Delhi Rountable of Techsparks by YourStory on 7th May

May 5th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

The TECHSPARKS is back and so with a bang. the Delhi round-table is round the corner on 7th of May 2011. Though it needs no introduction, if you want to know more about #tsparks click here.

Delhi sure is going to witness a flurry of entrepreneurial activity on he 7th of May 2011. And why would it not happen, when, you have some real exciting names in the industry spanning the mobile to the venture capitalists joining the discussion.

I would have loved to present a sneak-peek into the action, alas it all got announced a while back by YourStory. But still to give you a little knock on your door for the action which you can expect at the event, the exciting speakers on board the Delhi edition are:

Well, if you are still wanting some more, here you go with a fantastic video introduction to the TechSparks 2011:

See you there!!

Deadlocks in Life and How to Overcome Them

May 3rd, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

Note: after writing this post, somehow there was an error in my WordPress installation due to which I had to revert my blog to a past date, which compromised on the latest blogs I had written. I am happy to be back though :)

This might be one of the important most posts I have ever done. I have always written from experience, things that I keep learning from life, from people. Life is everything and nothing at the same time. I have heard many philosophers saying this, but there are many moments when you experience it.

The deadlocks in life

I have seen many people, fight over and over again on trivial issues and most of the times the one thing common in both parties is that each tries his/ her level best to keep his. her ego upright. How could I be wrong? OR How could you wrong me? Let me tell you who I am!

Well, let me tell you this. I personally in my life, feel such people are utter foolish who live their life, trying to save themselves from being wronged and who keep fighting hard trying to save their ego from taking a hit.

The meanings we give

In most of my workshops and lectures that I take, I ensure that I share with my audience, the meaning of everything in life. Its really simple. A dark room, a pitch dark room, if you are made to stand in such a room and someone shuts the door from outside, in all general sense the first reaction in your heart would probably be that of fear, you might even want to scream and might try everything in the book to get out of there!

But lets rewind a bit, all that I said was: that you were in a dark room. A dark room is a dark room or a room without any light. Where does fear/ screams come from? That happens when you give a meaning inside your mind to the dark room with something weird and fearful. You have made your mind to believe that since its dark, now you gottu be cautious.

Relationships in life: the biggest deadlocks!

I have seen so many people and many a times have experienced it myself, how the best of relationships go kaput, while we all are in the space of standing upright for what we believe is right. The reality being everyone involved in that situation is doing the same thing. Everyone is thinking the same. Everyone is making the same move.

This simply is a deadlock. And it happens to the closest of the relationships. That with parents, with your life partners, with your Co-founders (in your business venture) and so on.

Someone at such times has to just simply understand that there is no meaning to anything in life and move on himself, while ensuring that everyone moves on and moves along. Now this is what I call a real winner. The one who just knows its all about moving on and never let situations which are meaningless, become meaningful in many weird ways for many different people.

But it hurts!

And yes, before you say it, I know it hurts. Iv been hurt many a times in life like this, but Iv learnt the art of keeping my relationships, because they are my life, they are why I live, I smile and I love life.

Love: that’s what I know and I do

Let me now give you something, which will never again let any deadlock ever appear in anything in life. The strongest human emotion without a doubt is Love. To be honest, I still say that Love again has no meaning to it. Its just another expression. And it is. Love but is something which you DO. Whatever it is, you still DO. And in life to move on all you need to do is DO.

Love makes you DO things by default. Many a times it hurts, but that’s something which comes along the package.

And Love has no reasons, no point, no start, no end. I am sure you must have heard of all this before in books, pages, videos, movies, but that’s the difference.

I have experienced it

Iv been lucky enough in my life that I have actually experienced Love. Something that I cannot share in words, but somehow the following words from a Punjabi Song, I heard sometime back:

Eh satinder jo gonda e gon de, e tan ho gaya shudai rolla paun de

bus pyar waali chhattri tu taan de, baaki rabb jo karenda kari jaan de

Translated in English: Satinder is the name of the singer who says, let Satinder sing whatever he has to, he has gone insane, let him scream n shout. Just put over him the cover of love and let God then do whatever he has to

The emotion has been captured perfectly in this song, which simply says when you fall in love in life, its about you falling in love and nothing else. It has no meanings to it. Move on, coz you fell in love, make the other do it :)

All said and done, was this a lesson on Love?

