Start-up No.2 – conversation to revenue

My father has this excellent style of narrating with obnoxious examples. Just noticed I’ve picked it up and am searching for the obnoxious example to explain the title of this post. Admit, I can’t find one… Its simply about how my new entrepreneurial journey began as a conversation and now we are on the verge of receiving our first cheque.

AIESEC was a phenomenal organization which has left an impact on my professional life. I was closely bonded to the organization because of my belief in its vision and values. Its vision said “Peace & fulfillment of human kind’s potential.” AIESEC was the international platform to discover and develop their potential.

“Discover and develop human kind’s potential” It was a life changing statement. Since then as a conscious effort I have tried my best to engage with people and help them “discover” their potential. I always had this philosophy with me.

So when I came across a tweet from a batch mate, who was looking for a good opportunity to do something related to Social Media, an obvious bell rang. The idea was see what potential lay with him and how can it be utilized best. So I invited him over to discuss “an idea”.

So that conversation, starting to be part of helping people discover their potential (and for obvious capitalistic reasons benefit from it) started this idea doing something related to the fast growing social media.

Coming from a management consulting back ground, consulting was my obvious choice. Consulting businesses on how to benefit from social media. After a lengthy discussion, he know just what to do for which kind of firm etc. I was amazed at the low down he gave me on how the new Internet is going to penetrate our life in an irreversible way. And developed nations have already begun imbibing the culture.

I being the social media ignorant chap and he being the domain expert, we began the journey at the end of the conversation sure that this is n attempt worth trying. I was to add value to the org on devising a sustainable and scalable business model of his expertise of understanding social media tools.

Thus I started exploring the space and what all could be done here. What is the value businesses are looking for? What are the tipping points that businesses will be willing to consider as enough value to pay more than cost? Who are competitors and who are peers in the business? Where can business leads be generated? Who are acclaimed thought leaders in the space?

While I was fleshing out the business model, my business partner had already identified a first potential client. A potential client who understood the power of social media. We were abruptly set into action. After only a few discussions we were sitting on a proposal to be finalized. Being a startup, and among the few of our kind in Hyderabad, we agreed on a 40% fixed and 60% performance kind of model to assure our delivery ahead of the money. And we were set in irreversible motion, even without our feet on ground.

We worked over time, spent all the time we had in either understanding the business or servicing the client. We began to track everything that was happening around us in the space. We began to realize the space holds immense opportunity. The truth was that not enough players ad taken shape. The high potential players were trying hard not to wakeup to the opportunity. We took solace in the potential that lay before us and thought to ourself we will do whatever it takes to make our mark here.

Naming this venture was not as hard as the previous one. All kudos to my partner, he is a creative genius. The name was through in less than an hour and acceptance was obviously High. We loved the name.

“.now” to be read as dot now. Dot to represent the internet and Now to represent the real time nature of social media. We stuck to it like glue. The odd dissatisfaction was obviously ignored.

Sustainable activity on social media is key success. Many enterprises cannot allocate full time resources with know how to do their social media work. Hence outsourcing was a solution we were ready to offer to our clients. Our first client also needed this service and this lead to our first hiring. I will not say it was easy, but we surely didn’t have too much trouble.

Now the implementation had begun with its usual hiccups followed by continuous streamlining. With delivering results and delight to the client several changed were brought about to our way of working. Though slightly delayed, our work has now commenced in full flow. We today submitted our first invoice and have been assured of the cheque being handed over tomorrow.

This 2 month journey from conversation to first revenue saw pitch to 4 potential clients, 2 materializing, one paying. It saw us participate in 2 conferences. It saw us reaching out to the eco-system in Hyderabad and beyond. With many more clients waiting to be served, we hope to dramatically change the landscape of social media usage in our vicinity. We hope to inspire a lot more people to discover and develop their potential.

Management Consulting for Small Businesses – Justifies Existence?

Historically management consultants are among the most hated professional community in the business world. As a student, when I aspired to be a management consultant, I wondered why glamorous management consultants always frowned about being “hated”. Once I entered the profession as a management consultant is when I truly understood how hated management consultants are.

While there are ethical and unethical people in every industry, act of a few consultants (since the emergence of management consulting) who robbed clients without delivering value can’t be rub against the entire profession of diligent value worshippers. Management consultants, over the years, have emerged to be a very important part of the entire eco-system.

Though Indian businesses are not as consulting conscious as their western counterparts, the trends to employ management consultants has begun to improve. Management consultants still get brick bats while moving in industry circles… Especially when it comes to SMEs management consultants are look at like the famous quote “don’t employ a consultant to tell you time from your watch”. Whenever I come across these people, I so pity them for the lack of knowledge and understanding of the benefits of employing management consultants. (more...)

