Archive for the ‘Paritosh Live’ Category

Its Not Just a Company Its the Love for the Country!

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5

Jul
21

Its 2:04 A.M, as I am sitting at the Until ROI office, and looking at dreams outside the balcony on the third floor. Its the Delhi skyline, I am looking at and its a quiet time, when nothing sounds except you and your heart and those many sleepless dreams!

And as I sit here, at such a time, I am doing two things:

  1. Working to make sure all the deliveries to our clients are completed on time
  2. I just saw the entire 12 part series of “Inside The World Trade Center” by Discovery Channel on YouTube

“And as I just finished seeing the series, I am filled with anger and hope, death and life and many other emotions at the same time”

Well, and as they say you can never predict the future, just keeping the thought in my mind, I write this post, and to start with I want to thank everyone from my family to friends, some people who I have been really close in life, all whom I have respected more than my life and many others, who I know I remember deep down in my heart! Especially I thank my family and Suhita Poddar, who has kept the ultimate faith on me and Until ROI and being from London School of Economics still offered to join a rising start-up rather than go in for a great comfortable job!

THANKS FOR WHAT?

Well, thanks for making me the man I am. Thanks for giving me the heart to proudly say, that today I am an entrepreneur, not because I wanted to make a lot of money and be rich and famous, but actually if I share the real story in my heart, its about, how I always wanted to join the Indian Air Force and achieve the dream called INDIA.

I COULD NOT BECOME AN AIR FORCE OFFICER, I CHOSE TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR!

Due to whatever reasons that I could not become one, I found my calling in the purpose which I have deep inside my heart since I know of myself, which is, to see my country, my INDIA as one of the fastest and the biggest superpowers in the world. That no-one, and I mean no-one ever calls us the 3rd world country.

And today for the first time in my life, I want to share it with the world. I became an entrepreneur, well, to make INDIA a superpower. YES! to many it may sound weird, and this may come as a statement to just boast on, but I challenge you, to join Until ROI, I will promise you one of the fastest growing careers, though we are a very small company right now!

You know why I can confidently say this? well, because you will be joining this company with a vision of INDIA and when INDIA grows, we will anyway grow up and that too much faster!

INDIA IS MY STORY!

INDIA is my story, Iv always been passionate about this one feeling called INDIA in life. After not succeeding to become an Air Force officer, I decided to be an entrepreneur earning a meager 15k a month, living in Delhi, being responsible towards the family. I knew being an entrepreneur would be one of the best ways I can really fuel the fire. Create employment, Create New Dreams, Empower other people’s passion and get the real determination out of them!

I CAN GET A COMFY JOB

Yes, I can get a very comfy job, leading marketing for a major corporate, but well, where is the empowerment of thousands and millions of others? That’s my calling!

WHAT WILL THEY SAY WRITING MY OBITUARY?

They will write, this was that man, who showed us how to see dreams and fight till the very end, even if all hell broke lose, even then, fight it out and he empowered us to create the dream called INDIA.

WHAT AM I DOING AS OF NOW TO JUSTIFY ALL I AM SAYING?

At Until ROI we have a mandate, set by me as the Founder and CEO, that every 10 paying clients that we get at Until ROI, we sponsor the education of a poor and DESERVING child! And I will make sure that we take personal care in raising that child and chose the best out of them to hone them into leading organisations of tomorrow’s INDIA. And mind you, we are still a small company, a start-up as they call us!

I CALL YOU TODAY!

I call you today – yes, the one reading this post, if you feel there is some part of your heart, which is screaming out to achieve your dreams after reading this post, well, give me a ping and we will talk about exploring opportunities of working together to achieve this dream called “INDIA”! Write to me at careers@untilroi.com and we will live the dream we call INDIA!

Being Paritosh Sharma – My Story

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23

Jun
12

This blog post is surely one of the closest to my heart! And before going ahead with it, I must thank the people in my life who have made it possible for an ever middle class, traditional, safeguarded by Jobs background individual (which I was) to be a dreamer, an entrepreneur today!

There are many, though to name a few, My Folks, Neha, Gayatri, Sarika, Rajiv Sir and a host of others who have always been a support!

Entrepreneurial life is something, which can only be read about in books and blogs, but felt the high of, only when you leave a comfortable job, to find your dreams, when you give into your eternal calling and make a way for yourself.

How I got My Wings?

I remember how I was the happiest soul on earth when I had received a good offer from a major Indian IT company to work in their testing practice at Bangalore, I was sure that now the career is set. It was a different kind of a high! BUT still, what was a bigger high for me, as I remember those moments today after a couple of years, was to sit on a plane, the first ever flight of my life. I had never been on a plane all my life and that one journey from Delhi to Bangalore on a plane, got me my first wings!

After delivering a highly successful project, I felt a void, some sort of a calling. When everyone else used to leave office at 6-7PM, I used to sit at the library, get books, loads of them, and sit through reading stories of established people. A Ratan Tata, An Ambani, they were all dreams that time. And finally I decided its time!

