November 26th, 2011 § § permalink
This is one post which I have been forced to write. Not by someone, but my own personal experience(S). I have this habit of spending my ‘driving time’ (when I am driving back from work) quietly, to think about what I did the whole day and how have things evolved in life. I try and re-inforce the learning’s from mistakes committed and look at new directions.
Though I don’t really have decades of experience, but in whatever I do, I have seen a particular trait in the Indian worker. We fail at implementing processes. There is a lot of technology as well out there, but somehow we fail at adapting it as well. Interestingly I have always worked in smaller set-ups in my life, which has always helped me to be critically involved in either setting up something and scaling it up OR evolving an existing set-up by challenging the usual ways of doing things.
Processes and Execution
When you work in smaller set-ups what you are able to critically learn are processes. I have mostly seen the Indian worker being a little off the mark when it comes to setting result oriented processes. Especially when it comes to setting a process from the scratch and building a system of result oriented numbers around the same, which enables the process handler to understand the success of the process and better the same if required.
The approach I follow
Almost everytime, I have faced the challenge of doing something new, I have always stepped back and looked at the situation/ task in hand from the ‘customer’s point of view, as to what does the customer really want and then assess, if the delivered value is the same.
Once set, I generally break down the objective into smaller steps and do a match the steps with the customer needs/ requirements. At each step, I create a forcible intervention with statistics around. This essentially is to ensure that if the process has a leakage/ break-down somewhere, the numbers will suggest the same and it can be improved.
The Planner and the Doer
But its not simply about setting the process. Its also about how simple can you make it for other team members (who will be working with you to action the whole thing). I am certainly not trying to make things robotic here, which restricts innovation and free thinking by the people involved. What I am suggesting is, to set easily executable strong processes, backed by numbers at every critical stage. At times these numbers have to in the form of forcible interventions, which give you critical data to suggest what works and what does not.
Why this post now?
Well, in my current role, I am working on something which obviously excites me. The way I am approaching it is simple, to understand the customer first, to understand their requirements and expectations. Then I am excavating deep knowledge from the right people within my organisation. This is essentially a forcible intervention which has been created with some initial statistics around. The next step is to create smaller executable steps for the members of the team who should not find it difficult to work it all out. While all this is happening, there obviously is a bigger vision around the entire activity.
A part of this post has also been inspired by the need of the young entrepreneur. There are several young folks who approach our organisation to look for mentoring. What I critically see missing in them is a process oriented approach which can provide critical data overtime enabling stronger and more focused, decision making.
If you are a start-up and need strategic help in processes and execution, drop me a mail:
paritosh@tienewdelhi.org
The TiE Delhi – NCR team and powerful team of mentors (top industry pros) will surely be guiding help!!
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June 14th, 2011 § § permalink
Though I personally don’t freak out in shopping malls daily, but obviously things change after marriage you know (kidding). In the recent times I have been going through this strange phenomena which is written large on many faces, which is, do you have a deal? Almost every market that you visit in Delhi, you can find every other person negotiating with the shopkeeper and asking for a discount. Now that’s obvious human nature.
Hmmm, great so we are talking discounts here!
Yes we are. But I have a thought to share, while I am sure you all must be seeing these deal sites pop-up from every nook and corner of the globe citing great exciting deals from your city, there is not much value. Tell me how many people would really be looking at a great value from getting a tattoo on some part of their precious body at a discount. Interestingly I know the statistic, there are many. The super excited youth of India.
But can’t we put in some real value driven sense in discounts?
When I say value driven, let me put my case forward. I represent the emerging youth of India who have a newly found buying power with them. I am someone who works hard and harder to achieve an aspirational level for me and my family. Obviously the aspirations keep touching new levels with time. Now for me, I really am not wanting a deal for a tattoo OR a 5% discount on a coffee mug. Neither am I looking at a dine out extra happy hours or a beer free!
What I want is to make my life happy and easy!
