EMPRESSARIO …An Entrepreneurial Insight
SEPTEMBER ‘2012 Vol. III Iss. 1
IMT-H
CONTENTS Prarambh Speaks .................................................................... 4 Start-up Interview Where did that come from??? ..................................... 5 Monthly Features The Road to Entrepreneurship ..................................... 8 ALTER-EGO: The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship .. 10 Corruption In India .................................................... 12 Add-ons Readers’ Corner .......................................................... 14 Editor’s Quiz/Current News ...................................... 14 Team Prarambh ........................................................... 15
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Prarambh Speaks “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope“ - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Amidst all the hurly-burly seen recently in the news regarding businesses and market, Prarambh comes out with the third issue of its monthly newsletter, focussed on the conservative topic of the darker side of businesses. So, keeping in mind the subject matter and the current state of affairs, we have kept the volume a little lighter this month. Like the different economies of the world, we too have been busy with a lot of activities on the campus. From selecting a possible core team for the next year to planning and organising the first entrepreneurial food festival, a lot of brain-storming was done which took most of the energy and time of the team. Details and clicks of the food festival would be taken up in the next issue. We are also looking into the possibilities of organising more events like the food festival on a bigger scale to encourage the entrepreneur inside to come out and flourish. But the ideas are still on the drawing board and it will take some more time to make these a reality. Till then, watch this space as we will keep you informed. We always look forward towards your wishes and feedback to better ourselves in this small endeavour of ours, and make this newsletter more appealing and appeasing. Happy reading.
Team Prarambh
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Start-up Interview (Contributed by Rohit Seth)
Where did that come from???
Dhruv Raj Sharma Founder , Logophilia Education Pvt. Ltd
Logo+philia, the love for words, is the world’s only educational enterprise that strives to facilitate students of all levels in learning English words through the study of their roots i.e. Etymology.
PRARAMBH: What is your educational background? How did it help in the genesis of the idea? Dhruv: I have a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Allahabad, a Masters in Applied Psychology from the University of Delhi, which helped me in understanding and counselling adolescents and recognise the educational needs of children in general. I have a Masters in Cognitive Sciences from the Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences. I specialised in Psycholinguistics (the study of the how the brain interacts with Language) which helped me understand how the brain perceives and processes language. I have also undergone an intensive course in Ancient Classical Latin from the University of Cork, Ireland. Latin gives English nearly 46% of its words: so anyone who wants to teach English Etymology needs to know the language from which it is derived. I also had hands on experience in teaching English Vocabulary and Public Speaking 3 years before starting ‘Logophilia’. I got the idea of Etymology Education as a vocabulary instructor because the traditional way to teach English is nowhere as effective as the Etymology way.
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PRARAMBH: What is the idea behind your business? Dhruv: The Idea that forms the base for us is that on an average a student learns 400 new words a year and ends up with a maximum vocabulary of 10000 words after his/her schooling. The total number of words in the English language is 10,00,000 (1 million). Hence, it is scary to know that these students know only 1% words of the language which are used to communicate every other subject they study. We at Logophilia , facilitate 1000 words in two hours through our Etymology Education concept, in which we teach you how and from where the parts that make up a word are derived from, so that students learn by understanding and not through the shallow process of rote memorisation. PRARAMBH: What are the programs that you offer? Dhruv: We offer several programs according to different needs of Vocabulary instruction for students at different levels. Broadly, we have school and college level Etymology Education Programmes, from basic to advance. In addition, we have specialised College level programs on Etymology for Law, Medicine, etc. PRARAMBH: So, how’s it going? Dhruv: We have organised Etymology workshops at prestigious institutions like IIT-Delhi, Lady Sri Ram College of Commerce. Logophilia has gone abroad too : last year we did two schools in America: the Lincoln High School, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the T.F. Rigg’s High School, Mitchell, SD. We also organise school and college level vocabulary, spellings and pronunciation Olympiads, called ‘Logo+philia – War for Words’: this is being developed to become a television Olympiad soon. We have tie-ups with over 30 schools across 10 cities, which follow our Etymology curriculum in teaching English. PRARAMBH: What motivated you to get into the Education Services Sector? Dhruv: First, since the time I was a college student, I always wanted to create the best school in the country; impact education in a major way. That goal kept evolving, and took various shapes. Finally, with the kind of education I had, the experience and then the idea, nothing made more sense than Logophilia : it was a persistent thought. I also developed empathy for a student who is labelled ‘dumb’ because of his inability to memorize words as opposed to his ability to understand things. The methodology of teaching words is through literature where a student is supposed to find out the words he doesn’t know, when those words are not even used in their original sense by the writer. It teaches the usage of words and not the word itself. PRARAMBH: How do you see the future of your company? What are your goals? Dhruv: We want to change the way English is taught around the world. We want Etymology Education to become a part of the curriculum as a separate subject. We are writing books on English Vocabulary through Etymology – 5 books have been already written and will be published soon. We are working towards creating world’s first graphic online Etymology
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dictionary. This Application is called “Etymologise This!”, and works to split any word to tell users about its construction, and logical meaning. Also, on our agenda is to conduct multilingual research on how Hindi and Urdu words are formed by studying their roots through programs called ‘Shabdophilia’ & Lavzophilia, respectively. We have been studying word formation in Sanskrit and Urdu extensively. Lavzophilia may well be the world’s first attempt at publicizing Urdu Etymology Education. Our aim is to not only develop a better understanding of English but other widely used languages used for study as a medium. We are a social enterprise, plugging the gap in the understanding of the English language and Vocabulary.