Hah! If that’s what you got out of it, then it was! It simply was about the fact that once you love something in life, whether your partner, your parents, your car, your venture, whatever, well, its your love, its your expression. Yes the other person/ thing might have become a part of your Loving happiness, but its always been your love!

So why fight and create deadlocks, when its always been your story! Be strong and come up to being 100% of what you fell in love with and don’t expect the other thing to give even a per cent of it. Be that love and you will never face deadlocks in life.

*the post is dedicated to my mom and wife, who have made me be in love and be powerful forever

Releasing the Bollywood Flick During Cricket World Cup: that’s Called a Content Driven Bold Move: a View on Tanu Weds Manu

February 25th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Though its been quite sometime that Iv seen a bollywood flick on the silver screen, but this weekend, I found the time just right and to take a flight into a world away from the usual life, Iv chosen to watch the third show of Tanu weds Manu tomorrow as it releases.

While I was getting the tickets booked online, there sure came an interesting thought. Its the Cricket World Cup time and this time around especially when the action in in the sub-continent, releasing a bollywood flick sure is a cracker, which may burst and make a ot of sound or it might just fizz out.

Thinking about the same I looked around to find out the logic behind the thought of releasing a movie during the CWC, when most producers and distributors fear that their movies may not get the kind of viewership, as expected.

Even before I did, I looked around online, as to what exactly is the response to the movie, pre-release on Social Networks and well, here are the statistics:

The Official website: http://tanuwedsmanu.com/ (due to flash content, the site may load slowly)

YouTube: one of the most popular videos (trailers) of the movie has: 233,276 views

Official facebook page: 64,273 fans

There is enough buzz online if you do a basic Google search!!

But does this buzz indicate a successful Box office hit? Well, not really! In the past there have been couple of not so successful attempts on releasing bollywood flicks during either crucial game time OR during national festivals and religious days, but the success rate has been pretty dicey.

A little birdie (source: aka: a friend, in the business of movie making) who is also close to analysts revealed that many initially believed that releasing TWM would be a step wrongly taken at this time of the year, but the producers were confident about the content, its quality and the fresh pairing which has worked wonders. The movie in its trailers shows every part of India which the viewer would see and say, Ohh Iv been there!

Nothing fancy about the movie, love and marriages have been subjects of bollywood movies before, but the way its been presented during the peak marriage season (taara chadha hua hai) as they say, I think is sure going to work positively for TWM.

Content wins the game

The key which I wanted to share with this blog post is the quality of content and the way its been positioned and propagated. The key here is content. The movie has a “real life” subject. Characters which you can almost relate with like your cousins in real life. Packaging the movie as a fun ride full of comedy, romance and laughter, for a couple of hours is sure going to give the much needed breath of a fresh ‘pair’ to the Indian cine goers.

And since there has not really been a movie which has touched cine goers with this fun lately and many disappointing releases have donned the Box Office, TWM has its stars bright.

I’ll post the review of the movie tomorrow after seeing it, as a comment to this post with my ratings out of 5, till then here’s the official un-censored trailer:

Choose to Be and You Will Take Powerful Decisions in Life: The Day I Faced It

February 22nd, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

This post is by far one of the difficult most that Iv written. Never really that I have had a heavy heart before conjuring up my thoughts on what really to write and how to put it across.

And why am I giving it such a lot of thought?

Because this post is not about any thought leadership or any thoughts that I am sharing. This is certainly not about any gyaan and definitely not about what to do and how to do it?

I am sure by so many ‘Not’s’ you must have understood that the author must have gone through an experience in life, where he has surely learnt ‘what not to do’.

Bang on! That’s the learning. Today as I sit with myself remembering of the days when I was sitting with a friend in a small lone room in Delhi’s cold winters, with the window of the room still half broken, on a small desk. We were discussing start-ups and ventures. She was running a start-up while I was thinking about doing mine and we were discussing all of this over a cuppa tea!

That was the day when I told her what I want to do, what my strengths are and we sat about thinking of names, so many of them came by. It was like naming your own child. There was so much love, passion, thought around the name.

Finally the name came!

Until ROI!! Yes! That’s the company, I said. I had nothing in hand, nothing at all and armed with only a name and zillions of dreams which powered my guts at that time, I said this is a company I launch today and that company will be called: Until ROI. And that was the starting of a venture.