I am married and hence have a family to take care of and I am a consumer who is a target audience for many brands out there. So why don’t these deal sites understand that I need to see value in their deals and that just by 2 SMS’s each day on my cell phone, I won’t make a buy decision?!
The Game Changer is here: What I’v experienced in the last week!
The Game Changer is here. Last week I went for a fun night of bowling at The Great India Place Mall at Noida with couple of pals. Interestingly what I saw was a register where people were writing something down with a Golden color card in their hands and they straight away got very interesting discount on their games.
The Magic of Discount: the Revelation!
What was revealed about the card was that it came from the stable of one of India’s largest business clans. Its the Amity Synergy Card. Dwelling further, I was amazed to see what was present online! The Synergy card (which I was not really much aware about initially) has more than 61 cities Pan India covered. Go to their website and you will see what I mean and why I just got eexcited enough to mention the brand on this blog!
Did I Order a Card for Myself?
Yes I did. And yes I did not take it just like that. I went ahead and used the card and wallah. In the past 7 purchases that I have done, I have already gotten my value of the card for which I bought it for back. Hence my ROI in terms of getting back the investment I made has been received.
Has the Team Been Good at After Sales?
Obviously before writing this blog, I did my diligence and tried contacting the Synergy Discounts and Coupons team through their site and wallah they did respond back in time.
What’s So Unique, Why Did I Not Write About GroupOn India’s Office?
Why I did not write about GroupOn or any other discount scheme is because the discounts which Synergy offers me is logical. I know the places I generally go to in India and they are all there. The biggest USP being, that Synergy is the only card which has discounts on rooms in almost every major hospital in India. Not happy about it, but lately I have had to roam around Delhi hospitals for a close relative, and I know how quickly cash gets burnt when you step into an Apollo Hospital. A 10- 15% discount on rooms spells a saving of close to about INR 2500 for 2 days!!
How do I Get this Card?
Since I like sharing on this blog, only what I really feel excited about what I experience in my life, I think the Synergy card makes much sense with the value driven deals. I got it online simply through this link: http://synergydiscounts.com/GetSynergyCard.aspx
Have fun getting deals and saving more and for all those married men, guys here’s your thing, to keep your woman happy!!
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February 7th, 2011 § § permalink
A recent post I contributed to the IndiaMART Knowledge Services Blog:
The business needs more minds on board: lets get Co-founders
At the start-up stages of a business, while it all starts with the passion and dream of either an individual or a team of friends/ common connects together, who are committed to adding value by creating services/ products for addressing the market needs.
Two to tango: look around
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, all these major businesses have been built by two or more partners. There is a certain chemistry that works wonders for a growing venture when like-minded people come together to create an enterprise. There sure are many successful businesses, which have been created by entrepreneurs single-handedly and there will always be, but even they have felt the need for getting more people and especially those, who are smarter than them, on board to drive real value of their ventures.
Its a relay baton
Sports teach many a lessons in business. The relay race in which the baton is passed by the first runner to his/ her partner, who carries the same further to the finish line is a perfect example of an enterprise being set-up by a core team/ co-founding team.
There is a sense of strength, bonding, sharing and mutual growth in such teams which actually takes the venture further to achieve greater heights. Many a times, when an entrepreneur loses steam and feel down and out, its the real jet setting that is received by the core team sharing the same vision and dream, which gets him. her back on track! The core team is like a band of brothers which plays the same tune at all times and knows each others moves with just the look of the eye.
How is it being single?
We have seen and met many ‘single’ entrepreneurs who have expressed the need of actually getting someone on board at a senior level with them, but one of the major most challenges they face is the passion.
A major learning we received from such entrepreneurs is, finding such people is easy, who are passionate initially looking at the opportunity, but there have been instances when that passion fizzles out and the steam runs out.
Strikingly, we have also seen instances where the teams have dis-integrated post the joining of members on board who have great potential but are a cultural mis-fit to the organisation and hence not really well aligned with the growth of the enterprise.
