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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February 15th, 2010 § § permalink
We have overtime seen many initiatives go high on the fuel of thoughts and vision but not really seeing the light of the day, when it comes to affecting positively, not just a group of people, but an entire ecosystem, which involves you and me.
Especially, its amazing to see how the Indian Corporate and Industry Associations like NASSCOM have come together towards creation of an interesting ecosystem, which is improving not only the lifestyle for many but also is a big and a bold investment in India’s future.
Recently we came across this campaign called the CyberCity Welfare Society, which is been driven by NASSCOM and major corporate members based out of Gurgaon (the Cyber City) which aims at making life easier, smooth and greener on the roads of Gurgaon.
What caught our eye was the fact that not only the corporate, but this time around, the Police and the Municipal Associations have been actively involved in the campaign, hence making sure that the voices are heard at the highest levels. Such an initiative has not been head of before and we are sure, such steps will go a long way in the future towards creating effective change.
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July 14th, 2009 § § permalink
Here I am Live Blogging the second Un-conference session of the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0 at the NASSCOM HQ in New Delhi. This session is the second in the series of the initiative by NASSCOM for creating a common ground for the Product companies in India. The topic we are discussing today is: Solutions by Product Companies.
We have Ankur Lal, CEO Infozech Software, leading the session along with Arvind Jha of Movico Technologies. We also have Mr. Sharad Sharma – Chair, NASSCOM Product forum.
Okay so we have Mr. Sharad starting the session with a few laughs. Like many of you Im in the mode of becoming an entrepreneur again! I am also currently an entrepreneur in residence with CANNAN PARTNERS.
Sharad, is now sharing his thoughts on how the community can come together in creating an ecosystem. We as NASSCOM ahould also be looking at the other side of the table. i.e. he demand side and not just the delivery side of the equation. Sharad shares an interesting side story of 3M. In the early days of the CD media becoming popular this man he went to the chair and showed the CD and he was turned down. But the next time he did by positioning it the way that its the surface and not the CD/media that is there. Wallah, the rest is history.
What’s Cooking?
Mr. Sharad is now sharing on how NASSCOM is looking to create possibilities for the industry. interestingly Sharad is sharing some very bright ideas which he and the team at NASSCOM are trying to implement specifically aimed at SME’s and SMB’s. Sharad is surely sharing some really good ideas which if given life, could surely lay down a good path and make the journey smoother.
And since this is an Un-conference session, we now have the participants sharing their thoughts on what Sharad just shared with the community.
Sharad: One of the request that often comes back to NASSCOM from product companies is “Can you help us get buyers”. What we have found is, ther real value that NASSCOM can bring is to really grow the market and hold events where buyers and sellers could meet. What we can do is examine on behalf of these companies we could promote the voice.
Lack of project management and product marketing talent in India is a point shared by one of the participants in the room. Its because of the ecosystem. I definitely dont want NASSCOM to sell my product, I need help in developing the ecosystem.
Sharad: Our buyers are afraid of buying products from the small companies.
“No product that I know of has been successful, that has not been developed in the shadow of friendly sophisticated users”
Sharad: What is happening is that we dont have traction to the products, services are not present like force which could help us reach out.
Arvind: Product management and marketing is going to come out of your domestic customer knowledge. I believe that we will have the largest success for a product in the mobile side as we are the largest user base of mobiles.
Participant: Why not think about launching the next Google/Yahoo from India.
Arvind: There is nothing restrciting us from being there.
Ankur: We are the leaders in terms of these 400 million users. I would not be surprised if we have these small Google(s) coming out of India in another couple of years from now.
Participant: I see more and more companies fading out to the more lucrative services space. The DNA of the Indian industry to reamin/focus into the services domain is something which impacts the product.
Ankur: The challenge is that a small product company has to be dealt with safe hands. In the US there is this small companies fund. the government there supports these small businesses. What you need is a forgiven customer.
Challenges faced by Product Companies
So now we are discussing the challenges faced by product companies which we also did discuss the previous session on the product companies here at NASSCOM. Arvind is leading this part of the session, with the entire room being concentrated to the challenges and surely everyone in the room is agreeing to the same.
Arvind: In the spirit of what has worked, we should look at what companies can look at from these successes.
And now we have companies sharing with the room, their products and experiences
Participant: The planning that we do for the product business cycle is not complete. We dont really understand what to do after we have built the product.