Our aim is to not only develop a better understanding of English but other widely used languages used for study as a medium
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Monthly Features The Road to Entrepreneurship (Contributed by Sarita Ghosh) As a kid, everybody has a dream of pursuing a career which they are utmost fascinated by, however as we grow up we give up this desire .Why don’t we follow our passion, is it the lack of thirst for achievement or the lack of imagination or both? As we grow up, we are posed by questions like putting the bread on the table at the end of the day and for few it is the lack of financial support. It takes courage to go after your dreams and one needs to be brave while sailing through the deep waters. When we talk about entrepreneurship what we picture is a rich, famous and influential person who stands out in the society because of his contributions to it. Most people want to be entrepreneurs because they want to mint money. Major startups fail because they lack innovation or proper planning for the project. There is no dearth of talent in our country but there is a scarcity of knowledge necessary to successfully project this talent across this customer oriented market. Some startups are restricted in creativity due to capital availability so they do not impress the customers and soon it dies as it is unable to raise funds for continuation. Some on the other hand invest too much and are unable to sustain as the product can’t be afforded by the common man.
Globally nearly 90% startup business fails. Only 10 out of 100 sustain at last. What leads this 10% startup to success?
Let me give you a very simple example of a startup failure, the example of a restaurant. The inputs that one might estimate for running a successful restaurant are good chefs, an attractable ambience, a hygienic kitchen and a decent location for the restaurant .An entrepreneur would be too optimistic that with these ingredients , he would be able attract the customers. Since it is a startup it is not difficult to acquire for the first few customers, however it is very difficult to retain these customers for a lifetime. Major startups use the strategy of low pricing to initially attract customers and fail to retain customer loyalty as soon as the prices of their services or products are increased. Thus we should price the product in such a manner that we are able to regain our initial investment. We would also see a decline in the quality of their services as time elapses; this would also be a reason for reducing sales. Another reason why restaurants fail is because the owners feel that hiring a manager would
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help them run the business profitably, however that’s not the case. If we hire untrustworthy managers they would drink away the profits and always project a loss. Also we would observe that losses occur due to poor inventory management i.e. wastage, improper storage, over ordering, inconsistent portion size and improper storage facility. These were a few facets that the restaurant owner didn't keep in mind before starting up the business which led to the sheer breakdown of the business. This business in particular was lucky in retaining the customers but while choosing the person to run and look out for the operational activities and account keeping, gave the responsibility in the hands of the one without conducting a background check. According to the thorough analysis done by ChubbyBrain , USA , a list of top 20 common reasons the founders gave has been compiled ,which are responsible for startup failures.
Majority of the reasons are related to execution Courtesy: www.chubbybrain.com One of the core inputs of effectively running a business, a manager, is required to be selected keeping in mind his personality; way of thinking, of analysing situations, and what he believes is good for the society and all the stakeholders of the business.
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ALTER-EGO: The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship (Contributed by Sudip Brahmachary) “…and the secret to life is, though, to fall seven times and get up eight times” - Paulo Coelho Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to cherish and talk about the ambitious ventures of great visionaries who shaped the corporate world and setup an example for themselves as how badly one can succeed in life. But nobody wants to talk about the other counterpart to this glamorous world of success, a world where everything is awl and murky, a world that witnesses the negation of the glitzy portrayal of success, power and fame, where the extent of moral anarchy is completely subverted, and success suffer a long eclipse. Every year a hell lot of people jumps into the choppy waters of entrepreneurship to achieve their goals. But only a negligible portion can only survive. Seems Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ is applicable even here, but with a slight modification. Everyone has failed at one point of time or other, but few showed and had the courage to get to and start again. But it is interesting to inspect why ventures fail? Let us see where are the entrepreneurs are going wrong in placing their cards?