Hence many a times people (ready to mingle) say its good and bad being Single.
Did you get your Horoscopes match?
Like in a marriage, in business, a few rules do apply. Its always good to have more people adding real value to your business in more ways than one. But you must see that your Co-founders must have the same set of values, principles, goals and vision for the business.
They must also be at least till a certain extent like minded on business issues as yourself. Its about how being a ‘Couple’ is. The chemistry quickly shows.
Lessons Learnt: A complexity increases, define the KRA’s
In the highly complex business ecosystem today much of the human reactive approach is aspirational. And aspirations may change with time and may also hence instigate a change in the behavior and needs and wants of various people. The same may also happen with the co-founding team of a business venture.
*IndiaMART Knowledge Services team has hence identified for such businesses the smart move is to quickly and clearly define KRA’s and ensure that a 100% ownership of the same is taken and well adhered to.
Finally, there are times, when marriages don’t work and its time to bid adieu
Yes, marriages are supposed to be made in heaven, but God helps those who help themselves and hence you have to work towards making a successful married life. A strong bond, a relationship forever.
Similar is the relationship which has to be worked upon amongst your Co-founders who have to really work hard in aligning themselves with the core vision of the business and place the business before self. But at times this may really not work and if its the case, keeping the business concerns alive and kicking and working towards its growth, the partners may have to look towards exiting out.
Its not easy to leave your own dream mid way, but as we have spoken to so many entrepreneurs who have been through such experiences, well, it sure will give you a huge relief which will set you activated once again to further look for challenges and create real value.
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December 26th, 2010 § § permalink
Is there something called a perfect organisation?
While looking back at my personal experiences over years of both working for large organisations ranging from IT to BPO to Wealth Management to running my own enterprise today into Social Media and Business Processes, with this blog post, I intend to share my learnings, which answers this deep question, which I have been asked many a times by professors/ lecturers/ thinkers during my talks and lectures, is there something called a perfect organisation?
Before we answer it, lets go back to basics: what is an organisation?
One of the strong personal attributes I have developed overtime in myself is to learn by making things simple for myself. By breaking them down into simpler, more recognizable, more achievable, more understandable pieces of information.
Let me hence break the word ‘Organisation’ down and one of the inherent parts is: ORGANIZE. Organizing is a way of being. It could be as simple as organizing things around you.
In the context of a company organizing is all about working with people, all aligned to an over-arching vision. Its about building a powerhouse of people who collaborate and work together to achieve a common purpose and create an institution. All of them may join in with a separate purpose, they all might have a different definition of achievement and may also come on-board with different set of goals to achieve, but they all align together while creating a common vision.
But Is There a Perfect Organisation?
I believe so. Though just like life, as we all learn and keep learning and grow to be better and more evolved human beings, same goes with Organisations. Every organisation evolves and lets also keep in view, every start-up may kick-start with a business plan, which may not remain the same or even be near to what the start was a few years down the line.
Then what is Perfect, you may ask?
Valid question. What is perfect is the answer to the question on what is an organisation. Its about people. Its about the fact that as an Organisation and as the CEO/ Top management of the Organisation, you be one with the reality that each one of your people are different. They all come with different values and bring onto the table a whole new set of beliefs.
But then is it not a lot of work to manage so many expectations? Well, not really. Its about keeping the freedom of expression of your employees, giving it value and creating the right ecosystem around them to build upon the very many values they bring together and creating powerful opportunities.
But this is common gyaan, what is perfect in this?
Yes it is common gyaan! Lets re-visit our mythology a little. Lord Krishna’s story has a major mention of a form of dance which he used to perform with his loving female followers (gopiyan).
If you carefully observe the image above, you will see an ORGANISATION. Yes, Krishna stands right at the center of the circle. And mind you, its a dance that is happening. Its a platform where all the gopiyan (your employees) are set free to express themselves. They do it, not because of any rules set around them. They do it of free will. They do it for pure passion. They do it for the love of Krishna (employees work).
