company: HiTech Solutions
Protecting mobile phone data To address the need for privacy, Onward Mobility Solutions has launched MobiSecret, an application developed to protect mobile phone data. The application allows users to auto hide and unhide messages, phone books, pictures, and videos to secure the data from being misused. Product: MobiSecret, Cost: N/A, Availability: Now Source: www.onwardmobility.com, Company: Onward Mobility Solutions
Content generated from DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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interview
mentoring ineet Bajpai, the young celebrated entrepreneur, who turned his started-in-a-dingy-generator-room startup into India’s one of the largest digital media agency released his second book titled ‘The Street to the Highway’ recently. The book, unlike the hoard of management books in the market, addresses the issues of the smaller players aspiring a scale they secretly believe is unachievable. Unravelling the secrets of converting a small business into a large corporate, in an interview with Shinjini
V
was released 7 years ago. So it has taken me that long to create ‘The Street to the Highway’. I say ‘create’ and not ‘write’ because today it takes a lot more to develop a book than just ‘writing’. I spent several weeks interacting with entrepreneurs, family business owners, employees/promoters of small and mid-sized businesses and management pundits.And since this book is not just surgical business learning and addresses numerous human facets of entrepreneurship and organiza-
traversing them every day. They represent conventional methods that most businesses follow – businesses that stagnate and keep doing the same things for years. But then there is this chosen street; this street that leads us to that high-acceleration, multilane highway. The highway that allows only the most vigorous drivers to enter. This symbolizes the world of winning companies that discover the true path to unstoppable growth. This book will show you that chosen ‘street’ to
Much Ado About The Much Appreciated Ganguli, Vineet talks about the story in and behind the book.
Tell us about The Street to the Highway. This book shatters the myth that business success is a matter of destiny for a few chosen corporate barons. It shows that stellar business growth is not the result of some supernormal capabilities of a few super-individuals but is an outcome of a systematic construct of proven strategies and determined actions. Every small business can be transformed into a mega-corporation one day. And this book shows HOW!
How much research went into writing this book? My first book, ‘Build From Scratch’
tion-building, I had to spend time understanding the challenges that most stagnating small businesses face and had to get an insight into the socio-psychological reasons behind entrepreneurial decision making.
How did you finalise on the title? How many times did you change it before sticking to this last one? Since this is a management cum inspirational book, I wanted to keep the title racy. But it also had to clearly carry the philosophy and spirit of the book. ‘The Street to the Highway’ is a simple metaphor. Most ‘streets’ are slow and repetitive, leading to meaningless destinations and have mostly the same people
the ‘Highway’.
What drove you to write this book? My own experience of starting my companies Magnon Solutions and Magnon International with two rickety, rented computers from a generator shed 10 years ago with an equivalent of three hundred dollars in my pocket and transforming it, of course with the help of my team and the faith of our esteemed clients, into one of the most respected digital media companies in India was the real inspiration or drive. Our 2 member outfit in the year 2000 today has nearly 150 professionals employed, with offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and 1600 clients across five continents. We’ve been ranked in the top
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25 Internet companies in the country recently. This journey made me think about sharing this struggle with people like what I was eight or ten years ago.
is the transition a lot of entrepreneurs are not able to make. This aspect is analyzed in great detail in the book and clear solutions and alerts are offered to entrepreneurs.
Can you spill some of the prized secrets from your book?
How did you convert your startup into a large one?
Sure. Let me take one simple aspect of organization building that a majority of entrepreneurs fail to grasp. This is discussed in the third chapter of my book titled ‘People –Are You Still the CEO, CFO, CIO and
I wish there was any one plan that had worked or any one strategy that was transformational. But that never happens. Organizational growth is a complex mesh of numerous tactics, plans, execution,
culture for growth, people, empowerment, financial management, branding for SMEs, smart use of the Internet and digital technologies and finally some gritty human aspects of creating an execution culture. I feel such a comprehensive ‘encyclopaedia for SMEs’ shouldn’t be missed.
His handy rule-book for SMEs is out on the stands. We got some exclusive insights about the book from the entrepreneurauthor for you Sales Head of Your Company?’ Consider this – when an entrepreneur starts his or her journey, he initially manages most critical responsibilities of the business himself. And rightly so, since the business needs the direct guidance of the promoter. Also because the business can perhaps not afford to hire high-quality talent at the outset. I used to do the same at my company many years ago. In 2006, I remember, in a TV channel interview, the host asked me what role I played in the company. To this I answered, “In the early couple of years of the business I used to be the salesman, the receptionist, the accountant, the operations manager – all in one. However, that changed radically and today I play a more directional role”. Now this
discipline, focus and much more. Yes but if you ask me the two most crucial factors that propelled our growth, they would be as follows – a) Clarity of goals and objectives in the immediate and medium terms and b) retention and development of quality leaders.