Power of Simple Networking

Simple Networking, I mean a meeting with a person irrespective of medium, location or context, is extremely powerful. A simple shake of hands and exchange of “outline bio-data” can prove to be life-changing (very slightly exaggerated). This is possibly true for life in general, but I’d focus only on professionals and about professional contexts.

In the business I’m in, management consulting, one of the most credible channel of business development is through network. Although we envisage the contribution to change in a big way in due course of time, the truth remains that networks generate business. Hence it is imperative that I meet many people, usually of the level of the Head of the Organization (in hope to meet decision-makers to extract quick business). This is amplified by our chosen area of work, Small & Medium Enterprises. “Simple” Networking is thereby a part of life.

I’m sure Simple Networking is the part of everyone’s life and the intensity with which we pursue can influence our progress in a tremendous way. For professionals who are involved in Simple Networking, what I say must be resonating. But it’s not just the intensity of networking, but also the approach to networking is as critical for networking to fetch return.

We are in a world of people and each of us pursues a path of personal incentive. So, when I interact with a person if the interaction is not adding any value to me I would definitely not be interested in continuing. When I say value, I mean bring to the table anything I value: it can be prospective opportunity, knowledge about a topic I’m interested in, delight, entertainment etc. Same applies to me as well. If I can add value to an interaction I strengthen it, and if it is mutual I Network with that person. By networking I establish a relationship that has the potential to generate potential perpetual value.

For example, recently I had the opportunity to meet a person who was involved in an initiative on entrepreneurship and I extended my humble support to that initiative. As part of the interaction I presented another potential opportunity of association and that person immediately agreed. Not only is the association now getting stronger, but also strengthening with this person obliging to connect me to his colleagues as well. The meeting with his person happened unintentionally and co-incidentally when I was visiting someone else over a cup of tea. A Perfect example of “Simple” Networking.

Another time I had the opportunity to meet a professional from an allied industry. We exchanged pleasantries and “outline bio-data”. In weeks we were sitting across the table for a potential opportunity I had found for him. Weeks later we were again sitting across the table with a potential opportunity he had brought for me. Neither of the opportunities actually materialized, but the power of Simple networking played again.

Simple networking can happen anywhere, not only physically. I was approached a couple of years ago by an event coordinator from a premier management institute, who had located me on LinkedIn, to help publicize their event on start-ups in Hyderabad. Even now we interact over Google Talk to share various things related to Innovation, start-ups, incubators etc. There is a potential association brewing, with this person I’ve never even met, for years now which I’m sure will materialize sooner than later.

So I can recollect many simple and shakes which turned out to be strong professional associations due to synergy. But there are some key things to remember. Never over-do. Never hard-sell. Add sufficient value. Be polite yet engaging. Let contribution be two-way. Always follow-up. Relations can be built by one person too. Never hesitate in appreciating. Identify synergy. There are many more, but these are on top of my mind.

Remember that networks can be un-done too. Relationships never last forever. Relationships are forged by doing enough to last, never on their own. In a professional environment once value addition stops there is high likelihood for the association to fall apart. Sometimes it is good but, relationships that are not fruitful, that don’t evoke synergy, that don’t share the same value-system eventually breakdown. Many associations of the past are defunct today because of the same reasons. Some I severed intentionally, some were severed and some were just lost.

So be on the look out to network with the right people. Create mutually beneficial relationships which are strong and lasting. Happy Networking!

Business of Business Plans

It is getting increasingly interesting to do business plans for highly potent start-ups. To work with entrepreneurs who seek help on developing business models, fleshing out their strategy, understand actual financial projections, is such a beautiful experience. The experience is being enhanced by nice clients who are willing to listen to what we say, instead of using their “I already Know” filter which they are so good at.

The development of business plans for presentation to debt financers and equity investors is different. While both are interested in viability, the investors are people interested in the business as a whole. How the start-up is making the money is as important as how much money is being made. This becomes exciting for a management consultant interested in strategy. To design a business plan to depict operational models, strategy explanation about starting, sustaining and scaling, realistic presentation of market potential, potential impact, super-duper future potential; it’s a joy to do such exercises.

Not being from the finance background, financial projections were not my forte. But applying a amateur frame-work of developing the financial projections, I almost perfectly completed the job, for the first time (ofcourse with in-house expert help). Now doing financial projections and interpreting key ratios being part of my learning kitty, doing business plans is getting even more interesting.