Its also said that Raas Leela used to happen at night time (which is a time which is when your offices don’t work (if you aint a BPO), an informal environment) a time when everyone is in their own element.
So now coming back to the Perfect Organisation: what’s perfect about the Raas Leela? Look at the circle around Lord Krishna. Its a perfect circle in which the Gopi’s dance. Thwy do it not because of a set rule that it has to be a circle, but because of adhering to a common over-arching reasoning which says that we would like to be all around our Love, Our Krishna.
What am I suggesting?
While running my own company, I am powerfully intending to set up an organisational structure, where employees are free to express themselves. They are empowered with the ecosystem around them, which allows them to quickly get into the groove of the over-arching vision, such that they don’t have to forcibly work hard in aligning themselves to the expectations of the organisation or work hard to set themselves to the organisational culture.
Instead, they become the Culture.
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August 17th, 2010 § § permalink
Before I venture ahead into this post, I would like to extend an honest “Thank You” to everyone who has stood by me, towards raising up Until ROI. Though I may not be able to put all the names, let me try and recount all I can in the time I have:
My Mom, Kamal Sir (my graduate school professor), Avinash Raghava (the turning point of my professional life), Neha (a great support), Sarika (one who knows, I’d be too lazy to work on what she says always, till she scolds me bad 
), Sonam Budhiraja (a great support to Until ROI), Akanksha Seth (a great friend), Gargi Sharma (a great support and a fantastic human), Geetu Mam (this is one lecturer whom I used to adore in college times , one lecture I never bunked)
The first turning point in life
Just a little over 3 years back I bumped online into someone who, with his insights and thoughts, actually helped me evolve as an individual. Avinash Raghava from NASSCOM. Avi has been both a mentor, guide and a friend of sorts.
I remember, when I had this super lucrative job offer from a large company, Avi called me up and actually helped me decide by saying: Paritosh, Job or Until ROI. And he said, if you utter Until ROI, well, we wont discuss the job part again. And we did not. And today Until ROI has challenges, but we are poised to create a success story, a part of India’s growth story!
Avi, as I call him, and many others too, extracted the best out of me by making me always push for raising my level of performance. And I am so thankful to him always for this.
The Second Time, Life Took a Turn
This one encounter with a gentleman called Rajiv Mittal, has been one of the steepest learning curves in my life. Rajiv Sir as I call him always, is a Mentor, not just to me but for Until ROI. He is one of the best people undoubtedly who you must work with once in your lifetime in the industry.
Rajiv Sir, has helped me evolve as an entrepreneur over the past 6 months and is now helping me transition into a well bred CEO. And Mind you, he’s not another mentor, who will come and share his insights. He actually has sat with me overnights, late at work, helping me work on various aspects of business, running a venture, raising capital and much more.
I am not sure about the others reading this blog, but how many times the mentor actually takes your work and does it?!
And well, in all honesty, its not really the fact that he’s just been a client, its a relationship on a different level. Try telling your boss/ mentor/ Chief, that I dont agree to you and go up against his views and put up a fight, well, chances are somewhere it snaps. With Rajiv Sir, its on the other level. We argue, we listen, we learn and at the end of the day Iv always actually seen that his experience wins. His insights into what may happen right/ wrong actually proves right.
For Emerging companies, having the right insights at the right time is very crucial and obviously you as an entrepreneur, must always be ready to learn and un-learn from such people in your life. Be open, and you will create magic faster!
I surely am excited to be on the path to raising up a successful enterprise and contribute to the nation’s growth 
thank you all again, look forward to your support always!
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October 20th, 2009 § § permalink
Why do I pay 45 when the burger is for 40…written on d menu? It’s the VAT sir, replied the cashier.
I asked this question when I went into a restaurant to catch up with a bite last night.
Well, being an entrepreneur is a life of Pride, Passion and amongst many more things its about living life on the edge. I have seen many people around who say look we are running a side business while we still earn from a day job. Alas, I took the harder path.