So we have Tarun Anand, CTO, mScriber, its s speech training application. Tarun shares how they have been working on the same for the past 2 years and how they realised that its just the tip of the iceberg. We were lucky to get some early customers, but its harder for us to get the second set of customers.
You just have to wait it out and you have to watch what happens
What we realised, is that even if you have an engine, you still have to go to the customer with the 4 wheels, and the rest so that the customer just plugs in the key and moves on. So we partnered with companies which helped us achieve our objectives, and since we did not have the complete product stack, and hence these partners helped us reach there.
Its really important to see what your route to market is
Our biggest challenge right now is cash flows and we need to address the same.
And now we have RateGain, a company into the Hospitality and Travel Technology Products Company and we have the CEO and Founder sharing his thoughts.
We operate in these niche areas, these products have these niche requirements as a result of which we are pretty successful. And now we have RateGain sharin gthe various offerings they have.
While we were gaining knowlegde, we found that every hotel was published on some website, and we took the intelligent way out, which was more of creating a channel in between for the hotels to reach out with their information.
Sharing the Business Model
We have something called the rate tracking tool, so anybody selling anything online, you would want to know if there are competitive products on competitive prices available? Well, we customized this for the hotels. We found one commercial use of this technology and hence we started with hotels, but now we are launching it for different variants.
Interestingly what we now have is a screen shot of the reports that the product generates for the user. And I must say, is pretty interesting for a good competitive analysis.
- How did the product come about?
In the US at a point when I returned from there, there were travel sites emerging, and I wanted to build the technology targeting the US consumer and build a metasearch site. And we flipped the Bmodel and created the product for the hotel industry.
If you are working on something new and innovative, customers in the US are pretty collaborative and understanding
Why did it work?
- Emerging market need
- Niche area/ No limited competition
Recommendation for others:
- MR, Market sizing
- Test market the product
- Agile in bringing product to the market
- Greenfield opportunities
- SME on board
- Passion
We leverage a great great Channel Strategy. We have identified strong players in the hospitality domain and tied up with them.
Okay and now we have RAWZOR standing at the line
Our’s is a product which is similar to winzip but for photographers. We spoke to all the photo editing softwares, to add support to our format, though there was no money involved, but it helped us gain industry support.
There was a lot of resistance from the market, you cannot go on day 1 to Adobe and expect them to support you.
Why did we try this?
First few friends looking to join a startup.
Where did it fail?
- Lack of experience
- Lack of discipline
What worked and Why?
Multiple discoveries of the right things to do
I believe we should look inside the team. If you are not good enough in what you are doing, then the level of integrity, honesty and discipline takes a hitm which surely was a challenge for us. People dont know the right things to do and the right things. Its putting people in the right framework to get the right things out of them.
And now we have the founder of Busy Software, Mr, Dinesh, sharing his success story. We have never had big hurdles, though profits have not been huge but somehow things have been moving smoothly.
The problem that we have is that of scaling up. Our challenge is that this market is dominated by Tally which is almost similar to the market and it is available at Zero price.
Now there are benefits to this situation and there are the problems. Such a situation increases the market size, which was good for us. Our pricing strategies is being focused on what Tally has dictated till now. Now the difficult thing is how to sell and how to get into the considerable field of the consumer.
How to get into the consideration set of people – this is our major challenge
Initially we kept the price very low almost 50% of what Tally was. We were not the smartest marketing guys around, but we were sure that we could get the product replicated and we were fool enough to replicate a free software. For us the differentiating factor was getting “Sales Tax” as an inclusive offering.
Our objective was to make people use the software, and we started spreading 90 days free software trial with full functionality on. People tried our software because he has a pain point, thus we pointed on this aspect of the consumer thought process.
Did Tally not include those features?
Well, yes they did, more than 8o% of the features are available, but since we are architectured right from the beginning, and hence that gives us the edge over Tally.
Ankur is now leading the discussion, and we have a request from participants for Ankur to share his story!
What is it that keeps your customer awake at night, if you know this and your product answers the call, well, you have your business – Ankur Lal
And now we have Ankur Lal, sharing his experience. The big problem is, its ironical, software development costs are cheaper in India, if they were expensive, we would not have been discussing this. If you can replicate and duplicate, that is product business.
Participant: we purely lack strategic planning, you begin with a myopic vision in starting out. Interestingly we have people sharing through product management and project management.