I’m so packed with doing business plans for very interesting industry-agnostic start-ups. I think slowly the start-up practice is taking good shape. Some investor pitches lined-up would add great dimension to our developed expertise. We will become lesser reliant on the experts on board and being to develop our own expertise and frameworks to deal with start-ups.

This is just another testimonial to the power of passion for learning. How one averse to numbers, by simply being passionate about learning can make healthy beginnings and who knows may be succeed. It just shows that reading and keeping channels of learning helps immensely. From newsletters to blogs to expert opinions to interviews, even without formal management education entrepreneurship can be pursued. Learning is such a key element.

Business Plans look an amazing beginning. I hope the over load of business plan work continues and the momentum is sustained. The business of business plans looks exciting.

Americans turn to small companies

A survey conducted revealed 22% of American workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last year found new jobs with small businesses. Another59% would be interested in working for a small business, and29% are considering starting one of their own. The potential for job growth isn’t the only reason. 56% said that a “family-like” work environment appealed to them, and 48% felt they could make more of a difference in a small company. (courtesy CareerBuilder)

Hope the trend  reflects in India as well and more talent agrees to participate in entrepreneurial endeavor in Indian SMEs.

Business Models of Malls – Interesting new mall in Hyderabad

Only two weeks ago did a new mall open in Hyderabad. No promotions, a simple press release and on the second day 5 storied parking lot for 700 cars is full, not to mention about the overflow of cars in adjoining neighbourhood. Second weekend, this time the 6 screen multiplex is also open the scene, a replica.

Curiosity of so many people, displayed so vigourously right across the street from my home had to take over. No excuses to not see a the biggest mall in Hyderabad, with an entrance right opposite the entrance to me residence separated by one road 100m wide, branding itself as “brand new experience”. The first invitation from a friend and I was off to experience the “brand new experience”.

Not many stores open, but the few which opened and the rest which announced their opening shortly, tell the story of the mall in adequate detail. Shopper’s Stop, Calvin Klein, Pepe, Tommy Hilfiger, MAC, Inox, among others, have one thing common: their target group A, A+ segments. The multiplex with 6 screens goes to INOX, another brand with elite target segment.

One can clearly observe the mall has been designed to serve elite customers. Capacity of 700 car parking, as a majority of the customers can afford to own cars. Drop-off point in the portico, like in a 5-star hotel for the elite chauffer driven customers. The bigger brands in Hyderabad either wanting to migrate to A segment or already catering to A segment have set-up shop. For example Meena Jewellers, Neeru’s, etc.

This is an interesting feature because there is no such Mall in Hyderabad giving so much importance to economic character of the customers. If the plan I see is right and it goes off the way I see it, this mall will only be frequented by the A+ segment customers. After achieving such profiling of foot falls, the rentals will see a steep rise, comparative to prevailing market conditions. This will be attributed to all those entering A+ segment space will want to see themselves among those at this Mall. The premium that the mall management is trying to build is a good concept. It is indeed happy to see malls being viewed beyond traditional real-estate models with exquisite long-term strategy. Though the other malls have been doing quite a bit to keep the foot falls high, there-by justifying exorbitant rentals. But this mall is different, it seems to have a clear cut strategy to create value addition in a long term perspective and thereby command the premium.

It is good to see the entrepreneurial spirit in one of the leading Family-run business of Hyderabad/Andhra Pradesh. Hail the entrepreneurial spirit!

Strategic thinking with execution mindset – secret to success

Co-incidental though, today happens to be a rather eventful day to take-up this topic for a post.

These words, “Strategic thinking with execution mindset” are one of the many lessons I’ve learnt during my stint at Milagrow from Mr. Rajeev Karwal himself. This is one of the most important, and one that I have actively inculcated. It so happens that today I’ve experienced the power of this lesson 360 degree and today happens to be Mr. Karwal’s birthday. This post is a tribute to him in gratitude to giving momentum and shape to my management consulting career.

In any high-level planning session it is very important to keep focused on the strategy and larger picture. But it at times happens that in keeping the thought level so high and giving so much importance to the bigger picture the execution and grass-roots are ignored.

Despite understanding the importance of execution and grass-roots, like many others I knew I too suffered from not being able to focus enough on them. Of late I see many many consultants are accused of the same, they focus too much on the big picture and thereby bring little value to the table in terms of actual solutions.

Working with Mr. Karwal helped me realise my short-coming and apply the lessons much better. It was an instant hit for me. The lesson formed the  underlying theme of devising strategy and action plans for myself and my clients. 