I Quit my First Job after 9 months

Obviously everyone in the friends and family said, you have lost it, why do you want to come back to Delhi when you have all the chances of going onsite and have a good life? I still remember, when I packed my bags from Bangalore and got onto the flight, with nothing in hand, I was a little unsure as to what will I do next after landing in Delhi.

Finally landed in Delhi, quite some humiliation and frustration, but finally when the dust settled everyone accepted the fact, that I had quit a safe haven only to do something of my own. And I started my search for something.

My Ex-boss From My Part Time Job from Class 12th Called up

I was working since class 12th. Did road shows, Joined a Start-up BPO unit which today is pretty established while I was pursuing full time college. My Ex-boss called up, when he got to know I’m in Delhi and we said lets work again.

And to everyone’s utter amaze, I became a Relationship Manager with an insurance company. The job was simple, go pick your bag each morning and come back to office with a cheque in your hands and be happy till you are performing.

The targets, the pressure of performing, the heat, dust, cold weather, abusive people in Delhi, I faced it all. Iv knocked at people’s doors, just to be shooed away under the name of insurance agent.

I was performing though, but was not satisfied. Though till today I think this was one of the most steep learning phase of my life, when I got to know how to sell! YES! I could sell… taking a cheque worth a lakh of rupees in India, from a lala sitting in a Gandhi Nagar, Kapda Market, is no less than a feat.

I moved on…

I submitted my resignation to my boss, who was against it, telling him, Boss I will come back one day with my own company. There is a bigger calling for me in life.

And I started looking again and hit upon my first idea and floated a company called: “WeYouPoint – Together we make a point” it was an idea of creating an online platform to get the industry and the academia together. I did my research and started building contacts, by going to smaller colleges and delivering lectures and talks!

I became the second youngest Indian after Ankit Fadia, to deliver a talk at Symbiosis Pune! Where it was a mixed feedback I got, but for me, it was a high of sorts. I remember, how it was hurting to invest 3500 rupees to catch a flight to Pune and reach the college, but I had in mind that this could be the turning point.

But As They Say Life Aint That Easy…

The venture could not work out, due to two simple reasons:

  1. I was immature to really understand the dynamics of running a venture
  2. I learnt the art of building the right team of people

And I came back to square one, jobless, again an undecided member of the family, and someone who was not right as per the people around. At an age of 20-21 when I was discovering myself and following my heart, there was a lot which put me back, also I missed not having a mentor around at that time.

Finally to sustain myself, I had to go back to being in a job and I knew selling, so went back to the wealth management industry and started performing, with my eyes and ears open to all sorts of ideas and stories and everything else.

And Now I wanted to Know, How People Earn From the Internet?

YES! Internet was catching up at that time, and I wanted to know how people could just sit at home and earn. And my quest started, which pulled me into studying the internet closely. Closely such that one fine day I stumbled upon a major industry association’s Blog.

And to be honest, I did not know what a blog meant, till I saw it and this was in 2007 end.

I knew I could write and there was a lot in me which wanted to share and learn and grow and hence I contacted the administrator of the blog, with a blog post, who actually responded back and today he is a mentor, a guide to me! He came as a stroke of opportunity and it changed the game.

I started blogging and that is how Paritosh Sharma the blogger emerged. I got my motivation from the fact that people started liking my work and this kicked in me the view of taking it to the next level, which was to take my skills LIVE. And I started going to events, while LIVE blogging them.

People till today express amaze as to how fast can you capture the thoughts of a speaker, speaking LIVE at an event? And I say, its the love of the work guys, it makes you achieve things automatically!

I became the Official Blogger for One of India’s Largest Industry Associations…

While this happened, it opened a new chapter in my life with an offer from a start-up into Social Media Marketing, to expand the Social Media operations with the Co-Founding team! Though Social Media was fresh, very fresh 2 years back, we started dabbling into the same and made a name for ourselves.

This was a good learning period for me as it opened up a whole new world of opportunities, which spelled future!

And future it was, with the New Media industry gaining ground, I found my calling. I knew this is it. This has enough scope for exploration, freedom of expression, delivering absolutely innovative solutions and creating new possibilities for clients.

Becoming a Social Media Evangelist was a turning point in life and till date Iv never looked back.

Plugging Gaps in The Industry Which I Realized Early On, I Started Until ROI

Looking at the gaps in the delivery and expectations of the market, I again set out to plug the same and started a venture called Until ROI.

Its been 7 months now and we have been growing as a company briskly, with interesting offers of acquisition and the rest. I remember how it all started from a very modest small store room, a laptop and me. Yes, that was http://untilroi.com/ when we started and today we are a growing team of passionate people who are simply winning hearts with absolute client satisfaction and innovative solutions for the market.

I want to thank every client, every one who supported us through all the rough patches, these 7 months have not been the easiest months of our lives. For me personally its been like a new birth. Like a new life, which is of learning, exploring, knowing the various dynamics of creating an organization.