The discussion in the room has now shifted to how the ecosystem is getting shaped and it finds people like us at these platforms. And now we have Ankur concluding the session introducing the EMERGE community, and the NASSCOM EMERGEOUT Conclave which is also the 50th session of the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0.
I am glad to be LIVE blogging the 49th session of the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0, as today I complete one complete year, LIVE blogging the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0, surely all thanks to Avinash, NASSCOM
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February 18th, 2009 § § permalink
“We won’t leave the room, till we answer all the doubts”
One of the success strategies shared by Mr. Deep Kalra, a man who made planning your journeys easier, faster and cheaper, and the process, a whole lot enjoyable, in the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0, 37th meet at New Delhi.
Mr. Deep Kalra, the founder, MakeMyTrip.com shared his learning’s, challenges faced, business models, entrepreneurship, the Internet, team, regrets, achievements and a turnaround story!
The session kick started with a welcome address by Mr. Ankur Lal, Founder and CEO Infozech Software. We had a gathering of around 33 people, which added to the diversity in experience and learning’s.
Deep started the session with an approach, expected of a seasoned entrepreneur. He divided the session into 3 buckets which contained a story which he started and towards the finish had motivated the participants.
- Detailed discussion about MakeMyTrip
- Challenges faced along the way
- Learning and Takeaways
“Everyone in the world after achieving a certain level of education and experience wants to be an entrepreneur, the reasons may be many”
- Deep Kalra
Deep started with his journey, wherein he discussed about his life as a learner (a student) who started as an economist and “tumbled into a B-school”. He shared his thoughts on the emergence of B-schools introducing the process of taking in laterals from the industry who bring along with them practical experience which helps while you understand the management concepts relating to your experiences.
An IIM-A graduate of the 1989 batch, Deep belongs to a batch of graduates who are today some of India’s most reckoned success stories.
With a career start with a reputed multi national bank in India, Deep got his first learning’s which impacted his life immensely. A confession he made “all this while earning handsomely and learning from immensely successful people, he was always clear that banking was not his defining career choice”. As with every entrepreneur, a strong urge to free himself from the straitjacket, Deep started his stint as an entrepreneur by representing a multinational company dealing into Bowling Alley equipments in India. He was convinced the concept would catch on and the product was sellable.
Soon came the first learning: The product was great, the money was there, but the market was not ready! Hence Deep shared a learning that however specialized a product or service you may have, a solid market research is without any doubts necessary.
An intelligent speaker, Deep had the audience in splits with his wits of presenting his experience doing business with Delhi Businessmen, who are smart!
A very important issue of “Peer pressure” was touched upon by Deep with extreme subtleness. He shared his version of how peer pressure affected him as:
“I was not affected by how much
my peers were making, but about the fact
that I was losing out on my own personal development”
- Deep Kalra
Filling the Vacuum!
Deep, in order to fill this vacuum in life went ahead and joined a multinational as the Head Business Development. Innovation was his motto and Deep proved with his grit and determination, which were properly backed by facts and figures, that the company could be a successful turnaround using the Internet as a tool, which at that time was not something that the Indian consumer would have been very comfortable with!
After a brief stint of 15 months, Deep found his calling!
Before everyone in the room, could hop onto the fast paced F1 that Deep’s interesting life was emerging out to be, he smartly put the brakes and shared a few crucial lessons, which acted as tickets for the participants to hop on for the ride ahead!
“Big companies won’t get on the internet, I realized
change was difficult for them to introduce within
the existing processes. The moment you become large the chips get scattered”
- Deep Kalra
Be Lean, Be Fit!
Vision is never static; in fact the corporate vision should always keep changing with the changing structures of the corporate, as per the market conditions.
Nimbleness and Change, is necessary to be incorporated into the business model.
“You slow down somewhere down the way”, said Deep while he was explaining the growth of a venture and of the entrepreneur.
1999 was the year Deep was struck – with an idea!
After extensive research into the market conditions, Deep was convinced about the idea of either an online Financial Stock trading business or something to do with travel. With a flexible vision and all the life’s learning’s, Deep’s vision took shape with a venture capital funding of $2million for a 70per cent stake in MakeMyTrip.
A lucrative offer, a good salary, a dream getting fulfilled, life could never have been better, was Deep’s first reaction. It was a Win-Win situation for him.
A smart team to be supported by, Deep started off with a website and a vision of defining the travel space in India by becoming the largest company in the travel space. The company was earning good with a sound bank balance, what better for an entrepreneur right?