Give us the single biggest reason why no startup should miss on this book? A startup may not find so many aspects of organizational growth and business success being discussed within the covers of a single book. However, in 266 pages, this book guides the reader through a holistic journey of enterprise building. Aspects like a personal orientation for entrepreneurial growth, organizational preparedness and
Vineet Bajpai Founder, Magnon Solutions
What is the best compliment you have received so far on this latest accomplishment? While a lot of accomplished people have said very kind words, I cannot forget this particular email I received from a 25 year old entrepreneur who wrote to me from Mumbai. His words were--Vineet this book is the greatest gift God could have sent to me at this time when I am struggling with my small startup. I wish I had read it two years ago. It would have changed where my business is today”. This kind of response from a reader is ALL that a writer truly writes for. DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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event
headstart
Welcoming New Year with the spirit of Starting Up Celebrating the culmination of a year of amazing work, HeadStarters welcomed 2011, resolving to nurture more startups and inspire more entrepreneurs with the Startup Saturday events this year.
B
angalore
This edition, based on the theme “Products vs. Services”, was telecast by ET Now on its show Starting Up. It kicked off with interesting presentations from four entrepreneurs- from both products and services background. Sujay Karampuri from Sloka Telecom, a radio access network solution provider, talked about the inherent struggles associated with product businesses, with vivid examples and anecdotes about his experiences creating and selling base station products. Continuing the product viewpoint, Suresh Narasimha from TELiBrahma, talked about success in business being not just about playing the game, but shaping the game, and determining what customers want. Karthick Purushotaman from Chimera Technologies spoke about being prepared for a battle whether one chooses to work with products or services, cautioning entrepreneurs from attempting product businesses too early in their organization’s lifespan. Vinoth from VINJEY Software Systems, spoke next. He talked about the business behind products and services, clearly differentiating between the two in terms of the cash conversion cycle. Keeping up with the momentum and bringing a new thrill to Startup Saturday, ET Now hosted an ‘Entrepreneur’s Huddle’. The stage was set for three entrepreneurs who were presenting a unique business challenge. Sean from Babajobs, a job site focused on people in India making less that Rs. 10,000 per month presented his challenge of making mobile services effectively reach the common man in India. Kumar from OoBI made a quick presentation on their new multi touch interactive surface display table and presented his challenging questions on what type of business model (product or service) and apps should they develop. Varun from LifeMojo, a company providing nutrition and diet consultation services on the phone and web, presented his problem of getting enough users to sign up for their paid services.
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Pune Asif Upadhye, founder of Never Grow Up started the event with a presentation. The company is into employee engagement, fun-at-work concepts offering cool workshops and quirky merchandise to corporates. Manish Kumar and Surojit from IncuCapital then shared their thoughts on entrepreneurship, incubation, mentorship and funding. Sandeep Saxena gave a lightening pitch about his startup DoctorBabu, providing a single platform to connect the entire healthcare industry.
Chennai The event started with a talk by one of the Teach For India volunteers, about their noble venture. Rajasekhar Mamillapalli, founder of Ananafit (that makes eco-friendly clothes from banana plantain’s outer stem) spoke about the production glitch that Ananafit had been experiencing because of unavailability of machinery to automate the entire production process. Lastly Rammohan, founder of NRC Agro, that specializes in wholesale, frozen and packed vegetables, gave a detailed talk about his vegetable business.
Kolkata With the theme - “Social Media”, Sumit Dutta, founder of Pixlie, started the event with a general discussion on
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3
4
7
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5 1. Audience at Startup Saturday Bangalore, enjoying the spectacular show 2. Asif speaking to the audience at Pune Startup Saturday 3. Entrepreneur’s Huddle, hosted by Sudhir Syal from ET Now 4. Audience at Startup Saturday Chennai 5. Shilpa Srivastava, speaking about Twitsnaps 6. Audience at Startup Saturday Hyderabad 7. Ahmedabad’s first Startup Saturday meet
the theme. Aji Issac Mathew, founder of TechShu, then shared some of his views on social media. This was followed by a presentation of ContextMine by Nitesh Ambuj. Kamanashish Roy and Bibhas Chandra Debnath spoke about Social Mandi, a startup that encourages group buying of software products using social media as a tool. Mr Simarpreet Singh, founder of Compare Infobase, then spoke about his entrepreneurial experiences and shared tips on retaining employees and chasing clients. This was followed by a presentation on Twitsnaps by Shilpa Srivastava with Rajesh Rana and Krishnendu Paul following next.