And today as I sit at a good looking, though a small one room office, at 5 AM in the morning, remembering old times, and taking new decisions, making new calls, I feel blessed, to be, to choose to be an Entrepreneur! With dreams of making it big for not just myself, my team, my people, and many others who I wish to touch with the possibilities of seeing dreams and reaching out to get them, today I feel good taking strides!

May God Bless everyone and give everyone the power to change the world for the better of everyone else :)

Exploring Business Opportunities in Germany at NASSCOM 53rd EMERGE Friday’s 2.0

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Nov
13

As the Official Blogger for the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0, many people ask me, that I would surely have a plethora of knowledge with me, as I have the opportunity to attend all the sessions and also since I LIVE blog the sessions, I must be highly attentive.

Today I again am excited to bring forth the high worth and value knowledge which gets created at the NASSCOM EMERGE Friday’s 2.0 and am glad to be making it alive for all of you who could not be present at the session, though we would love to have more participation along and expand the community.

Today we have Ulrich Bäumer, Partner, Osborne Clarke and BITKOM representative and Asha-Maria Sharma, Senior Manager, Service Industries, Germany Trade and Invest GmbH, giving us an insight into the German ICT environment and business verticals for partnership as identified by Germany Trade And Investment (GTAI) for Indian companies and important aspects of What works and what doesn’t in M&A, overview of the legal and practical ways of doing business in Germany.

The room is full and well, its interesting to know how many people in the room want to understand the German market. So we have the session with a brief introduction on what Germany Trade and Invest is.

  • Promoting Germany’s advantages as a prime location for foreign investors in hi-tech industries
  • Collecting and processing economic data and information about industries, tender procedures, legaal frameworks etc.

Interestingly, the investors consultancy part of the company, is into much diversified scope:

  • Renewable Energies and Resources
  • Chemicals and Healthcare
  • Mechanical and Electronic
  • Service Industries

We are now getting to know what it is all about being in Germany, with the geographical location to the travel time. To know how blackberry and Vodafone and such large companies are actually settling in Germany. Pros and Cons of different places for your business ill be different and you need to understand that, with relevance to your business.

We are talking clusters in Germany now, I am interested to know this space, as its pretty big a space in India as well and some really interesting work is on with respect to them.

Germany offers different incentive packages to re-imburse an investment project’s expenditures

With the market volume of above 133 billion Euros Germany’s ICT industry ranks second in Europe. These are interesting figures. in 2008 German companies closed a good number of BPO and IT deals, hence there is a plenty of space.

Germany is the most lucrative software market in Europe, accounting for 26.1% of the EU market value. We are talking about the diversification of software market in Germany.

There is a good presence of the SME industry in Germany and it could surely be of interest to many of you

Talking Green!

Green ideas in IT and Green through IT, is what we are working on this and should you have products under this umbrella, you should definitely explore Germany.

Software Security is one area which we are really concerned about. We have had cases with data loses with social networks and as anyone, we Germans are surely much sensitive about our personal information, hence there is good space in the domain. Embedded systems market is of a fairly good size in Germany and you will also find clusters in the Southern part related to the domain.

Germany has by far the highest number of internet users in Europe creating large potential for business

  • E-commerce
  • Gaming market
  • Online Advertising

I am personally amazed with the numbers on the slides, especially for the gaming and online advertising, which is showing a huge surge. German companies are moving from Print to Online.

  • Market growth areas: Green IT + E-Energy + E-health
  • Mobil apps: Increase in non-voice-services
  • Embedded systems
  • IT Services and Software

And now we are talking about the automotive industry in Germany, which to mention also is the home for Mercedez. The small manufacturers are spread across Germany and there is no one hub/ cluster.

I suggest the best way to get in touch is to attend conferences and other events to know the suppliers and other specific information you require about your business.

And now we have Ulrich, thanking everyone in the room, for whom this is the 12th visit to India. I advise SME’s in Germany also to get to India. And Ulrich shares the agenda for the session:

Interestingly we are going to discuss, Co-operation between Indian and German Companies. We have a very different law in Germany and its completely different in almost every way than what you have in India. Hence you need to understand the basic laws which are very important before you sign up your first customer in India.

You must definitely thank your peer Indian IT companies, who ventured into Germany 10-15 years back, coz they had to persuade German people, for the price and quality and hence for you guys its easier now to reach out to the German companies, which buy Indian IT not just because of the price, but for the quality as well.

So we have started with the introduction for the Law company which is Osborne Clarke. Very ineresting to know how many people they have helped set up in Germany. There are surely some very interesting and Big Indian names on the list that we have on screen.

Co-operation in Germany

  • Merger
  • Acquisition
  • JV
  • Partnership
  • Build Operate Transfer – It Outsourcing
  • Indo-German Strategic Alliance

Many of our M&A’s have been extremely successful and have been running for 10-15 years. Ulrich is sharing the previous success stories that they have created, and these also include some real big Indian corporate names.