The first thing many of my seniors told me was dude, 98% of the start-ups don’t make it over 6 months in India and making it over 1 year for you will be almost impossible, as you don’t even have a penny to start with. You are cash-less in every sense of the word. And yes they were not wrong. I was cash-less in every sense of the word.

I anyway said, if this be it, let it be, I will anyway start. And I borrowed a laptop from one of my friends for a few days, sat in another friends’ office who was also running a start-up and I said, let me announce to the world that Until ROI has arrived!

And I created a website

To build a website you need cash! But well, I said, I can build a website with my dreams and so I did. Even till date, the official Until ROI website remains the same of what I did. Using the free wordpress platform, I learnt a bit of php myself and coded the site, thanks to WP :)

Thanks to Google, the official Email was set-up in a jiffy and did not cost anything at all. Well, this is what kicked in life into the dream called Until ROI.

But now we needed to do the real thing, business!

And it was time to contact customers and sales calls began

Well, yes it was now time to do business. Just having a website won’t suffice you as an entrepreneur. Leaving your job is one part of it, running a successful enterprise is another. I must thank, Rahul, Pooja, Aashita who lent me their support during the initial stages, coupled with my own brand that I had created in my previous role as a Social Media Evangelist in the market, Until ROI got its first break and we were in business. The first cheque we ever got was for INR 40,000.

And I was on top of the world! 40k was like wow!! It was a feeling which I celebrated by paying off for the laptop I had bought on an EMI for myself.

Scaling up: well, we invested into an Airtel Boardband connection for ourselves

The company had its second asset in the form of a broadband connection. Armed with a laptop, broadband, a chair and a table inside a store room, Until ROI started operations formally.

I never had the time to go ahead and register the company. Hence I went ahead with business while keeping it as a proprietary business. Yes it was difficult to make our first set of clients understand, why we are proprietary, but the clients kept faith in this one man and they said okay we will go ahead with you.

Did they test me, well yes they did. Why?

Social Media is something which is very new for the world even today, so thinking about doing it with a proprietary company 1.5 years back was sure a big thing.

And more clients started coming

We started getting more clients through referrals and I must thank many people here. Digbijoy, Avinash, Chandan, Rahul, Pooja, Aashita and others.

Strategically we also found some very amazing partners in Virtue Insight, some of the best people in business I know. Both Fen and Sarika have been great help!!

And we started growing

Slowly and steadily we started growing. And as we did, we shifted to a new office (3rd floor of my house) a fantastic looking room large enough to have 5 people sitting with ease, with a 5.1 music surround system, and a whole stack of books (library) we started operations from there. I remember how I used to see the open sky through the huge glass (which also acted as the glass board for planning and strategizing) and be inspired!

This inspiration took us to the next stage where we got the 1st actual on rolls employee on board. I remember the feeling even today when I told my parents, Im paying a guy 18k in my “2″ member company and everyone still used to say, its just another few months, josh thanda ho jayega!

I am thankful to Piyush and Vikas at this stage, along with Aseem, thanks guys, you all rocked!

Business Development was the next challenge: but how?

Before I come to the next level, I woke up one of the days to find a sweet LinkedIn message sent to me by someone at the world’s largest social network facebook, asking me to join fb India. We did have a telephonic conversation, but then I dropped my plans, as the entrepreneurial bug was biting hard.

Anyway, BD was our next challenge and I said, obviously being a 2 member team with 3 clients, probably we would not be able to scale up, so lets partner with events and so we did. We started LIVE blogging some of the largest corporate events in India and I must thank Avinash, Fen and Sarika for all their support in this case!

We were rolling and then something happened

At one of the largest events in the history of corporate India in Mumbai, I met the VP of Corporate Strategy of an emerging Indian IT company and we hit it off! He invited me to his office in Delhi and we had this company as a client! And I was on top of the world. What followed it was a strong relationship which brought in capital into Until ROI in the form of HNI investment into the venture and I said, nothing better could happen, money coming in, more experienced brains on board, this venture is a sure fire hit now!

Before accepting the offer I did speak to many people, took advice but my gut said its okay to go ahead with it and you are going to make it a success and we went ahead!

And a team of 2, we raised some amount!

Things started rolling for us. I was so happy seeing my ’2′ other team members (I hate using the word employee) sitting in a plush office ‘Until ROI’s’ office. We had RFID badges given to us and I always used to chuckle to my friends, come visit my office and remember to take your badge from the guard (all in fun)!