The results are evident. I’m much more satisfied with the solutions because I have given enough thought to visualise the results, rather than only assume. My clients are delighted because I’ve been able to communicate the solution, the path to achieve and the expected value. This has been on and am enjoying the applications of my learnings.

When I first heard this statement from Mr. Karwal, obviously, I looked to myself and thought that many consultants must be making the same mistake, too much strategy and big talk, too little actioning. I thought probably this is why “consultant” is such a “foul” word. And that “venture catalyst” meant just that, not just the big picture related jargon. Lessons learnt, now being actively applied.

Today I saw the other side of the story. A group of students from one of India’s top 5 B-school’s executive program consulting with a Non-profit organization in helping them develop “strategy” and their organization as a whole. Being invited to attend the planning session, me being from just the same background “strategy”, I had the opportunity to see this group actively applying their in-class learning to the group of core-members, board of directors, non-members (like me) etc.

This was a typical case of not being able to see strategy at all. Total lack of visualization of the big picture, too much attention to detail at such a high-level planning session, attempts of extracting suggestions for solutions they should deliver… I saw the total opposite of “strategic thinking with execution mindset”… “execution thinking with strategic mindset”… This group was trying to evolve strategy, but were actively capturing the minutest detail possible from the discussions.

Today I fully understood what Mr. Karwal taught me. I felt good that as a student I could apply the learning well in my previous occasions and could easily point-out where this group failed in delivering the goods. Today it was clear, there is one definite way to good consulting “Strategic thinking with Execution mindset”! Thank you Rajeev Sir!

Customer to Entrepreneur – journey with the motto “we can do it better”

Better service. Better product. More innovation & imagination. As customers and consumers many a time we feel, if it was just “this” better.

This very idea that “we” can provide this “one simple yet effective innovation” is a thought that leads to the birth of many entrepreneurs. Customers & consumers who feel they would be much more satisfied with “these few changes”, with belief that there will be many such enthusiasts who believe the the same few “changes” make all the difference start up.

Entrepreneurs set out by identifying what they saw the need for as customers/consumers with the motto that “we can do it better” and hence believe that they will be able to attract all those who think like them (who obviously according to them are large enough in number).

Like I once heard an intellectual and innovator speak at a conference, “the user is the best innovator”. His organization, NIF, has pioneered the movement called “user based innovations”. In my opinion another brilliant concept, worthy of an entire blog (not just a mention in a post).

But like wise, user based innovations many times lead to the users turning to being entrepreneurs themselves. Probably N x T Bizness Solutions too is a similar spin off, but I’ve come across few more typical examples.

A batch mate in engineering started off a new social networking website because he was totally not satisfied with the way the existing social networking websites connected people. Only 2 days ago I had the privilege of meeting a couple, fed up with poor floor plans and amenities at various gyms have planned to start a new chain of their own as a culmination of their years of observing flaws. I also had the opportunity to meet an entrepreneur/innovator who observed the difficulties of existing packaging units and brought to market his new innovative design to reduce cycle time, improve productivity, and reduce man power costs.

While any entrepreneurial aspiration is most welcome, a loud word of caution needs to be sounded. While there may always be the need (because they observed, there must have definitely been another who observed the same flaw) it is important to understand the reasons behind the existing poor design. If the reasons are not validated, then it is important to understand how many really feel the need and can appreciate the fulfilled need.

While user based innovations, typically based on utility (end-use), are definitely a boon, as entrepreneurs it is important to innovate further to make the new innovations viable marketable products/services to offer.

Many entrepreneurs who have started off like this, at least many I know, have failed to be successful. Those successful are those who have managed to innovate further to make refined products appreciated by a larger market segment hence viable and profitable.

CEO – Chief Example Officer

I’ve seen many team leaders complain about the culture in their teams. (i was part of the sample set one point in time). I see them complaining about their lack of goal clarity, their lack of interst in building skill, lack of discipline and what not.

From small teams to CEOs (here i mean Chief Executive Officers) of enterprises complain of lack of good culture in working teams. They often disregard themselves from them “team”. To their understanding they are independent and a notch above, hence by default superior (including in terms of work culture).

I’m sure many greats have written about this many times, but it is sincerely my observation that leaders lend culture to the team. The style adopted by the leader is inevitably imbibed by the team. It can be said that it is a strength of a good leader to lend culture to the team. In other words good leader set example for their team.