So now we are discussing Common Law and Civil Laws in Germany which are surely an absolute necessity for you to set up in Germany.

Common Law (inductive)

Problem -> Judgement -> Ratio decidendi

Civil Law (deductive)

Statute -> Problem -> Application

I am very impressed with the way, Ulrich has simply explained the entire difference between the Common and Civil Laws and how can you in simple measures look at what you can expect when you reach the German shores, or establish out of India. Ulrich is very interestingly raised the awareness of the people in the room and sure all are all ears!

Now we are getting an insight into the European Legal System. Well, sure the German Law is definitely different from how we operate in India. And now gets answered the question, of many a people who wanted to know about Branch offices and how to set them up in Germany.

The outsourcing market is growing in Germany and I think in 2010 the curve will continue to grow up

Good to see how the Indian IT Services industry has grown and set foot in Germany. And well this figure has raised since 2007. Service providers have now crossed out to the other side.

Have you ever thought about off-shoring: 27% of the part said to this that they have larger projects already LIVE which have been off-shored. If we do off-shoring, we do it to India, is what the 67% of the people who answered this sample survey said. Some really interesting figures, being shared by Ulrich.

I personally dont see a single Chinese company, to overtake any of the large Indian IT service companies. China will NOT be a challenge in the near future for the Indian ITeS market.

In the Non Voice market, I dont see players as large as those in India, challenging the Indian players.

Language barrier is a comfort issue, in my experience it has been like: 80% of the deals across the table have happened in English. Its always good to have a native speaker, but its not a necessity.

Ulrich again shares the 8 key issues which you can face in your outsourcing contract in Germany.

  • warranty
  • Liability
  • Acceptance
  • Delay
  • Change requests
  • etc.

Talking about warranty, liability and guaranty. Well, yes the entire room is interested in this conversation. Ulrich presents the whole idea of liability with very simply presented examples. Well liability without any limitation under German law, implies fully, if you have not mentioned anything about it in your contract. Eyes get raised at such a point.

The data protection laws in Germany are surely something to learn from. The labour laws are surely pretty strict in Germany. The session is interactive and there are good questions coming from the audience.

And now we end with the session with the audience still very interested and questions pouring in with respect to IPR and other related to the IT services.

Its been a good session and I feel good to know about Business in Germany, thanks to Asha and Ulrich for their precious time.

Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, LIVE at The Leaders In India 2009 On Entrepreneurship

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Oct
10

So, we have Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw post lunch at The Leaders In India 2009. I have always admired Kiran as a woman entrepreneur. She has proven words with actions! My respects Mam :)

Talkign about the Global Biotech sector Kiran says that it is a business size of over 90 billion dollars globally. Each of the past decades have triggered a new growth of innovation. Interesting to know how the entire Biotech industry has evolved over time. Though Ihave not really understood the Biotech industry much, but sure, I am intrigued!

My own journey of Biocon has been that of experimenting and learning! I call myself an accidental entrepreneur!

I was always interested in brewing. I have had to overcome countless challenges over decades. We started small with simple technologies we built and also partnering has helped me build my own entrepreneurial vision. I started my entrepreneurial journey when I had the provilige of starting India’s first Biotech company, which had its own large number of challenges. People were very skeptical of success and at my time, India was still a developing company and we had sub-optimal structure that we have today and it was the time of the license raj than today. I was a 25 yearold first generation woman entrepreneur!

All I had was foolish courage!

There was no access to VC all I could avail of was very expensive debt based funding which I accepted. I was very driven by green technology at that time. But there were very few takers at that time and one of the BIG challenges I had was, the space I was getting into, was based on one very important need, which is: high quality uniterrupted power supply which India does not have even today.

I started my business from scratch opting for less evolved technology. We focused on a niche opportunity, as I had to be very real about the infrastructure and the environment I was working in. I always knew that India was a very small market for me and hence I had to operate in a niche which gave me some kind of advantage. Also in my starting years, what helped me was, I started this as a JV with a small Irish partner, and they provided me with assistance to market, my product to Global markets and this is what helped my business started.

Up until 1980′s we were still loners in Biotech in India

It was really abotu building this company step by painful step and slowly the Biotech sector started gaining acceptance in India when the govt realized the importance. Creating the skill based that we need to drive this industry has paid us fairly well in time. Thankfully because of the success of the IT and software sector, the VC had taken root in India. Since this happened, we started looking towards VC funding, when we tried to scale up. It also allowed to develop sophisticated products and I was able to compete due to our cost base.

By late 1990′s I had a fermentation unit which could handle all sorts of enzymes

The cluster effect that had started in Bangalore really helped us. the boom in Bangalore had many innovative start-ups in the space which also helped the entire industry as such and hence we were benefited. We had international players coming into India setting up operations which helped gain confidence and many are now building scale into what they were doing. Biocon had started gaining market leadership in the niche segment we were looking at.

As an entrepreneur I felt that enzyme segment was going to be limiting to our growth and we had to take some hard decisions

We hence applied our technology to develop into bio-pharmaceuticals. We were the first to cut across the IP barriers hence defining new opportunities.