The dreams started getting bigger and well, we sure felt lucky to have some real experienced brains from the industry backing us.

With the backing of an investor we started seeing desi and videsi dreams.

And our learning began

My first brush with writing excel sheets, numbers, create Bplans and many other things happened. We rose from being a ’2′ member to a ’3′ member team. Clients started trickling in. The guards in my building never got to know my name, but they got to know me as, ‘woh sir jo raat ko 12 baje se pehle office se nikalte nahi’, jinke karan hamie bhi jaagna padta hai’ :P

I used to love it all, all the action, passion, there was no sense of time, food, weather, security, it was all work and that’s what I loved doing.

And we made a Pvt. Ltd. company

Thanks to Vishwa and Ashwani, the moment I saw a legal paper saying Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd. I was overjoyed. There were joys all around. Infact pretty much during this time, I worked with one of my close designer friends, to re-brand Until ROI and we designed the new logo, which was well appreciated!

We had our own share of success and failures

But this time around there were the investors to both support us and be reported to. I quickly realized that this is someone else’s money I am working on and I need to be very very careful with it. This is where I really thank my parents and they have always taught the lesson of being intelligent with money. Coming from an absolute non-business background, I was always jittery about working on someone else’s money.

We added Karun, Nidhi and Abhimanyu to the team quickly. These sure are cool people to work with. They took on Until ROI.

And this is where I learnt the biggest lesson of my life!

Choose your team members, not because they have a title well worth, but because they love doing what you do and with probably the same passion. because they are in the skin because they want to be. This has been one of my top learning’s till date. Today I just know why not to recruit someone and when to just draw the line.

I must thank Nidhi, who sure did help me learn a couple of tricks here.

Somehow it all started up great, everything was well formed, but somewhere down the line, there sure was that little feeling in the heart that we need to be stronger, need to be closer, need to be in each other’s hearts. Need to feel each other’s pain and be there for each other at all times.

And finally here I am

And finally here I am, no more with Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd., today remembering all those times, some of the most exciting times of my life, which have taught me immensely. There have been some really amazing relationships that I have created with many people.

The company moves forward and I always wish the entire team all the luck and the best ever in life!!

And going forward

Before I step ahead, I must thank some very crucial people in my life who have given me everything. Mom, Aditi, Sarika, Dimpy, Anurag bhai, Digbijoy, Avinash and I must mention people who I have always looked upto and have met at least once in life: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Deep Kalra, Vijay Shekhar Sharma. They are all some of the best people Iv always looked upto and will always keep doing it!

Going forward I will be working as an enabler to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India while consulting brands into their Digital Media strategy.

The Future of Social Media is In-house

February 21st, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

There has been much talk about Social Media. Though at nascent stages and just like many other posts, this one may also be looked upon as another future teller, trying to make a guess work and predict something, like the magician gets the rabbit out of the hat put on fire!!

The Context

I recently attended a high profile conference of some of the best known brains in the Media and Entertainment industry led by Shri. Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development, Communications & Information Technology. The conference really was focused towards creating a solid framework for talent development for the Media and Entertainment industry in India, aptly titled: “National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework for Media and Entertainment Industry”.

Coming from the thought, interacting with many established media people across the table and taking their insights, I realized the following:

  • Businesses are increasingly looking at a new breed of managers who are evolved and informed to lead Social Media in-house
  • Only a few specialized top performing agencies with clear vision and a strong case studies will finally be ruling the roost in the Digital Media space
  • There will be a major need for trained and skilled manpower in the Digital Media space, this will become a basic expectation from the future marketing managers

Businesses are Increasingly looking at a Smart Future: Digital Ready managers

My interaction with various industry experts revealed that large businesses are actually looking at creating a strong and smart marketing team. While the entire Digital Media space is evolving as I am writing this post, we are talking of businesses leveraging the medium as they are growing and getting a hang of the same. Marketers today are expected to come equipped with the knowledge of Digital Media at least at a basic level, which enables them to be powerful contributors in the process of creating a solid Digital Media strategy for their organizations.

Lack of skilled professionals: the current situation

As discussed with key people from the industry who have seen the Digital Media space grow right in front of their eyes in India and have experience of how things are moving internationally as well, the sense is, there is a lack of skilled manpower currently and various businesses are doing their bit, though in an un-organized fashion to train employees and so are the educational institutions, by collaborating with leading entrepreneurs/ digital media companies to produce future ready managers.