Hyderabad The theme this time was ‘Elevator Pitches’. Raghu Batta from Ojas Ventures was the first speaker. He demystified the common myths that entrepreneurs
hold with respect to what investors look for, by quoting examples from the industry and from his personal experiences. Dr. Baba Prasad, CEO of Vivekin Group gave a talk on innovation and ideation and what entrepreneurs and leaders could and should do to lead from the front. The session ended with lightening pitches by Nava Saini, founder of EDEDAA, Meher Vijaya, founder of Artjini and Manish from IncuCapital.
Ahmedabad Ahmedabad had its first Startup Saturday in January. The event started with a brief talk on Headstart and Startup Saturday by Nagashri. This was followed by a talk by Manu Midha, VP Planning and Operations, Infibeam about retail businesses, monetization strategies, gaining traffic, closing deals, and various other things. There was also an interactive Q&A where the audience fired questions at the speaker. The session ended with a series of lightening pitches. Startup Saturday happens at eight cities every second Saturday of the month. Join us there if you have the faintest inclination towards entrepreneurship and startups. We can assure you that these sessions will leave you inspired. The audience comprises of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, academicians, corporates, students including the curious passerby. Signing off folks, lets create more startups and make existing ones more productive. Join us @ www.headstart.in. Tweet us @headstarters Contributed by Ramya Rajan, Ramesh Loganathan, Vishwa Vivek, Swaminathan Kannan, Ramanuj Mukherjee, Paresh Mathur, Swati Ramnath(editor)
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statistics
investment
Top PE investments in SMEs during 2010 Company
Investors
Amount ($M )
Date
Convexity Solutions
CX Partners
47
Apr-10
TA Associates
45
Jan-10
DE Shaw
27
Mar-10
DAR Capital
21
Feb-10
Micromax Pegasus Assets Reconstruction Valuable Media
Source: Venture Intelligence
Urban Houseless Population Slum population in Indian metropolitans, January 2011 Sl No.
City
Population*
Slum Population
% of Slum Population
1.
Chennai
4343645
819873
18.9
2.
Delhi
9879172
1851231
18.7
3.
Greater Mumbai
11978450
6475440
54.1
4.
Kolkata
4572876
1485309
32.5
*Population of City Municipal Corporation area Source: Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
Projected urban population in India as on 1st March 350.57
Year
2010 2015
387.76 425.18
2020 0
100
200
300
400
500
Urban Population (in millions) Houses sanctioned so far under The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to urban poor in slums in 65 specified cities: 15,40,611 Source: Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation 82 FEBRUARY 2011 | DARE.CO.IN
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Domestic Passengers Carried by Indian Scheduled Airlines (in the Fourth Quarter of 2010) Passengers carried: Q4 2010 Q3 2010 Q2 2010 Q1 2010
Break up of Q4 2010:
147.05 lakhs 119.84 lakhs 134.78 lakhs 118.54 lakhs
Airlines Air India (Domestic) Jet Airways Jet Lite Kingfisher Spice Jet Go Air IndiGo
No. of passengers carried (in lakhs) 25.42 27.28 10.85 27.81 20.01 9.79 25.89
Percentage share 17.3 18.6 7.4 18.9 13.6 6.7 17.6
Break up of December 2010: Airlines Air India (Domestic) Jet Airways Jet Lite Kingfisher Spice Jet Go Air IndiGo Total
Seat Factor (%-age) 78.8 80.1 84.8 85.9 87.8 87.0 93.3
No. of passengers carried (in lakhs) 8.90 9.24 3.99 9.72 7.21 3.36 9.71 52.13
Source: Ministry of Aviation
M&A Deals in India Deals in April–December, FY 2010-11 Deals in April–December, FY 2009-10 Number of Deals in April–Dec, FY 2010-11 Number of Deals in April–Dec, FY 2009-10
USD 58.73 billion USD 13.54 billion 222 129
Nature of deals Inbound Outbound Domestic
No. of deals 21 98 103
Per cent share 16.63 41.96 41.41 Source: Assocham DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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opportunity
campus
Marking the First Dot NEN First Dot, a one-of-its-kind student startup showcase, proves that startups have finally arrived on India’s college campuses n the last decade, too many new things have made their way to the daily-lives of Gen Unprecedented in Indian support of IBM, Wadhwani Foundation and DST, GoI. ( DST not major partner!!)s. You can later sa - - Facebook, iPods, Farmville - and what not! Now, you can also add startups to the list. Way back in 2000, entrepreneurship was a rarely-used term that didn’t make it to any of the cool conversations that happened at the University. Carrying forward family business may have been considered as a career option for a few, but ambitions of being a first-generation entrepreneur – no, not then. Today, however, it appears more and more students in India are beating a path to entrepreneurship. Driven by the growing number of opportunities opening up in the country, and supported by the increasing array of entrepreneurship programs available on campus, students are juggling both coursework and cash flow to test their entrepreneurial mettle. Nothing proves this better than NEN First Dot, a first of its kind student startup showcase held at SSN College of Engineering,