“We are the world’s first and only company i manufacturing Insulin and Insulin analogs and I am proud to say that”

Overtime we have become bolder in saying that lets innovate in the Bio-pharmaceuticals now. We can today afford to innovate, we can afford to build programs around new products. Innovation in the field of Bio-tech is something we must surely take very seriously. We tend to opt for low risk services and generic versions of drugs and vaccines.

In India the cost of risk is very affordable and hence we must back innovation

What is happening to companies in the western world, is an opportunity for us. I think India really has a good opportunity to cash on in what is happening in the western world. There is a whole new emerging opportunity in Bio-generics. We will pursue Innovation led mantra to grow and that is really my goal as a company and myself as an entrepreneur! All along e have constantly challeneged ourselves and tracked new technologies.

An important learning that I have learned as an entrepreneur is challenging the status quo and moving ahead

We are trying to develop world’s first Oral insulin and its going to be a game changer for us, if it happens

We have really made a lot of conscious effort in partnering with companies, which has actually helped us leapfrog, and it has been a great business tactic for us. In our journey there is one inflection point, I had a tough and emotional call to make! Enzyme was going no where as we were not really investing enough in it, the reason being we had limited resources. And hence we finally said, we must dis-invest and divested into our competition and they have invested and grown this business fr more than we were doing it at that stage. But we surely benefited out of the IP and knowledge we had built over time. We bought a company in Germanhy which will help us start our operations in Europe.

We have started building global scale in our businesses

Our strategy has been always to develop products, leveraging India’s cost base and using affordability as our competitive edge and we are determined to do it at an affordable rate.

My message to other companies from developing world(s) is, who are stretching hard to fight against odds, we have:

  • Dont hesitate to partner when you want to pursue certain business opportunities, it allows you to grow faster
  • Its important to start simple and start local, be realistic about matching your skill sets w.r.t technologies you are trying to develop

I started my life as a brewmaster looking to brew beer, your journey can take you anywhere, but your life should be an inspiring hope :)

It was great to listen to you Ms. Mazumdar Shaw as usual! The fire of entrepreneurship has surely gotten a needed kick from you!

Now we have the session int he Q&A mode!

LIVE Blogging the Day Two of Leaders In India with Steve Tappin and Mr. Adi Godrej

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Oct
10

So here I am Live blogging the Day two of Leaders In India 2009, with the first keynote being delivered by Mr. Adi Godrej.

I am sure this is going to be a great learning session with immense value for all present.

Our group has a fairly long history, we are 112 years old, Our sales turnover is a little over a 100 billion rupees

Interestingly Adi is sharing keen information about the Godrej business and they have grown till date. In 1991 we clearly felt that we had to give a boost to our competitiveness. We partnered global companies in our existing businesses, which were GE and P&G as Joint Ventures, though they dont’ continue today.

We learnt a lot from these great International organizations, which we have implemented over the years and they have learnt a lot about India, from us

Each of our companies and businesses, has a non family managing director or president who runs the company, I am surely interested in learning this.  We have a rather strict rule which has that only professionally qualified family members can join the business.

I am the third generation in the business and the fourth has already been inducted into the business

One of the major values we believe in is, that people are our strongest assets. We go out of our way to LIVE the value that people are our strongest assets. We have a constitution of a young executive board, one’s with great future potential and their job is to look at strategy, corporate governance, HRD etc, and then advice the Group CEO’s. Hence we get a tremendous bottom up response. I am very intrigued with the learning from Mr. Godrej.

Being a family business, as a professional and entrepreneur, I am so glad to hear and learn about the functioning of the Godrej group and how it is constituted at various levels. Very interestingly the structure provides the company a very strong bottom up feedback in runnign the company and in my view provides them with a great leadership development tool, creating a very scalable structure.

We have very emphatic programs on diversity within the group

Whenever we have emphasized diversity, the talent we get is much better than the average, Eg: if you go out of the way to recruit strong women, you get great talent, in cases much better than men. We have a very strong E-MBA program within the group. People who have not yet done a management degree, are eligible and promoted to do so. We insist on a 5 day learning schedule.

I myself make sure that I at least spend 30 days a year for learning

We follow a process of forced ranking in our group, we force ranks into non-performers and extra-ordinary achievers. The bottom non-performers which we get everytime in ranking, as it is relative. What this process doe sin a country like India is to strongly improve the working of the team, as everybody does good to work to be in the top 20 per cent.

I get evaluated by my sub-ordinates on a 360 degree basis regularly, and this is only a self evaluation tool

We re-assess our portfolio on a very regular basis and in the last years we have had several strategic acquisitions. We hired a British branding partner called Interbrand to re-launch our brand and it helped us great way in re-positioning our brand and leverage the brand asset value and equity towards achieving growth!

Interestingly we have Mr. Godrej talking about the various succession plans in the company.  Talking about succession planning, Mr. Godrej talks about what if you tomorrow come down a bus, well, we are planned for it, and I remember having the similar conversation with a friend, while running an Incubation Consulting company.