With a right on the edge bank account, no financial backing at all…and nothing else, other than DREAMS to count on, I am learning and growing each day. Feels hard at times…people tell me, that leaving some very lucrative and smart paying job offers which I was being flooded with, even in these times of recession was foolish on my part. Well, and all I have as an answer is: there are DREAMS to take care of, they are calling!
As I am writing this blog post from my mobile phone, since I had to leave my laptop which was given to me by my previous company. I realize somethings in life: im being taught how NOT to be dependent on things and how to CREATE POSSIBILITIES in every situation.
It’s been great being an entrepreneur and as I start my new journey as the Co-founder and CMO, Proideaz Consulting, I look for wishes and support in creating a whole new world of opportunities.
Thanks to all my family n friends, esp my Mom n the other best part of my life…who’v been amazing pillars of emotional support always.
Its time to get cracking and see more DREAMS!!
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October 13th, 2009 § § permalink
I landed back from Mumbai just yesterday and surely it was great LIVE Blogging the biggest Leadership event ever in India. Out of my many experiences in the financial capital of India and the city of dreams. Bollywood stars and the rest, I found this very amazing example of simple yet striking innovation by an entrepreneur.
This is what I found:
What you see in the picture above, no its not a Google van! Its the freshest and the best Gola (ice candy) made of fresh mineral water and fruit juices called Gogola India.
I bumped across this van while I was going for a meeting on the Hill street near the Globus mall in Mumbai and just for the fun of it and to interact with the van guys, I did buy two Golas from the van. The van looked pretty okay (a second hand maruti van) with all the electrical machines inside to make a good gola in seconds.
Interestingly, the menu is like an IE page, which gives you all the options of the various flavors available simple, yet unique!
The Revenue figures of a single van which stands since 12pm till late in the night and keeps rotating in between two streets in Mumbai are:
- Daily sale (golas): 300 (in good times) 150-200 (in normal business days)
- Price per gola : INR 30
- Positioning of van is changed on weekdays and weekends
- There are more than 10 vans in the city, doing the rounds
My Feedback and Comments as an Incubation Consultant:
- Good to see that the logo has been duly trade-marked (good asset)
- Good revenue model (taking in consideration, all operational costs, costs of building the supply chain, maintenance of vehicle etc.)
- Simple and effective!
The Gola I had, was pretty good and was surely packed in a healthy manner, with properly kept juice/ color bottles.
I very strongly feel, the kind of Innovation we have in India, is amazing! Its simplistically brilliant and a concept which can surely become into an auto-generating proposition, and once your brand is recognizable, and you have a size, you can diversify.
Kudos to the entrepreneur
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September 10th, 2009 § § permalink
I have been supporting start-ups and SME’s, moving up the value chain. In my quest for innovative work and finding out new companies which are doing interesting work, I would now be featuring some of these Start-ups and fairly based companies from India, who Deserve to be!
Just a couple of days back I got a chance to connect with the Founders of a New Delhi based NRI CONCIERGE Services company Midson Care. There was so much to know and for me it was another world of opportunities that Midson has opened up for the NRI community.
If I am in the US and my parents back home in India need medical help or some sort of help, how do I do it, without being dependent on my relatives?
This was a question that Mr. Vivek Chibber (Co-Founder, Midson Care) asked me and well, in my personal capacity I have no answers, as I have had no such experience. But reflecting back at the question, I remarked, that such a service is highly critical.
A parent in India, whose son/daughter is there in the US, goes through much. I never was aware of the level at which the parents are affected, once their children go abroad. Post listening to some practical stories which happened and the stress and trauma the parents and the children both had to go through, which essentially resulted in a rift in the strongest bond on the planet, that of a parent and the child.
Interestingly Midson Care, aas told to me by the Co-Founder, is that platform and bond between the parent and the child, that is why we are called – “Mid-Son”…the middle son
The concept really struck with me and hence I decided that I would want to support this cause and if this can lead to lesser number of parents going to old age homes, then I am ready to leverage my blog as a platform for the same
To know more about the Services of the company click here.