The Market
Jack of all trades, master of none
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Show is where the money is
Boss is the owner
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The market: The most important reason why ventures fail is due to the very market where it is about to operate. A new venture has to compete with the sharks that are already there in the market. The general scenario is that almost every market is already overcrowded with too many players, and companies fight among themselves just to break even. And in such a situation if further new firms enter the market, it leads to the venture failing miserably. Hence for any start-up it is of utmost importance that it chooses its market carefully. Jack of all trades, master of none: Again it is a game of patience. There is absolutely no room for the one who wants to gross into millions from the very beginning only. Young entrepreneurs often try to mix and match the products from one sector to the other, basically in an attempt to find the market that suits them the best. But in doing so often fails miserably as neither they gather the requisite skill sets for sustaining in a particular sector, nor they are left with enough capital to continue their bon voyage. Again people jump into entrepreneurship without acquiring proper education or experience of the market. And this decision results in havoc to them, ultimately resulting in the venture to close or fail. Show is where the money is: There is no second opinion of the fact that finance is the life blood of business. And without stable cash backup no business can survive. There is always a gestation period after which the business starts to give returns. And till that time the business needs to have sufficient cash balance in its accounts to maintain the day to day activities. Most of the time, entrepreneurs make a wrong assessment of the gestation period, and the cash required for the period. And as a result, the venture fails even before its fruits are ripe. Boss is the owner Any venture cannot be a success with just an individual effort. Rather it is a collage of the performance of the entire team that works towards the common and shared agenda of making the venture a success. And in achieving so the venture needs to be blessed with highly compassionate people, who works in the business with the same passion and enthusiasm that they would have in their own venture. But finding such a team is like finding gem in a stack of pebbles. The managing team plays a very important role in determining the fate of a venture, and sometimes it is due to the incompetency of the team that the venture fails. Hence to conclude we can say that though we always tend to see the glamorous part of the story, the other side of the coin often remains a story untold or rather unheard. Some poems don’t rhyme; some notes don’t make music, some stories don’t have a good ending, but nevertheless every such endeavour is worth lending a patient ear to. It really takes a lot of guts to take decisions of entering into a new venture, with a pre knowledge that the roads ahead are not going to be smooth at all, each story has something to teach us, to inspire us, to boast our moral “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”. And we have only one thing to say to them- ‘Bravo’.
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Corruption In India (By Sibojyoti Chakrabarti, ITM-IFM, NaviMumbai)
“Corruption� is a social malaise, which has spread its tentacles throughout the entire Indian Administrative set up. Corruption is prevalent right from the top to the bottom of the bureaucratic hierarchy. It is because of this corruption, that we, the general masses have to face hardships. Starting from birth of a child, his/her parents have to approach the Registrar of Births & Deaths, for a Birth Certificate, for which they are asked for a bribe. Many other Government departments have the same scenario. Although after being selected as a Minister a person takes an oath that he will serve the country, with honesty, integrity and uphold the dignity of the Indian Constitution but these words are all in vain, as things change completely after securing a position in the government. Even the much respected Judiciary is not spared from this disease of corruption. For procuring a court order, we have to pay huge amounts, though it is usually available free of cost. The courts Officers harass the litigants and they are left with no other option except to pay bribes. Come to the much discussed Indian Policing System. It is said that if any police Officer is honest, he is an exception, and he cannot continue to remain so, because of his colleagues. According to the police Act, 1861 accepting bribe by any police personnel is an offence, though it is practiced rampantly. Further Senior Officers are aware of this, but little can be done, to eradicate this. Even the Collectorate Office, considered as an important entity at the workplace is under the clutches of corruption. The Income Tax Department, postal Department and all other departments have one thing in common i.e. Corruption. In the Education System of India, seats are bought and sold in colleges. It is often seen that meritorious students get wiped off and those students who have some contacts or references get the opportunity to study in the so called good institutions. Ironically, it is in a school that we are taught the basic moral values of life viz. Honesty, sincerity, hard work, and it is the same education system, which makes us dishonest and corrupt.
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Cloud of Major Scams in India till date The Indian Parliament has enacted many legislations, to abolish the disease of corruption, like the Anti-Corruption Act, 1997. To extend their implementation it has formed some authorities like the Central Vigilance Commission, Central & State Information Commissions, and Central Bureau of Investigation. Though they try to combat corruption, but are not that successful. The recent “fight for Corruption” led by Anna Hazare, has proved to be quite fruitful, since the Government had to bow down and accede to his demands, and bring the Prime Minister’s Office under JanLok Pal Bill. Finally I would say that it is we, the people of India, who are responsible for corruption, and it is we who can make this society corrupt free. If we all take small steps on an individual level like not bribing the police personnel, not bribing a government official then only we can be successful in fulfilling the dream of living in a corruption free society.
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Add-ons Readers’ Corner Got any comments? Would you like to contribute to the newsletter? Get back to us at: ecellprarambh@gmail.com. Your comments/views and articles would be published from the next issue. A few things to be kept in mind:
Articles/comments should not be demeaning / damaging in nature. Articles should be to the point and of around 500 words. The decision of selecting the articles to be featured and the number of such articles rests with the faculty mentor and editor of the newsletter.
So put on your thinking caps and show us your intellect side.
Editor’s Quiz/Current News Every month, to keep you informed with the past and current happenings in the business world, we would start this column very soon.
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Team Prarambh
Faculty Mentor Dr. Archana Pillai Core Members: Arjun Chaudhuri Udit Luthur Divya Vuppala Vaibhav Chabra Manish Vishnu M. Designing, Compiling & Tech support: Prateek Mukherji Pankaj Gaurav Editing team: Anshika Rai Ridhima Kumar Harsh Kapadia Ameya Lingaraju
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Vol. III Iss. 1 | Empressario | Sep 2012 | Prarambh | IMT-H