Session two of The Leaders In India 2009 WIth a Panel Discussion on Mergers and Acquisition

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Oct
09

So here we are with the second session of Day 1 of The Leaders In India 2009. This is a panel discussion with a very impressive moderated panel, and the discussion will revolve around Mergers and Acquisitions which surely is an interesting discussion to be in.

We have the resident editor from Mumbai for Outlook magazine moderating the session for the gathering and he talks some very interesting numbers.

70% of acquisitions fail

Company like Cisco which has done more than 135 acquisitions till date, we have the Chief Globalization Officer from Cisco, talking about how Cisco has mastered the art of acquisitions. He says the majority of our acquisitions came from our customers. This is the Go To Market anc business strategy for Cisco. We differentiate in market enetering, expansion and acceleration. Our success rate is 70%. We are very high on retention as well.

You need a culture in a company to be able to do M and A

We also do acquisitions to enter new business models. Our learning with acquisitions is that you have to have that culture in your company and today we have an entire team to do these acquisitions. Last but not the least, its a process. Now we are talking India in specific and interestingly Cisco has so far done 6 new investments in India.

Key takeaway: M&A can be a key part of your strategy and it can become your culture

Now we have Mr. Charles from wattson wyatt, giving the Human angle to M&A. What I have learned working with clients, there is no standard template for culture. It has to be something which is central to all parts of your transaction. In terms of due diligence, if you really dont understand the culture of the organization that you are buying, you should not think of buying them.

I was very impressed with the amount of expertise and process and real hard work which went into due diligence when I was working with clients in India

But the whole diligence was on the financial part and not the cultural or Human part. One of the things you need to accept about M and A, is that you need to be better at it.

Interestingly we have an expert talking about post integration and acquisition and she says, when you are in the midst of your deal, how much attention have you paid to the fact that what would happen to the organization after merger and what would form out of it?

You need to have the systems integrated to get the right prioritization, post acquisition integration. The key thing for you is to get the right internal team together. You need to bring all the elements together with common objectives and right prioritization, as you cannot do everything in 30 days, hence you need to have the right planning which will definitely pay dividends in the long run.

By bad post acquisition realizations, and if not planned well, you could inherit losses and other issues. Hence plannign the right internal team with the right objectives is the right thing.

Bad M&A?

Sure, there is bad M&A there, but it is also the time for opportunity. Governments are going to have to raise money in the near future and taxes are the way to do it and hence this is the time to have a strategic look at your group structure and if you have your IP rights at the right places in your organization and if you are exploiting them fully.

Q&A:

Now we are in the q&A mode with the moderator of the session leading with the questions.

Very interesting discussions happening about Indian family businesses and also how Cisco does the right things by setting the right expectations, while discussing business Integration across verticals and internal employee cultures.

Money is a Motivation – setting the right financial structure post integration:

We now are discussion how compensation structures change and how they are controlled and managed over time, post integration. You need to structure the deal looking at the fact that anybody who has set up a business has a huge amount of emotional attachment with the business. What we have found is: if you can intelligently find out the right roles for people post integration, looking at what they are doing, they love, you can have a successful post integration team merger and integration.

Tom Peters the Management Guru – LIVE at The Leaders In India 2009

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Oct
09

Here I am, LIVE blogging Mr. To Peters, Management Guru and Author at The Leaders In India 2009.

We said somethings 25 years ago about basics and we are in this mess today. I said to a MIT graduate, that shut down MIT and we can go a long way in bettering. Since 1996 of my time, I have focused on the issue on women in leadership and women in management. Now it is not an issue of social justice, but its that woman buy things!

I am pretty much able to give a guarantee that I will dissapoint you this morning

If you have reached the age of 66, you know for sure that the only secret is there are no secrets! Tom starts by giving an example of Conrad Hilton’s answer to “what was the most important lesson you’ve learned in your long and distinguished career” and he said, remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bath tub!

The art of war does not require complicated maneuvers; the simplest are the best and common sense in fundamental. From which one might wonder that how it is that generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever – Napolean

Interestingly Tom shares how he has learned from his life and the neighborhood talking about one of the issues that India faces today with its growth, which is continuing the growth.

I am often asked by would be entrepreneurs seeking escape from life within hgue corporate strcutures, How do I build a small firm for myself? The answer is: Buy a very large one and WAIT – Paul Ormered

If you are not pursuing incredibly aggressive strategy, your days are numbered. And Tom shares his experience of working with Mckenzie with one of his colleagues. Interestingly Tom shares some very amazing statistics from the US and how companies have failed over years. if you look at the world’s largest exporters:

  • No.4 is Japan
  • Tie for 2nd and 3rd : American and chinese
  • No 1: Germans

I am a strong strong strong believer of middle sized companies. I believe that medium sized enterprises are the future for us. I think if you look at the US economy, which continues to have a significant productivity lead than the rest of the world, fundamentally every automobile plan has the same productivity!