What does it mean?

In my view, in a couple of years time (3-5) Digital Media will essentially become an integral part of the marketing function within organizations and agencies will essentially play a supporting role, while working very closely with these organizations. Also, only a handful of “specialized” agencies will be leading from the front.

This will further create a major demand for trained and skilled manpower, future ready managers, who are well versed with the Digital Media.

This emerging business need will surely fuel many entrepreneurial fires. This is sure a golden opportunity to step into the education part of the Digital Media business and especially makes all the more sense for established digital agencies, as it helps them churn and place more professionals in the market, at the client’s end, who then become prospective business generators!

Did you Marry the Right Person: A Co-founding Experience

February 7th, 2011 § 0 comments § 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.

Is There Something Called a Perfect Organisation?

December 26th, 2010 § 0 comments § 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.

Quiz Time: Success in Three Digits Is: One97

December 25th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

This blog post comes straight from the heart! Yes, I know its been quite sometime that Iv blogged.

Its been quite some action while running an emerging company and building it towards setting up an institution. This blog is dedicated to success, grit and determination, proving against all odds and well, smart business.

This is a story right from the Bollywood successes, happily ever after series. The hero here is someone we know as Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who further on transformed into a super-hero called: VSS :)

I met VSS on November 14th 2008 at the NASSCOM EMERGE Friday’s 2.0 session, which I LIVE blogged and well, let me tell everyone reading this story, it was one of the most appreciated sessions ever. There were many compliments, but the one which resounded again and again from many people who attended the session was: this dude has his numbers clear right at the back of his hand!!

A small excerpt from my post: So for the first time I am blogging LIVE about a guy who is a prodigy literally! A guy who finished schooling @ 14. Became an engineer by 19 sold off his first startup for bucks and today owns a billion call mobile communications company

Starting from his first ever billing of INR 30,000 and the next 10 times of the revenue and now well, One97 recently became a decade old or should I say a decade strong and well, the next milestone soon to be achieved and set is the listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange! What better a New Year gift?

I visited the One97 office in Nodia last year and well, sure I was awed by the growth which the One97 team has collaboratively achieved. I remember sitting with VSS in one of the conference rooms in the evening and discussing opportunities and the next tweet from him for me was: you are a brilliant man 2.0 :)

What about the man?

Well, you will find a normal guy standing in front of you, in his trademark denims looking at you and you would never be able to realize he is going to list his company on the BSE. Talk to him and he will share a whole ammo of numbers and industry insights. And sure it has not been an easy essay to write for him. He has had his own share of challenges in life which he never resigned to and overcame to win.

In a recent workshop I took for a group of 200 emerging animation professionals from various parts of India into personal branding and positioning, I was proud to share with the audience the man behind the show and though obviously they may not know him, but sharing his story, sure kicked the fire in them!

But Why am I Sharing this Story amongst the many success stories?

Well, yes, I, in my entrepreneurial career have met and connected with various entrepreneurs who started from scratch and have established success stories. And with all due respects, I sure am learning from each one of them.

But knowing VSS the way I have, he sure is one man, who, say what you may, has proven that whatever comes, keep going strong and you will get what you want!

My best wishes to One97 and the team and let me now go and re-activate my trading account, obviously I will be taking stock in One97!!

Warning: The Air You Breathe Here is Charged Up With Entrepreneurial Particles

December 8th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

YES!! YOU GOT IT RIGHT. The title of the post says: Warning: The Air You Breathe Here is Charged Up With Entrepreneurial Particles!!

I am talking about nothing other than The TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2010, undoubtedly one of the largest extravaganza, year 2010 witnesses. A perfect setting for the end of a decade.

TES marks the Enterprising India’s largest gathering of some of the most exciting souls on earth, a class, a breed called: entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is not just a word, its a way of living, its a common passion which binds enterprising minds together who come on board with a common aim of creating and delivering value. People who dream of a future not just for themselves but create opportunities for many others, who become a part of success stories.

And without a doubt, India as a country is blessed with great minds. We have had some of the best enterprising ideas right from the bottom of the pyramid, from the rural parts of the country of over a billion people to the well networked metros. Starting from a global success story of a man who did not have food for 5 days and traveled on a goods train after being left by the security saying that he is from a friendly country India, this man decided to build an institution we know as Infosys today. There are many such inspiring stories of grit, determination, hard-work, hanging on and creating dreams.