The problem arises when the leader considers himself/herself outside the sample space of team for consideration of evaluation. The leader tends to justify his/her actions by reasons, probably valid. Then goes onto blame the members of the team for their cluture for he/she doesn’t identify or is unable to undetify the reasons. There really may not be any reason, but there isdefinitely a valid excuse.

The Chief Executive Officer must also remember that he/she is also the Chief Example Officer. The entire organization takes behaviourial cues from the CEO.

When I was leading entrepreneurship cell team, I set for my self a challenge to achieve what I set out to do. I knew it was not easy and every moment was precious. I was actively leading one half of the team and indirectly leading the other. 

Though is was not intentional, today when i look ack and interact with the members of the team, the half of the team which work closer to me consistently imbibed the culture of challenging themselves to achieve set objectives. I showed them “the way to go about work: challenge it”. This happened without my knowledge. The half team which worked with me bonded very closely and today form the ranks of the organization. 

The other half imbibed a loosely connected culture which reflects the culture of the person who actively lead that half of the team. As I try to analyse the success we had together an year ago, many revelations come to me.

Similarly, teams in which I was part of… AIESEC Hyderabad. I can distinctly observe the traits I’ve imbibed from my first immediate vice-president and what i’ve imbibed from my two-time president. Their styles of working can be observed in my even though it has been long.

Similarly at Milagrow… The style and culture of my CEO can be extensively observed in the first circle team he has. Once I had more interaction with him and began to be directly part of his team, (due to only a short stint) i can observe in myself few traits of him and his style. 

Thankfully for me, the leadership styles and cultures in the organizations I was fully part of were very similar. I can also recollect acouple of instances when I quit teams because there was a culture mis-fit.

Even at my client I observe that the good and the bad traits of the leadership has slowly sunk into the viens of the organization. there is justification and no action. Again a consequence of excellent leadership.

May be the phrase With power comes responsibility needs appending. with ability comes responsibility.

This goes out to all real and pseudo Chief Executive Officers… plesae take the effort to be good Chief Example Officers apart from just being phenomenol leaders. If you are not a good leader, probably you can take a skip…

Taking speaker podium as an Entrepreneur – another first experience

The second edition of Entrepreneurship Week India for Entrepreneurship Cell MJCET. As memories of the 2008 edition still remain fresh as examplery examples of achievement, I had the opportunity to be a speaker, in the role of an entrepreneur, at the 2009 edition of entrepreneurship week India.

It seemed proud to be a product an organization I envisioned. It was good to take stage in another engineering college as part of an “external academia” initiative of E Cell. A strategic move which won us the award last year around. An initiative which was the toughest to put together last year, this time around seemed to have gathered lots of momentum.

The audiance were students of Aurora Engineering college and Aurora college of management studies. The topic was “Entrepreneurship with a purpose”.

In typical student style, I got the confirmation of the event late the previous night. With obviously no time to prepare, I had to come up with something different. It had been a long time since I faced a public audiance. No butterflies, but lack of any prep was slightly new to me. No powerpoint slides, so decided to put my tablet PC to some use. The brief gap to connect my tablet to the projector was enough for the already restless audiance to further scatter. 4th and final speaker on the list didn’t seem as ugly when I was informed early about it. 

From the response to the previous speakers, it seemed to me as if the students we forced into the hall (I remember this happening often on college campusses). Typically no interest in “Entrepreneurship”. Probably too big a word for them. The topic was high flown, “Purpose”.

Using the tablet in public audiance was a first for me. But the ploy worked. It was captivating the audiance, as they began to become curious of the presentation medium. To break down entrepreneurship was task 1. Myth broken , I began to enter into the discussion. But the audiance continued to remain restless. Thus followed a series of questions, answers to which were being written on the screen. Once I was satisfied most of the audiance was glued to the screen, I began to enter serious discourse.

The idea was to tell the audiance that the “dream” behind the enterprise is the most important success factor. The dream translates into purpose. Purpose driven organizations become great organizations in the world. It was to emphasize on them that toplines and bottomlines are consequences of purpose, the purpose is the key to success.

With the help of a wide range of examples, global super powers to quiet back yard SMEs which are thriving today because of their purpose driven nature, I could satisfactorily drive the importance of purpose.

This formed the prelude to my thesis that today’s global melt down has been brought about by “greed driven entrepreneurship”. The saviour of this world is “entrepreneurship with a sense of purpose”. Enterprises forged to create wealth. Enterprises aimed at further closing need-gap. These are the saviours of today. The flag bearers of tomorrow. I was very happy when the audiance received the crux of my message. A round of applause, from passionate young hands which understood how entrepreneurship is such an important phenomenon we all await.

A truly scintilating experience!