WRONG said Deep!
A majority of their business was coming from the NRI market and in India; consumers were only lookers and not buyers! Hence the Indian operations were making not much sense as the market was just not mature for such a concept. Deep could have pumped in more money easily but he decided otherwise, and said to his top management “We won’t leave the room, till we answer all the doubts” to where we are wrong! The decision was not an easy one, but was taken and the India model was put on hold for sometime.
A dream gone sour?
With the markets not doing well and the DOT COM Bubble already creating ripples in the subcontinent, Deep was faced with a situation which few had ever imagined. The VC’s backed out and the additional $1million promised never came.
Deep and the team had two choices, either to shut down or else have faith in their concept and buy back the 70per cent equity stake and keep the ball rolling!
As they say “When you set out to do something with all your heart and passion, everything around you supports you”!
Deep got funds from Angels who really proved right to their title “Angles” and bought back the 70 per cent stake, with a team which was not the same as it was sometime back.
How easy is it to take a 100percent cut in your earnings and for the top management a 50percent cut in their salaries? Ask Deep and the team at MakeMyTrip, and they will tell you what sailing on the boat named faith and confidence is when you have nothing else.
The Build-Operate-transfer model was touched upon by Deep and he advised everyone on the “Lure of Lucre”!
You cant Do It Alone!
A team which takes Serious Equity, a prospective for you who is ready to take cuts into hard cash for ESOPS, is the best employee for you!
2004 was the year of reckoning and establishment for MakeMyTrip in India, when the market opened to new models of online travel.
TRY!
Deep was of the suggestion that an entrepreneur should at least TRY! It was this attitude which made him get into the online travel space in India, with a fact backing his belief, that an ordinary Indian gets onto the Internet to book 5000 tickets daily using his/her credit card, in the Indian railways!
Learning’s
- Challenges
“Bootstrapping was the best time during the venture, when we had put all our life’s savings”
– Scaling up
Scaling up is a big challenge for any emerging venture which is looking towards a strategic expansion
Nicely heated up debated sessions have been regular features at MakeMyTrip.
There’s no Hiding!
- Get good guys
- Share your wealth (ESOP’s)
- Hire guys who truly challenge you
“All your Yes-Men are truly useless. It’s about management by exception”
Failures
“The biggest regret and failure was that we outsourced our technology”
None of us knew how to build a web site!
The session drew to a close with an interactive platform for the participants to get their queries answered by Deep himself, which was of a big help.
Link to the post at the NASSCOM EMERGE blog: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/07/14/confessions-of-a-dot-com-entrepreneur/
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February 18th, 2009 § § permalink
No, there is no problem with the language; every entrepreneur would understand the above mentioned line!
Welcome to Proto.in, a premier Startup Community Event that has made a niche for itself by successfully putting together a pool of resources which is relevant to the emerging entrepreneur in leveraging the business or the idea.
Proto.in, provides an innovative platform to the entrepreneurs who could have their ideas displayed to the prospective VC’s, Angels and other prospects as prototypes! A working display makes an IMPACT!
The Mantra
Create, Contribute, Collaborate says Proto’s mantra which clearly reflects in their events, that help emerging entrepreneurs in increasing partnerships, network with the right people and put forth their ideas to like-minded and well connected audience!
Network – Hi! I am…
The day was a huge draw. An hour before the event started participants had started pouring in. Corporate, Investors, Partners, Entrepreneurs, Students, it was a collaboration of an unprecedented level.
It all started with a Hi, I am…and people networked along! Something that really struck me, was the inviting nature and a smile on the faces of people who are placed and ranked up there!
The event provided ample opportunities for entrepreneurs to network around and hit bulls eye!
The Delhi chapter (July ’08)
The Proto event kicked off at IIT Delhi, on Friday July 18th 2008 with Mr. Kiran Karnik (former President, NASSCOM) delivered the Keynote address, in which he stressed on “the Time is Right” for India!
The address was a perfect beginning to the event, with every aspect which could not be negotiated by a startup being addressed by Mr. Karnik. From service industry, to creating Intellectual Property to looking at the right places for the availability of funds, he gave the packed auditorium, insights into the whole concept of entrepreneurship!
It was the man and the experience speaking, and the combination couldn’t have been better to flare up the present “Ignited Minds”.