At TES we are going to bring forth such stories while creating an opportunity and a strong ecosystem for many more to flourish. December is going to bring with it a whole new wave of energy which is going to create many new directions for many more achievers to come.

Be a proud part of the largest entrepreneurial extravaganza while the decade ends.

Meow FM Rebranded Oye – Sabse Filmi – But Did it Work?

October 3rd, 2010 § 10 comments § permalink

I remember while I used to work for a company in New Delhi, about 2 years back, I used to travel about 35 KMs one side each day and hence Radio in the car was one of the best companions.

One of the most intriguing channels undoubtedly in Radio was Meow FM, the one of its kinds Radio channel targeted only at women/ female audience. My reason of listening to this channel was obviously to understand how well is it being received and is there any engagement at all with the listeners.

Its been a long time though, but I still vaguely remember a late evening show by an RJ called Ginni, the show sure was one of the best in the scheme of things the channel had.

BUT – RE-BRANDING?

If the channel was doing well and the shows were picking up, what was the sense behind re-branding the same as OYE – Sabse Filmi?

Its an interesting thought. Recently while in conversation with a close friend in the industry, I learnt of the fact that the Indian consumer has very varied ways of consuming and engaging with content. My point was, now that the fairer sex is far stronger and has more freedom, Meow FM should have worked out very well. Infact it should have created a one of it’s only kinds establishments across India and possibly a new and very focused platform for advertisers with a target audience.

Perhaps I overlooked the numbers. OYE – Sabse filmi, is far from being a women only focused channel. Its a generic radio station like many others we already have, Radio Mirchi, Radio One, Big FM and the rest. There is nothing new as anyway even the other channels play bollywood stuff 24/7.

LETS LOOK AT CONTENT and the NICHE

Since the same time as I used to listen to Meow FM, I also became a big fan of HIT 95 FM, the only Radio Station which plays only International Music (English majorly) 24/7.

A fantastic business model of 3 RJ’s only chugging along throughout the day and well, people sure did engage on their games, contests etc. I myself have won twice on two separate occasions on their shows.

But recently while talking to a close friend again I got to know that somehow its not really working out too very well for them and may be there’s a possible sell-out on the cards. (Disclaimer: this is an unconfirmed piece of text and hence has no substance to it).

SO WHY ARE NICHE RADIO STATIONS NOT WORKING OUT TOO WELL?

Well, Sure, Niche radio stations have the right mix of content and are targeted towards a particular audience, but somehow there is a flaw in the business model, such that not many of them are able to sustain their niche status throughout their lifetimes.

Lets look at the various things involved and try breaking it down:

  • Content

Primarily you listen to radio as a along-side activity, while you are already engaged in doing something else (Eg: while driving, while cooking, while writing, while travelling) etc.

Content obviously is a major pull here. If you don’t play the right kind of music, well, sure you are going to put off your listeners faster than you think, coz to change a radio station is now as easy as to click/ press a button, which is far easy than to listen to a song you don’t like.

Niche radio stations have pretty much the same quality of content, they play the same kind of music as many other generic radio stations do. They have as good RJs, who can talk as well, as their counterparts.

  • Advertising opportunity

Obviously one of the major most revenue streams for any radio station is the advertising. Its actually a catch 22. A listener is most likely to change a radio station while an advertisement is on and generally the radio stations have these 2-3 minute advertising slots after a couple of songs, which sure is a dampener.

Though there are new model like 40 minutes non-stop music and the rest, but still advertising at a certain point in time works, the rest it leads to clicking of the button and changing of the frequency.

Niche radio stations are good advertising platforms as they command a higher and focused niche target audience.

  • Outreach

In the metros, we have a fairly well read and aware target audience, especially amongst the fairer sex, hence it becomes all the more attractive, with the decision making capability and buying capacity well in the hands of the target segments, these niche radio stations cater to.

When all is well, what are the reasons these niche radio stations are yet to pull of f a solid show?

In my view, what is lacking is a solid business model. The niche radio stations must look at engaging their audience through other media such as the Online media. Eg: creating an online community of Women in Delhi/ NCR. Such a database once segregated will give them another advertising platform and also will keep the audience engaged 24/7, by proliferating content where the audience are.

A solid and properly segregated database adds to the valuations of these niche radio stations and gives them a whole new platform to increase the outreach of their content, while maintaining their cost of delivery.

Any other thoughts will be welcome :)

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