Everything in existence tends to Deteriorate – Norberto Odebrecht

If you have to make a sizeable company, you have to go to war against yourself. The only thing that beats a company is ITSELF PERIOD! I have read Tom before, and I feel this is an absolute truth, which was also supported by Mr. Subroto Bagchi yesterday at NASSCOM.

Giant mergers destroy value. PERIOD

Execution IS strategy – Fred malek

The three magical words that are crucial for an enterprise. And Tom is giving this perfect example referring to the Blue Ocean! I am impressed Tom :) What’s the point of looking outside if you can’t do anything with your assets?!

Two point strategy by Tom in life:

  1. Execution is strategy
  2. You only find OIL if you drill wells

**My apologies for not being able to blog the entire session by Tom, due to an urgent call by the Co-founder of my company!

But here I am again covering the question and answer round with Tom.Tom just spoke about the lessening of the cultural differences and how we should be working towards getting the systems right! The CEO is NOT teh best strategist, but he is the guy who would get the best Strategist on board to do the right work.

Tom very strongly puts how the best of the projects fail due to lousy execution specs in the proposal. The Chrysler Americans and the Daimler Germans may not be the best strategist in the history! It is the little stuff that matters with significant multiplier effects, says Tom, giving a very interesting example of surgeons.

A professional listener is as same as a professional pilot

Business schools are a scurge of the world! Many of you went to Bschools and so did I, but I like thinking of the fact that I outgrew it!

In my perfect world you should have someone on Board your company under the age of 25! Things are changing and you I can challenge, dont realize it! You are as good as the people you spend your time with.

Live Blogging Tthe Leaders In India 2009 – The Opening Ceremony with Steve Tappin, Peter Rigby and Donald Trump

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Oct
09

Listening to Steve Tappin from Yorkshire, and he pushes the ambitions of CEO’s to be the best and be more inspirational which is his day job and his night job is the book he is writing, which is secrets of CEO’s.
Interestingly, Steve says that two thirds of Global leaders that we have at the moment are not big enough, two thirds are managers at best and they don’t have the leader’s qualities. Steve gives areas for CEO’s:
1.    Business performance
2.    Business leadership
3.    Personal performance
4.    Personal leadership
5.    Talent

And after a good networking energy filled opportunity, we have Peter Rigby, Chief Executive of Informa Group plc, Non-Executive Chairman of Electric Word plc. Peter starts the day with introducing the Leaders In India and how the contribution of such platforms can make a meaningful difference to the communities we serve and as the community as a whole.

We now have Steve again talking about the TRUMP group and here we have Donald Trump. And Donald starts with the resilience of the Indian marketplace and Donald will be talking about the emerging markets in specific the Real Estate Market. WSJ has dubbed Real Estate as India’s new Tech.

It takes an outsiders perspective to look at the things that can change

Donald is sharing his experience of a conference he attended at Dubai and well how the buying patterns are evolving.

To move things forward we really have to get things back to basics.

My father was teaching me abotu business and about focus and he told a story in the early nineties which explained to Donald what focus really is. you can’t be all things to all people. One of the biggest pitfalls every one has seen over the last few years is that all are going the same direction, but in my view we have to understand the subtleties. We hence lost track of basis, we lost track of cost, margins shrunk. Its time to ge trealistic!

Why India today?

interestingly, Donald is talking about the India story and what things can you do differently and what new things can you do to move forward. In 27 years India has only had 1 year of negative growth.

Fluency in English in India is a great advantage, which I see as a great potential, as it still is the language of business

There is a level of aspirational wealth here, that you don’t see anywhere else in the world. The desire here is so much stronger that I have not seen anywhere lse in the world! People here really love try and do things. And you have to love what you do to be successful. You never will out-perform anyone else in the company if you don’t love what you do.

Urbanisation is another thing which is very rapidly growing and is a mind boggling statistic which has applications everywhere

I have always heard of the American Dream, even in Obama’s speech, but today listening to Donald Trump, creating the amazingly HUGE Indian DREAM! I am a proud Indian (as always) !

Opportunities:

  • People wanna know what they are buying
  • They wanna know who they are dealing with
  • Creating a risk adjusted level playing field

The biggest issue in my mind in investing into any emerging market, is the lack of transparency

Certainty creates value. Without transparency its going to be difficult to create continued investment. When my own backyard is getting interesting, it creates good competition for not just the emerging markets but for everyone.

The TRUMP organization has developed a model over the last few years to do business across the globe. We dont assume that we know all things about all markets. The first emerging market which cracks the transparency code will WIN – Donald Trump Jr.

I just love the so much home grown talent in India, but that doesn’t still mean that you dont want to attract foreign talent.

You don’t get anything that you don’t ask for. And this is one of the biggest lessons I have learnt in life, which took me three years. Transfer of knowledge creates clarity. International players have not been able to get in touch with the legal system in India.