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Chennai on January 10 and 11. NEN First Dot, run by the student-led NEN Entrepreneurship Cells (Chennai) and the NEN Trust team, attracted over 140 nominations. It covered a wide range of sectors and geographies – with startups from over 30 cities spanning over 15 industry segments, making it India’s largest student startup showcase. The participating startups reflected the diversity and dynamism of today’s entrepreneurial India, cutting across education, cleantech, IT consulting, agriculture and retail. All nominations were vetted by an eminent jury to identify a shortlist of promising 30 student startups, based on the market opportunity they tapped, their business model, competence and growth potential. Startups that made to the top 30 included an egg specialty restaurant, a shoe-design firm, and
1. Indus Khaitan, General Partner, Morpheus Ventures gives some quick advice to student 2. IBM Smarter Planet 'On the Dot' challenge in progress 3. NEN First Dot organizing team 4. PV Sreenath and D Seetharam of IBM and Laura Parkin of NEN meet the top 30 student startups at the NEN First Dot Roundtable 3
a staffing company for kabadiwalas! The winning startups received visibility, professional mentoring and an opportunity to network with leading investors and entrepreneurs. NEN First Dot witnessed the joint support of IBM, Wadhwani Foundation and the Department of Science and Technology, GoI.
Events unlimited In keeping with the promise of the showcase, to provide value not just to final winners but also to every participating student entrepreneur, NEN First Dot featured an exciting mix of sessions: ‘Unconferences’ on topics like social entrepreneurship, social media and technology, breakfast with entrepreneurs and business simulation exercises. In addition, over 50 startups set up kiosks to exhibit their products. One of the key events at NEN First Dot was the IBM Smarter Planet ‘On the Dot’ Challenge - a contest that engaged new and future entrepreneurs in thinking about possible solutions to challenges related to water, energy and transport sectors in Indian cities. The Challenge was led by P V Sreenath, Vice-President, Govern4
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FINAL 30 STUDENT START-UPS A.J.S Services, Founded by Sanjay AJ Institute: Velammal Engineering College, Chennai Founded in May 2006, A.J.S Services provides services like gardening, landscaping, interior decorating, painting and electrical fittings. It currently employs over 50 people. Amazing Youth, founded by Animesh Sarangi Institute: ASBM Institute of BBA, Bhubaneswar Amazing Youth is an NGO that works with Orissa’s rural communities to make them self-sufficient and sustainable by training them as solar engineers, hand pump mechanics, water testers, health workers, phone operators, carpenters among others. Anaya, founded by Rohit Agarwal Institute: Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Anaya provides software products and services to help reduce time and budget requirements of animation, gaming and VFX studios. Annanymous, founded by Adhitya Iyer, Hrishikesh Kulkarni, Pranav Rajgopal, Swinburn Miranda, Rohit Bhangale, Shruti Gupta Institute: Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (SPIT), Mumbai Annanymous is a theme based T-shirt line that primarily targets engineers. The start-up has sold close to 650 t-shirts till today. Anveshan, founded by Nikhil P Bhandare, Puneet Khushwani Institute: Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani Anveshan aims at revolutionizing the way SMEs advertise their products, by producing top quality video ads for them to show to their customers. Automotion Ads, founded by Durgesh Nandan Institute: Saroj Institue of Technology and Management Automation Ads is a transit advertising company that provides advertising space on local public transport like autos. They have already signed on clients like Yamaha Motors and IIM Lucknow. Booksvilla.com, founded by Chirag Rathod, Rohan Pimparkar, Risha Gosar Institute: Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA) Booksvilla.com is a book exchange website, where book lovers can swap books or buy books at a discount. Booksvilla.com already has over 50 customers and over 6000 fans on their Facebook page. Bosetechnics, founded by Avishek Bose, Abhimanyu Bose Institute: NSHM and West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata Bosetechnics is a web solutions company that develops IT products and services including an online shopping cart, online portfolios, booking sites and flash animations. DJ Reverb’s Groove, founded by Nikhil Khedekar Institute: Great Lakes Institute of Management DJ Reverb’s Groove is an entertainment start-up that provides DJ and music services at events, public shows, nightclubs and college functions. Eggilicious, founded by Ashish Kothari, Sudhakar Yadav, Saurabh Mhatre, Carolin Christian Institute: Thakur Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai Egglicious is an egg specialty outlet on the TIMSR campus. Enviro Mitra, founded by Gayatri Hegde, Pavan Murali Institute: S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai Enviro Mitra is a for-profit social enterprise that works as an intermediary
ment Practice, IBM and D Seetharam, Executive - Government Programs, IBM.