Adversity and Diversity
Sounds similar huh? Well, Mr. Karnik, gave a lesson which in these fast paced times we tend to overlook. Upon being asked a question on: “Are we focusing enough of Global ideas” Mr. Karnik replied every adversity brings with it an opportunity and the diverse Indian culture, that’s our strength!
Put on your seat belts, here we go…
The event was scheduled as follows:
| 8:30 |
Registrations open |
|
| 9:00 |
Keynote |
Kiran Karnik |
| 9:45 |
Building Services for India: The art of pricing |
Murugavel Janakiram,Bharatmatrimony.com |
| 10:15 |
A the helm of a fast growing business |
Bhavin Turakhia, Directi |
| 11:00 |
Refreshments and Networking |
|
| 11:15 |
What do your customers want? |
Sameer guglani, Morpheus partners |
| 12:00 |
The art of marketing your startup |
Mahesh murthy, Pinstorm and Kiruba Shankar F5ive technologies |
| 12:45 |
Lunch |
|
| 1:45 |
Building a brand that never dies |
Narayan, 20:20 media |
| 2:30 |
Virality is part of the design: the core of viral marketing |
Amit ranjan, Slideshare |
| 3:15 |
Refreshments and networking |
|
| 3:30 |
Reconciling entrepreneurs and Investors |
Sanjay Anandram, Jumpstartup |
| 4:15 |
Financing your itch:Running on bootstrapped cash |
Gaurav Bhatnagar, Tekriti Software |
| 5:00 |
The dilemma of the creative class |
Shashank Ghosh(film director) |
| 5:45 |
Freeconomics: How long can free be free? |
An open discussion |
| 6:00 |
End of day one |
|
|
|
|
The sessions drew a huge participation! The audiences were participating with intelligent questions which made the whole event more lively and interactive.
Murugavel Janakiram fromBharatMatrimony.com initiated the sessions which had audience in splits (when Janakiram confessed getting married through his own web site!) and awe of a self made man!
Bhavin Turakhia from Directi, was as different as “DIFFERENT” could be!
How would you see a man dressed in cool denims and spiked hair standing on a stage of a startup event? Wrong guy wrong place….well, everything is RIGHT but WRONG!
A young lad in late 20’s who comes across dressed cool in denim, and the moment he gets introduced; the first reaction from the audience goes “really”? Did he do that?
The concept of introducing business as a game and help in making sense of numbers to each and every “player in the team” (your employees) was interesting!
A logical conclusion to 7 steps that Bhavin shared clicked instantly with the audience. It was a good learning experience sharing Bhavin’s thought process.
The speakers that followed were equally interesting, sharing highly specific insights and point by point answering the questions from the army if audience.
The art of marketing your startup by Mahesh Murthy and Kiruba Shankar, was a big draw.
If you are outsourcing your essentialfunctions to a partner, its better thatI fund the third party partner than you,their business becomes a proven conceptif you believe in them
- Mahesh Murthy
The sessions on Viral Marketing concept and reconciling investors and entrepreneurs were highly accepted and generated quite an interest and draw!
Day 1 drew to a close with an open session on Freeconomics which was well debated!
At NASSCOM EMERGE forum we strive to create more such platforms where entrepreneurs could interact and create a knowledge grid which is Glocal!
Link to the post at NASSCOM EMERGE blog: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/07/20/startups-your-day-protoin-delhi/
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February 18th, 2009 § § permalink
WEB 2.0, Yammer, Mashup, Dapper, Pipes, Widgets, Open API’s, WOMM…
Greek, does it sound?
Well, the 39th session of the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0 (Emerging Companies Forum – Marketing) was a big draw, which had people belonging to a wide strata of the industry, participating with varied interests.
The session was chaired by Mr. Jay Pullur, the Founder and CEO, Pramati Technologies Pvt. Ltd. a technocrat and visionary, building teams from the scratch has been a key trait that helped Jay in establishing Pramati technologies, a company known for its innovation and quality.
The session started with Jay introducing innovative products from Pramati in the form of widgets which they evangelized as integral tools for building simple yet highly efficient methodologies for leveraging WEB 2.0
A formal kickoff then followed with Jay presenting the participants with a presentation which was a two sided discussion, with the participants engrossed.
Jay started with defining young companies. A statement which laid the foundation for the discussion “big companies already do all the old stuff well and in good scale”, made quite an impact in the participants and the focus hence shifted to how startups and emerging companies (young companies) could leverage WEB 2.0?!