I would now be doing a series of posts on the same and request you to SPREAD the WORD if this leads to happy families and great relationships!
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August 14th, 2009 § § permalink
Well, Yes I have a problem.
I discuss Social Media with some of the established brains in the domain in India and have had discussions with Social Media thinkers sitting thousands of miles across the seven seas.
And now I do have a problem!
Before I put my problem down, let me put some questions for you to ponder upon:
- Almost every business today needs to reach out and the Internet becomes one of the best mediums. But does every business have the same objective in terms of (Branding, Outreach, Lead generation) etc.?
- Is it necessary that a solution which has worked for an IT company (as an example) would fit great for a BPO?
- Is it necessary that YOU as an Online marketing company would be able to understand everything from a product business to an IT to a BPO to a Chocolate product company?
- Is marketing universal and do the same rules apply for all on Social Media?
Well, now let me put forth my problem!
One of the biggest lacking points that I see with online marketing/ social media companies today is lack of good human resources. In my experience, you need three core and basic qualities to be even thinking of creating social media strategies for a business (client). These are:
- Solid understanding of Business/ Products/ Services/ Industry
- Solid understanding of the consumer who consume these products/ services online
- Solid understanding of marketing
My experience of the industry says that majority of Social Media companies, talk about all the major tools and all the great jargons, but what they dont understand is how to customize a solution for the client. Each business (may be from the similar domain) will have a different set of problem statements to answer. Each business will have different objectives to achieve.
When so much is different, how can you just go along with jargons and pitch the same solution to each client?
I have interacted with many a Social Media people who if spoken to, would not have the required level of knowledge/ understanding of the product/ industry/ consumer behavior they are pitching to, but will keep circling around their choice of words which are: branding, positioning and lead generation (amongst the many others)
To scale up as a Social Media company – My way would be
The human resources that I recruit would surely have these three above mentioned qualities. Also, since time is an essential factor in the Internet business, I as a small company cannot afford to keep training my employees and wait for them to grasp business and start delivering. Hence what I need to focus on is getting the right people on board who take the ownership of work and understand the criticality of client delivery and execution.
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June 13th, 2009 § § permalink
LIVE Blogging the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0 48th session, and well we are going to make it interactive says the session lead Mr. Kumud Goel who is also one of the founding members of NASSCOM and the founder KLG Systel a leading power solutions company in India.
Incidentally its a great day, coz the NASSCOM EMERGE Community turns one today, I must congratulate Avinash (NASSCOM) for the same and now we have the session underway 
Mr. Kumud Goel a technology veteran for over 25 years, is leading the session. We have Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech Software introducing to the audience and well as usual we have the participants introducing themselves to the entire audience.
I am surely glad to be LIVE blogging the 48th session and well, always get excited to feel as we near the 50th session. Interestingly we have quite a diverse audience related to the product space today.
I am a case study of failures – shares Mr. Kumud and though this was said at the end, I would want to start my blog with it.
Kumud is interestingly sharing an incident from his life and my respects to the man as for young entrepreneurs like me, its surely highly invigorating and a great learning to interact with learned people like Kumud. And well, let me not keep it a secret anymore. Kumud is sharing the story of NASSCOM.
When we went to COMDEX years back, nobody used to talk to an Indian
That is when this desire of fighting these people came in me and I had a lot of experience in programming and I started my company which had only emotions behind it and no business plan.
On my first wedding anniversary my father told me that you have no money in the back and hence I gave away my dream of creating software for the rural India. At that time most Indian company did the right thing by making things for the foreign market but we were again at the step when we were looking at a product for the Indian market.
After 25 years of my experience I today feel taht what is more important out of a business model and a feeling is feeling, coz I believe that the business model shall follow
Once you have made an emotional decision of making a product for India, there were two drawbacks…I was at the Silicon Valley two weeks back and I met this guy who is regarded as one of the best deal makers in the tech space, and he told me that Kumud what you are doing is worth 500 million dollars and since you are sitting in India it is worth 20 million dollars. I had to go to the IBM’s of the world and get a recommendation that my technology is good.