A Community Effort 16 student-run NEN Entrepreneurship Cells across Chennai, comprising over 60 students came together to organize and run NEN First Dot. “Being students ourselves, we wanted to reach out to student entrepreneurs who were doing an incredible job balancing their studies and startups at the same time. We wanted
- connecting kabadiwalas with households and apartment complexes as well as with recyclers. Fizzy Goblet, founded by Laksheeta Govil, Abhinav Mehra Institute: Pearl Academy of Fashion and NMIMS, Mumbai Fizzy Goblet makes designer, hand painted, customized canvas shoes. It reached the finals of the television show ‘The Pitch’, hosted by Boman Irani on UTV Bloomberg. Fluids, founded by Aswin Yogesh Institute: Saveetha Engineering College Fluids is a milkshake kiosk that serves quick, delicious and healthy milkshakes to students on campus. FoodKhoj, founded by Hanu Prateek Kunduru, Pradeep Kumar S, Swetansu Mohapatra Institute: BITS, Pilani—K.K. Birla Goa Campus FoodKhoj is a food ordering portal where customers (currently only on campus) can place orders at any given time from different restaurants serving a variety of cuisines. Gurukul MahaVidyalaya, founded by Pooja Mishra Institute: Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta It is a degree college in rural India focusing on low cost quality education. Innovese Technologies, founded by Ankit Gupta Institute: Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani Founded in November 2009, Innovese provides software-solution consultancy, web-app development, ERPs, customized software and graphic design among others. Their Facebook application, ‘Slambook’, today has over 35,000 monthly active users. Mybot, founded by Anil Kumar, Chandrakanth Bobba , Nitin Kumar, Preetham Bhonsle Institute: MSRIT; Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering; Atria Institute of Technology Mybot manufactures robotic kits for general education and holds workshops and seminars in engineering colleges, polytechnics, degree colleges and schools. NextGen, founded by Abhishek Humbad, Richa Bajpai Institute: Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore NextGen works with companies on their carbon emission management. NextGen’s greatest achievement has been reaching Rs. 1 crore in revenue and servicing high profile clients like ICICI Bank, Infosys, UB Group and MindTree. ngoFuel, founded by Apurv Agrawal, Saswata Shankar, Aditi Agrawal, Vishnupriya Sainath Institute: Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore ngoFuel acts like an interface between volunteers and NGOs, receiving projects from the NGOs and assigning them to registered volunteers. The startup has about 40 volunteers and 9 website design projects from various NGOs. Pineapple Group, founded by Nikhil Gandhi, Amit Savargaonkar, Shirish Bhatt Institute: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai The company deals with design and implementation of Business Intelligence (BI) tools to help customers implement cost cutting measures without affecting their business interests.
to recognize their passion,” shares Yuvi Panda, an E Leader from KCG College of Technology. For shortlisted entrepreneurs, it was an opportunity to look at their startups in a whole new way. “My startup has taken a much bigger shape at NEN First Dot. With the mentoring support and knowledge I gained, I now plan to concentrate on marketing, review my pricing strategy and build my cash reserves,” says Ajay Kiran, founder of event management startup Rocket Events.