WEB 2.0 and that too in 2 hours, well Jay smartly divided the presentation into Three (3) parts -:
- What is this new WEB?
- What does it mean to us?
- Why is it challenging?
WEB 2.0, a new style of working!
WEB 2.0 is more about user participation, peer production and not just simple one way publishing.
Social Media
Two simple words, yet they made every mind in the room actively interact and participate. Well why someone would not be interested when you hear “the traffic on my web site has grown 25times over the past 20 odd days, due to the implementation of this FREE widget”!
‘FREE’ strikes! And it struck!
The greek words which we started this post with now started making sense, Mashups, Dapper, Intel Mash maker, Yahoo Pipes are all WEB 2.0 tools which are the most innovative and effective tools in leveraging WEB 2.0 for the organisation.
Marketing Opportunity – Widget
How does FREE stuff adds value?
- Social Networking Applications
Jay provided with examples from some applications that Pramati did for the recently concluded Olympics at FaceBook, which generated quite a response all across.
Open social platforms were again an interesting topic of discussion which generated quite an interest in the room. Various platforms were discussed. Including the free google platform, open API’s and web services.
Extending the discussion, Jay proved how widgets could be effectively used in the promotion of products.
2. Strategy needs understanding of distribution models and uptake of new offerings
“Marketing is changing faster than ever”
- Jay Pullur
“Usefulness is no longer the only thing that matters, it’s the experience that does”
- Jay pullur
“Indian startups have not really kept the waves”
- Jay Pullur
An interesting discussion ensued within the participants, which had WEB 2.0 researchers’ sharing their experiences into what they felt was lacking in the Indian startups and how could the power of WEB 2.0 still be leveraged.
Jay mentioned the Enterprise 2.0 platform which he simply explained as a very complex combination of openness and privacy.
The change in the WEB 2.0 space was very intelligently put across which had the participants in splits and was really a thought provoking idea…”who thought a simple application like twitter could ever work”?
Well, since people today are interested into other people’s lives, thus it’s not just working; in fact we all are Tweeting, day in, night out.
Yammer, Crunchbase, Semantic Web before the participants could say why English suddenly has become out of focus again, Jay explained the various tools and how they spell magic!
PART TWO
The session was now much more interesting as now Jay kept his point through which he gave what the audience wanted…good, but what does it mean to us?
1. Specialize and grow on the fast track, remarked Jay
With a reference to the blue ocean strategy and other such methodologies, Jay was instrumental in providing the audience with methods of marketing new products and service offerings through WEB 2.0 tools.
PR2.0, Blogs, WOMM (word of mouth marketing) etc. were the cited examples
Beat the downturn, commoditization and Market pressures, remarked Jay
PART THREE
Why is it challenging?
1. Competency bar is growing up
Before the participants could voice their concerns of implementing such WEB 2.0 strategies, Jay was quick in adding the various challenges that could be faced.
“Invest little to gain a standing” – the statement clearly reflected Jay’s long term standing in the IT industry. The experience was speaking for itself.
Post the formal discussion, Jay shared his experiences with the audience. What was engrossing was Jay’s openness in coming out with the go to market strategies that Pramati implemented while they were in the process of launching their Enterprise 2.0 solution.
Lesson well learnt, and such discussion was received with great response by all present.
The session concluded with a Q&A session and the forum opened for networking which also had Jay interacting very openly.
RocSearch also has done a report on Leveraging User Generated Content – An anecdotal assessment on what works for marketers and what does not…download the report at Rocsearch_leveraging-social-media_may-2008
Link to the post at the NASSCOM EMERGE Blog: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/09/15/how-startups-and-emerging-companies-can-benefit-from-social-web-and-enterprise-20/
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February 18th, 2009 § § permalink
Dheeraj dharm mitra aru nari aafat kal parakhiya chari”
- Tulsidas
Remarked Prof. Sanjiva Dubey, addressing the 40th Friday’s 2.0 session @ NASSCOM, New Delhi.
The session started with Mr. Ankur Lal, Chief Executive, Infozech software Ltd. introducing the participants to the session and the EMERGE community.
- I am a fellow traveller, said Sanjiv before igniting the present minds. Well it was not just igniting these minds, Sanjiv had a huge task of not only sharing his insights but more so in calming down the anxious people in the room, who all shared a BIG single concern, that of - what to do in these market conditions?