All the great companies in the US have come about and have based out of the fact that the government has helped them. The SME’s in India who innovate do not have their path as easy.
The tendering system in Government of India is such that an SME cannot ever go up.
Today US is making money out of innovation and not selling someone else’s goods. Kumud now shares a highly interesting insight into the Chinese government way of working and wow I am amazed. Well, I think this is an applausible moment and I am saying this for the first time in a NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0 session, Kumud has broken the wall and is now talking about what NASSCOM should really be doing for the SME’s.
Start-ups and small companies have to get reservation in the government and NASSCOM should take care of that
There Is NO CORRUPTION in INDIA
Do what they want you to, don’t fight them…its your dream, coz you are giving them a poison which will kill them automatically. Corruption is not a hinderance, it is a way to survive. And for the first time I am supporting Kumud on this coz he shows tthe audience the bigger picture.
- Your cash flow has to be positive, your spirit should not go negative, you have to live through those initial years. for sometime you need to live like a rat if you want to survive.
And now Kumud shares a story on a book he read “the saga of Dharampuri”, which he is relateing to the Indian IT industry. We have so gotten accustomed to the white man that we cannot think of anything out of it.
This life for ME is so shameful that after being 25 years into the industry, I still don’t have a world class product
The govt. of India will spend 5000 crores dollars to the MS’s of the world and lets say there are 5000 SME’s from India, now if I divide 5000 what do you get? But how many companies are standing today for it?
Psychologically we need to start thinking of ourselves as better people than the foreign lands. We need to just break out of this trap, coz we actually are better than anybody. If you need to create the best OS from India, you need to have that feeling into you and only then it would happen.
The Indian out there is GOD shares one of the participants from the audience.
You have a dream, great! But you anyhow need money to make sure that you survive and take your dream further. You need to somehow find a way by hook or by crook, to reach that 50-100 crore level, otherwise your so called innovation would die.
I made 3 websites when I had 15 crores in the bank and I wen t overboard, we advertised like hell and people came to us. But because we believed into our stuff so much, we never realised the internet bust, and I went bankrupt. So now we had no money, but we had a dream!
Audacity, Audacity, Audacity and Arrogance
We raised money for about 11 million dollars and that came to us only because we had audacity.
The next I thought what is the next problem in India. And I chanced upon power. You need to be like the James Bond, who would take it the way as if the world wont be no more if my software wont be there. I went and borrowed 137 crores and I developed cleantech technology. And I bet my life on this.
And I bought myself a BMW, because I was going to change the world.
Personally I was broke, my stock is pledged, house with a bank, my wife and kids were the only tangible assets I had. And then I happened.
Innovation is like a black Hole, after a certain time you are dead. But once you are dead what can you do – STOP WORRYING!
You have created the aura of being the biggest player in the power industry and since you have already invested into it, you can demonstrate what you have already implemented. For 25 years you have been waiting to say it and when the big companies of the world come for you, to partner, what do you say…Go to !@#!
If you want to be an Innovator, You have to be a great Gambler as well
Anybody who does not listen to you has to become irrelevant!
The last lesson would be – your dream has to be bigger than the world, you will create the biggest product, all you need to do is to make sure that you get some cash in.
Kumud ends the session with some NASSCOM bashing, which he started the session with on a lighter note. I am certainly with Kumud, as this would surely be great for the entire SME community in India.
Small companies should file for patents and should do them religiously. This shall make sure of a winning road for you.
Now we have the participants sharing their thoughts on the entire topic and I can see the thoughts coming in together in the similar direction.
And now we have the session in the Q&A mode.
Thanks Kumud for an amazing session, I have been blogging the NASSCOM friday’s 2.0 for long, and certainly find you one of the best speakers, sharing from the heart.
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