Recom (Campus Company), founded by Subrata Biswas and team Institute: Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur A campus company, Recom is a social entrepreneurship venture that provides computers to schools in rural areas at low costs. Renewable Bazaar, founded by Gunajit Brahma and team Institute: Indian Institute of Management, Indore Renewable Bazaar is a portal that acts as a platform for exchange of information, commerce, social networking, multidisciplinary resource-sharing and utilization, development of renewable energy project opportunities. Rocket Events, founded by Ajay Kiran P, Somanna T P, Jeevan R, Avinash M J Institute: Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysore An event management company, Rocket Events organizes corporate and social events and fund raisers. Saraf Engineers, founded by Akshay Saraph Institute: Cusrow Wadia Institute of Technology, Pune Launched in January 2010 as a consultancy and electrical project service, Saraf Engineers has further expanded into trading of electrical products as well. ShareSWF, founded by Neeraj Agarwal, Harsh Hemani Institute: Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Bhopal ShareSWF is a platform designed to discover and share flash animations. Today, ShareSWF has over 6000 animations submitted by users. Tatsam Sports, founded by Bipul Kumar Institute: Institute of Management and Technology, Ghaziabad Tatsam Sports is an end to end sports solution company that provides infrastructure development, training and support and sports equipment. The startup has IMT, a government body - the CBI Academy and a residential society as customers. Thirst-E (Campus Company), founded by Ajith T E, Karthigeyan M, Logeswaran K, Manigandan S, Niveda Krishnamoorthy Institute: PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore Thirst-E is a juice shop that provides a variety of fresh fruit juice to students on campus. The start-up records a monthly profit of over Rs 10,000 and has recently established a second branch. Tiszta Cleaning Solutions, founded by Srihari BT, Chirag Anand Institute: Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore Tiszta Cleaning Solutions specializes in machine cleaning services, which is more effective, cheaper and faster than manual cleaning. Vilikh Technologies, founded by Bahul Arora, Harsh Mani Tripathi Institute: SRM University, Chennai Vilikh Technologies focuses on embedded systems and robotics. It also trains engineers and provides the latest tools for technical development. Voicetap Technologies, founded by Mrigank Tripathi, Vivek Khandelwal Institute: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Voicetap Technologies offers voice based solutions for telecom operators, large businesses and end users alike. Voicetap’s flagship product – CustomerTAP – helps businesses convert the leads that they generate into warm inbound leads – thus enhancing conversion ratios exponentially.
Annapurani Venkatesan, an E Leader from Chennai’s Alpha Arts and Science College who runs a coaching centre herself, knew not more than 10 student entrepreneurs before the event. “Today I know over 150. It was a revelation – to find so many young people like me driven by a passion for entrepreneurship,” says Annapurani. More articles on www. nenonline.org. Content provided by NEN
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unwinding
the soul On The Bookshelf
By Shradha Mohanty
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There Author: Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter Goldsmith’s training sessions usually cost a bomb, but with this book you can get all you want of his pricey coaching for a miniscule fraction of that fee. In What Got You Here..., the American author, professor, executive educator and coach, confects a whole new strategy for businesses wanting to move up to a different level. At the heart of the strategy is a list of 21 habits they must kick. Don’t start with words like ‘no’, ‘but’ and ‘however’ or withhold information or make excuses, says Goldsmith, if you want to “get there.”
Publisher: Profile Books Price: Rs.225
Money Wise Author: A.Michael Lipper with Douglas R. Sease If you are looking for a leg-up before dipping your toes in financial markets, then check this one out. Written by men who have worked in the Wall Street for years, Money Wise tells you how to generate and preserve wealth in plain language. The book is meant for relatively inexperienced investors who may want to know how to find the right investors and get them to serve their needs or how to leverage risks and match hard and soft assets. Get to know whether you are a confident, uncertain, relative, fiduciary, bored or guilty investor and incidentally make some dough too. It’s all about wizening up to money.