Donald Trump Jr. is now talking about Infrastructure and I agree to him on this, as an emerging market, we do need infrastructure, not just in terms of rail and roads, but also agriculture, education etc. Someone has to bite the bullet and it has to be done says Donald.

Cultural Differences

Donald Trump talks about talks about business and how it is done globally. And how people do need to understand that there has to be a common understanding in doing business. A times I go losing 3 hours on a business call which should effectively get closed in 5 minutes for me. Trump talks about creating a level play, a level playing field and I agree no less to himi on this. Business in India has to become this.

Donald, closes with his remark the potential for this country is amazing if some of these things are changed and now we are in the Q&A mode.

Bringing the MOBILE VAS SUMMIT 2009 LIVE from ITC Sheraton, New Delhi

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Sep
23

Paritosh Sharma (dot) com is glad to be the Official Media Partner for the MOBILE VAS SUMMIT 2009 organized by Virtue Insight.

We bring you all the action over the next two days LIVE from ITC SHERATON, New Delhi. Follow @paritoshsharma on twitter and the Official Event page at facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128074769798&index=1

Thanks to Fen castro and Sarika Sareen for all their support!

The Presentations and Photographs from the event are brought to you Exclusively by the Official Media Partner: http://paritoshsharma.com    make your next event Go Global, contact us!

LIVE Photo Blogging the MVAS SUMMIT 2009

Click on the below image to download the pictures!

VT-Pics

paritosh@paritoshsharma.com

Look forward to your comments!

SAAS for the mobile world at the NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Conclave

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Aug
28

Here I am LIVE Blogging, Ankur Lal one of a closely related NASSCOM EMERGE community fellow and Sanjiv Mital from Saarthi Enterprises and Alok Mittal from Cannan Partners. this is surely going to be an interesting session.

Ankur Lal, CEO Infozech Software leads the session with Alok Mittal – Partner, Canaan Partners, Sanjiv Mital – CEO, Saarthi Enterprise.

Ankur starts by giving the example of a company which has grown from a 10 employee to a 400+ employee company with a revenue over 100 crores.

We have Ankur sharing abotu how the mobile industry is attempting the SaaS based model. Telecom procurement is what Ankur is talking about. What was it like 10 years back, Ankur takes the delegates back in time.

there was lot of outsourcing in procurement, but there was not much in management

SaaS kind of came in and changed all that and something of the similar sort happened in the mobile world. People started sourcing managed services rather that procurement and hence the story of someone like Airtel in India happened. when CAPEX combines with delivery capability it becomes better.

Last year Airtel went out to outsource customer care. It surely was a BIG step as when outsourcing started in the mobile world it was just the back end which was getting outsourced. Interestingly Ankur now talks about the VAS outsourcing space.

If you are selling into a telco, the picture in front of you is that you cant say I have equipment or software

We are now getting a good insight into where this all is heading by Ankur. A very major point that Alok has touched is the platform now. What it delivers, what value does it create etc. Alok says it all int erms of the evolving developer context. And well, there is the entire ppt which shows everything from the 80′s to 90′s and now the 2000 and what has happened, in terms of the technology.

Discussing technology how could have iPhone not have gotten mentioned, we have Alok talking about the iPhone and how the technology has leveraged Open Source. I am particularly interested in knowing more about this space.

With his closing remarks, Alok closes the session. I have been listening to Alok since a good time now and this was surely an interesting piece of gyan.

We now have Sanjiv Mital – CEO, Saarthi Enterprise, talking about The emerging business model. Interesting to know that Sanjiv invested into Bharti telesoft when it was going through a tought phase in 2001 and went ahead with a management buyout. What did he do which gave it the major push?

  1. Migrated the software services to VAS products

Sanjiv is talking about the traditional software business model which is followed generally. This is soemthign that I call a cost Plus model. When you do the same in a software as a service model, what you do is value based pricing.

You are not just worried about developing the product, installing and its over. You not only get revenue but you get high revenue. In bharti Telsoft we hence started a new revenue enhancemenet department. Sanjiv is essentially talking about hwo the entire businessm odel changes with SaaS, which is less to do with cost ad more to do with what value you deliver to the customer.

Interestingly, in my personal opinion, the cash Flow implications that Sanjiv is showing is surely an eye opener. Each bit is supported by the phases of the various steps yoru product goes through in the SaaS model.

As the consumers keep on using your service, your revnue goes up and in a small time your revenue could be a good part of your client’s earning

SaaS, is much easier to sell. What you are sayign is, I’ll make money only when you do. But the risk that you are taking is much more. It could be years when you start generating good profits. It could take fair amount of time when significant revenues start coming in.

Sanjiv is now talking about RBT, and how the moel got up. Interestingly Sanjiv is talking all surprises…how a large number of the consumers in the country subscribe to this concept. I can no less agree to Sanjiv as I am closely realted to a major telecom company which used RBT as a major concept.

Sanjiv says surely in the longer run SaaS pays off. All the companies we have talked about grew very significanlty in the longer run.

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