Sanjiv’s opening line did the magic “an SME won’t turn into an Infosys in a matter of days or months, its rigorous practice”
In these BAD times, Sanjiv smiled with a GOOD news for all, “Every IT giant was an SME”, thus everyone grows! A few examples Sanjiv shared-
- Google, HP amd Apple were started in a garage
- Adobe was atarted by ex employees of Xerox and named it after a river that ran by the neighborhood.
Before we go further, how many of you would say that you don’t know this name – Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd.?
Well, I am talking about WIPRO Ltd. in this case.
Thus was set the mood in the room, which made the participants feel that the bad times though have their share of “bad moments” but they come along with lots of opportunities as well.
Coming out with Unique-Creative-Innovative ideas, this is the right time to effectively implement these strategies into the SME’s business plans. Sanjiv in fact emphasized on the importance of the above for not only the SME’s but also every IT company, referring to his book.
All SME’s which emerged into a mammoth organization had just one “creative innovation”, on which the empire was built on, remarked the experienced professional.
Challenges for an SME
- Limited opportunities for Economies of Scale
- High Development cost, Low profits
- Losing customers, no repeat orders
- High cost of marketing
Enough to make these bad times, sound really BAD!
But Sanjiv keeping his poise, said in bad times SME’s should test these four -:
- Patience
- Persistence
- Pals
- Partners
Also were shared certain crucial things that according to Sanjiv, should never be done during a downturn -:
- Don’t panic
- Don’t let your clients/employees/investors panic
- Don’t believe everything you read
- Don;t brush aside everything what you hear
- Don’t isolate yourself. A team is more successful than an individual
An interesting thought and example that Sanjiv shared, was when he bagged a big contract competing with the market leaders a few years back, by creating and maintaining a “consortium” of companies, which was a lesson towards why a team is more important always.
Remain glued to the ground!
Whenever you’re glued to the ground(you know the situation and how would it affect you) you don’t panic as much.
Sustain a day at a time, which Sanjiv innovatively termed as the ICU(intensive care unit) model!
Your organization is like the human body, with the Brain representing Creativity, Lungs the Cashflow and the Heart, Enthusiasm.
All the vital organs need to be kept alive at all costs to keep going, forging new relationships and leverga these learnings when the right opportunity arrives.
Socialize, serve others and don’t hesitate to collaborate!
We as IT companies are running towards getting into our own niches in the race to prove our niche expertise. But in these times its innovative collaboration which works!
Sign up at the first signal of ecosystem change, be observant and be quick to notice the change, was Sanjiv’s advice to the SME’s. Survical at any cost and rate is mandated.
So, you meet your team everyday? Well, go have lunch and meet them twice a day now!
Innovating the business model by the IT industry
- From labor based to annuity based
- From being just a cook, you now need to take care of the entire wedding
SME’s can do so by forging long lasting partnerships with already established IT leaders. Specialize on a particular domain. Niche matters!
Good news, In bad times, you’re not pressured for deadlines, thus what you have is time in hand to do what you could not have done and missed the bus while concentrating on other things in the emerging and happy times.
Corporate Discipline
Instill discipline in bad times. With a slide presentation showing the royal guards, Sanjiv made a point which he emphasized by saying that discipline is of utmost importance and cannot be negotiated upon.
The FIVE S (5S) formula-:
- Sort
- Straighten
- Shine
- Standardize
- Sustain
In the context of the current market scenarios, Sanjiv essentially made a point which struck the right cord with the participants, who all consented that these things are important. Go build relationships, which was supported by an example from Sanjiv’s personal life, about a client for whom he went the extra mile, and the client still remembers him, (whether times are good or bad).
Flawless Execution
The client saves a lot by getting his work done, by an SME than by a big player, all it demands is flawless execution, responsiveness and customization. And the room was fresh with positive vibes
Finally -:
Go find a mentor who can help you in tough times, Sanjiv placed the importance of having the right Mentor high up on his list.
Guru gobind dono khade, kaku lagun pau…
balihari guru aapne gobind diyo bataye…
- Tulsidas
The session drew to a close, with Sanjiv again being one with the participants, re-assuring them that we all are in similar times, with his words-:
Main aap apni talash mei hun, mera koi rehnuma nahi hai..
Mai kya dikhaun raah tujhko, mera apna pata nahi hai..
Link to the post at the NASSCOM EMERGE Blog: http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/2008/10/18/from-caterpillar-to-butterfly/
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