Publisher: St.Martin’s Griffin Price: Rs.525
Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing Author: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. If you thought a leader has to be a hard-talking, desk-thumping manager to succeed in volatile business environments, get real and understand the exceptional virtues of the quiet hero. In other words, read Leading Quietly... Unlike what its name suggests this book by Joseph L. Badaracco contains a remarkably “disquieting” description of a champion leader—quite unlike what you would find spewing out of mainstream business literature. But Publisher: Harvard Business Press thankfully this is for Real. Price: Rs.1120
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Upcoming Buzzintown presents the latest in entrepreneurial events, exhibitions and workshops happening all over the country. Read on to find our: What’s in store for the next month Workshop - Motivate and Inspire to Achieve Outstanding Performance Date: Feb 10, 2011 Venue: Taj Gateway Hotel, Residency Road, Bangalore Information: The core assets of the modern, knowledge-driven business enterprise are not its buildings, machinery and real estate, but the intelligence, understanding, skills and experience of its employees. Harnessing the capabilities and commitment of knowledge workers is arguably the core managerial challenge of our times. However, it can be frustrating trying to instil the right instincts in employees and co-workers and to get them to think big, take on
Trade Show - Exhibitor Knowledge Forum Date: Mar 11, 2011 Venue: Hotel St Laurn, GBR I, Ashram Road, Ahmedabad Information: An innovative one-day seminar that aims to help exhibitors get the most out of participating in events. The forum will travel through Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Delhi in March-2011, helping exhibitors evolve strategies that would help them optimize their ROIs from participating in trade shows.
Trade Show – Energy and Power India
responsibility, behave more like owners and work
Date: Feb 25 – Feb 26, 2011
to their potential.
Venue: Bangalore International Exhibition
This one-day workshop deals with the basics of how to see, understand and gain the ‘energy edge’ - for yourself and your team. Learn how to truly build and sustain a culture of high expectations, passion and enthusiasm where everyone is focused on results.
Workshop – Understanding Financial Statements Date: Feb 17, 2011 Venue: Hotel Savera, 146, Dr. R.K.Salai, Chennai
Centre, 10th Mile, Tumkur Road, Madavara Post, Dasanapura Hobli, Bangalore Information: For the electronics and electrical industry, this is clearly the marquee event of the year. It is a cannot-miss for the players in this industry looking for the right visibility.
Conference – Techie Tuesday Date: Feb 15, 2011 Venue: High Street Phoenix Mall, 462 Senapati Bapat Marg , Lower Parel, Mumbai
Information: Since it is critical for managers to
Information: Techie Tuesday showcases interesting
unerringly understand the impact of their deci-
gadgets made by renowned engineering colleges in
sions on the financials of their businesses they
the city. From the Orion Formula-one car and the
ought to be able to intelligently read financial
Falcon-remote Controlled Aircraft to the one-of-
statements. This workshop will provide the tools
its-kind Rubix Cube, the event is designed to blow
for reading and understanding financial state-
your mind. The event draws a whole host of tech
ments through practical exercises and would
brands and stages a number of workshops catering
be beneficial to managers at senior and middle
to different interest groups.
management levels with little previous knowledge of finance.
www.buzzintown.com is a hub for entertainment, lifestyle and leisure and covers 19 cities across India DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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the soul The Lounge SME (Success Made Easy) for your SME Social entrepreneur Ajay Wahi’s book - ‘and the award for BEST SME of the year goes to…’ hunkers down on people, productivity, processes, positive energy, vibrancy, people’s mindset, attrition, employee development and so on. As this month’s words of wisdom, we present an extract from the entrepreneur’s book:
Chapter 38: Assume the day/month/week is over even before it starts Create a culture of realgency. Realgency is reality plus urgency. The reality is that time flies. Most employees feel at the beginning of the day/week/month that they have the entire day/week/month to achieve targets and complete tasks. I believe this is dangerous thinking, because it allows complacency to creep in. There is a feeling that the entire week or month is available, so people tend to take it easy. As a result, it is only when 30% of the day/week/ month is over that people wake up, realize that significant time has elapsed, and that they now need to pull up their socks! So you need to create a feeling of urgency in employees to help them overcome this complacency. I have worked hard to get my employees to accept the idea that the moment they enter the office, they should consider that the day is over. The same logic extends to the week and the month as well!
Ajay Wahi
Also, we view end of the month as the last day of the month, or Friday as the last day of the working week. Instead, I invite you to try and consider the idea that the end of the week is Thursday, and the last day of the month is the 25th. You will see in a moment the gains this thinking would deliver. I once asked salespeople at a conference when they would book orders for the month. Their reply was: the end of the month. I asked them to commit to an exact date, and each said: 30th of this month. I countered, saying if we were to assume that the month has only 25 days, the end of the month will be 25th. This would mean all orders would be booked 5 days in advance of when they were being booked at that time. This would give salespeople an additional 5 days a month to sell, which translates into 60 days a year, i.e. 2 whole additional months! So targets can actually be padded up by about 16% (2 months’ equivalent). The salespeople were pleasantly
Alert: Repeated and consistent reminders are required before the culture of realgency is established. You may need to alter your own working style to get it in tune with realgency thinking before you try to convert others in the company. What’s In It For Me?: Realgency makes it difficult for complacency to enter the organization.Realgency promotes a can-do attitude, keeping employee efficiency and productivity high at all times
shocked to see the calculation. Each one said that s/he would try to get the orders by 25th and not 30th. And why not! They would earn more incentives faster. The best part of this additional selling time is that it has been gained at absolutely no extra cost whatsoever!! This is realgency. Reality that time flies combined with the feeling of urgency that the day/week/ month is over the moment it starts and that the end of the week/month is Thursday/25th of the month, instead of Friday/30th!! You may wonder, and rightly so, how you can make realgency part of each employee’s mindset. I accomplished this by making the senior leadership team start every review meeting with the statement: “the week and month has begun but we consider it over”. Realgency ends up creating more time, quicker action, and builds a culture of being able to always meet deadlines and still have time to deliver extra at no additional cost. That is where every SME wants to be. So, sooner the realgency concepts enters the minds of employees, you will surely see the benefits begin to add up. To write to the author please send an email to dare@ cybermedia.co.in with subject line ‘Ajay Wahi’
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What’s new? A sneak peek into what’s new on the gadget shop this month
Canon Pixma MG5270 All-In-One
Price: `58,000/-
NEC NP216 Projector The 3D ready projector is ideal for classrooms and office use. Weighing at 2.6kg, it is the same as most projectors available in the market in terms of overall dimensions. The NP216 projector is a star performer. In normal usage, the projector gave superb clarity with vivid colour tones and unbelievable white and black levels. Viewing presentations and documents was great and even in videos the projector turned out to be a good performer. The 7W speakers are good just for a meeting room as it's not too loud.
Combining printer, copier and scanner in one device, Canon has given its users a sturdy performer for home and office use. The allin-one is compact in dimensions and weighs only 8KG. It comes with a glossy black finish and boasts of multiple trays i.e. a bottom cassette for plain paper and a rear tray for photos. The printer uses five separate cartridges which ensures that if one cartridge is running low, the printer does not stop working. For users who require heavy printing, a new replacement cartridge costs Rs 725 which is very economical.
Price: `9,995/-
Tech-Com SSD-600-USB portable speaker Despite being tiny, this mobile music unit comes with 2.1 powerful bass speakers, delivering high quality stereo sound experience with any kind of genre and style of music you choose to play. It has also a built in FM radio and comes with a fully functional remote control for easy control. It comes with built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery that can be charged via a PC or a wall charger.
Price: `1,299/-
Content generated from DARE.CO.IN | FEBRUARY 2011
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OCT 07 - JAN 11
Please visit www.dare.co.in to read articles published in these previous issues of DARE For fresh subscriptions or renewals of the magazine, please visit http://www.dare.co.in/subscribe/
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ENTREPRENEUR WEEK (February Edition)
Beerud Sheth
UR Tata
Rohit Mahajan
SMS Gupshup
CGTMSE
Saviance Technologies
Anant Koppar
Sameer Guglani
K2 Technologies
Morpheus Ventures
Industry Experts Insightful Topics of Discussion How to get free loans? Febcollateral 07 – Feb 11, 2011 Dailybusiness 4:00 pm to 4:45 and pm Build a great Investors Register for free at: www.dare.co.in/eweek Building an IT product company What can you do on Entrepreneurs’ Week? 1. Network With Others. You can connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs between 4pm – 4.45pm (IST) and listen to a prominent entrepreneur who has crossed the Rubicon in a webinar. Visit http://www.dare.co.in/eweek and register today. 2. Show Your Gratitude. In the past couple of decades, a slew of new and fearless entrepreneurs have emerged and have brought a sea-change in our economy, from a slow-paced to a burgeoning one. If you know any of these path-breakers, thank them. And if you are one of them, take the opportunity of thanking all those who have helped you give shape to your dream. 3. Be A Mentor. Do you recall that one person who constantly pushed you to start your first business or helped you bring your first big idea to life? If you do, join us and return the favour. Find an aspiring entrepreneur, who you can mentor through all times, good or bad. Happy entrepreneurs’ week everyone and do spread the word! Visit dare.co.in/eweek to register yourself.
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RNI No.DELENG/2007/22197. Posting Date: 5th & 6th of every month. Posted at Lodi Road HPO.
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