I left my cushy job a couple of months ago to become a full time entrepreneur. After working with companies of varied sizes and nature, I took time off to pursue my dream of setting up my own enterprise. This has been one of the most humbling experiences in my life till yet and this short journey has taught me a more than what I had learnt in my past career of 15 years.
I thought it would be a good to list an account of my learning based on my last entrepreneurial journey. I am mentioning below my learning as my suggestions to anyone who intends to start a business. In fact these are a few of the many things I would keep in mind during my next entrepreneurial stint (never say never).
Don’t waste your time in creating that “perfect” offering: I am not saying that you should not aim at achieving perfection or don’t focus on quality, but it just delays your launch and the opportunity may be high-jacked by someone else in the market. Also, we try to perfect the product / service based on our own assumptions of what the user wants. Get your product out and market response will help you perfect your offering.
Grab that space: If you are launching an innovative product / service, grab that space. Announce your entry. Try and position yourself with the market leader and focus on the innovation. Try spending time with the journalists and bloggers who focus on that industry domain. Give demos and share your thoughts and passion. Note: Please remember that your innovation or offering should be news worthy. PR is something that cannot go wrong.
Don’t overstaff: One of common problem with people who leave their well paying jobs during mid career is that they assume certain things as granted. One of the most dangerous things is to start hiring people reporting to you to do things for you. This action stems out of the fact that we start taking our self worth for granted basis our last job. We start assuming our self image / value and start believing that certain things are not worth our time. Ur necessity to do things ourselves is low and we start hiring a support team. This is one big cause of increased cost and depletion of funds.
You don’t necessarily need a proven team: We tend to believe that proven teams comprise people who have worked with large corporate and brands for the last couple of years. Some of these guys could have been pure lucky. Believe me, it is a different ball game when you are playing with someone else’s money while your own income is secured. Proven teams to me are people who are self-starters not backed by brands, but most of these guys are busy with their own ventures. While building my next business, I would rather go with young, inexpensive people who are hungry to achieve results. Larry & Sergey did not have a proven team when they started Google.
Do not ask everyone for advice: Select the people whose advice you matters to you and stick to it. Don’t ask just anyone or everyone for advice on what you should be doing. Each one has his/her own experience basis which they will guide you, while your circumstances and nature could be very different. Also, you cannot trust everyone with your business plan. I would think it is better to carefully select a mentor and one or two advisors with whom you can discuss your business. Ensure there is no complicit of interest. I would also think it is wise to share some small token stake. People work more willingly for their own interest.
Don’t insist on a VC fund to sign a NDA: Venture Capitalists are approached with various business plans each day. Some of these could be similar in nature your business. It is unfair to believe that no one else could think the way you think and VC should not meet anyone else because they have met you. When I joined Google, I was bustling with ideas, till such time that I saw many of my, so called “unique” ideas had been in the development stage, if not already developed and scrapped ;-)
Focus on cash flow: Nothing is more important in a start up than having enough money to pay your bills. This means that you structure your business and deals with short business cycle and payment terms. It may take time for you to get profitability but in short term, having cash to keep the operations live is important. Keep the costs low. It is important that the founders take just the lifestyle fee than the market salary till such time that the business attracts funding enough to be able to afford that. While I say this, I also believe that founders must pay themselves first. You are the only indispensable employee of your company till it has grown and has investments from third parties.
Set realistic & measurable goals: While it is good to plan for the Rs. 100 crore milestone, it is equally important (if not more) that you focus on how to achieve that first Rs. 1 crore. I have seen that when we keep our ambitions very high, we tend to spend as if we have already achieved that target and alienate ourselves from the reality. Break your large ambitions into small and short time milestones and track them.
Focus on sales: A person like me who has the passion for creating new products and taking them to the market, get carried away with the picture of creating that perfect product that we keep delaying the sales process. Nothing is more important than bring in revenues. So keep your focus on sales and your product can keep getting refined and evolved, in fact even better with continuous customer feedback.
One last piece of advice for budding entrepreneurs is that if you have a dream then live your dream and do not operate from the fear of failure. It is more fulfilling to live with a business which has not taken off than to live with regrets of not trying. Your business did not fail, it’s the way you did it which failed.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Managing the brand YOU on social media
During one of the training sessions I got convinced that a human being is a meaning making machine. He continuously gives meaning to everything he sees and hears and then quickly reacts to that meaning he has himself given. And the fact is that YOU are what others see you as. In today’s world when people are using social media to communicate and interact, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to manage your image online. People get in touch with their school time friends after years on Facebook, recruiters search for candidates and then hiring managers do their initial background check on Linkedin and once an opinion is formed, it is tough to change it.
Here are some suggestions on managing your identity and brand on Social media. These are not hard and fast rules but are points to keep in mind and are subjective enough to suit different people based on their backgrounds and professions. Some of the suggestions are:
01. Be real: Its no more about fake personalities anymore. Try to be authentic and do not imitate others. Be conscious of how you would like to be known as or seen as. Remember, people form opinions of you. Your profile is an extension of yourself.
02. Share: Information, pictures, articles, anything of interest that you would want your community to see, watch or read. Focus on what your community needs to know, when it is about them, you are better accepted.
03. Create a circle of influence: Its all about the community. People will follow you on twitter, friend you on Facebook and connect with you on Linkedin. You will be known by the community you are a part of. Market yourself in such a way that you are well accepted and respected in your community.
04. Engage & Not sell: Social media is not about selling your products or services. Its about conversations that happen within communities. If you are able to engage in conversations and create a positive influence, people will buy the products or services you suggest.
05. Build credibility & respect privacy: If you are member of a community, you need to bring value to the other members. If you are able to do so and support them, converse with them, you will enjoy the credibility of theirs, which will go a long way. But, while you create conversations within the community, you need to be sensitive to the privacy of other group members. You need to think of yourself someone who respects others in your group and maintain your image as someone who can be trusted.
06. Maintain consistency: You profile needs to be consistent with what you do. It would be funny to see a doctors profile online look like that of a DJ. Most people do not see the importance of customizing the Twitter profile page and put a short bio there. And, once you have done that, do not change that too often. If you keep changing your the way your profile looks, your community will be confused and in all probability you will not be able to create a brand for yourself online.
07. Maintain reputation: Your reputation goes a long way. Be careful of what you say and do online. Do not forget that the community that you are connected with online is made up of human beings.
08. Target & Leverage: Identify your objectives and then target the social media accordingly. Identify and connect with the right audience leverage being there. Listen to what they are saying and one way to demonstrate that you are listening is by commenting on their posts and re-tweeting to your community.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Social Media Marketing and Brand Engagement
Social Media Campaigns are more than banner advertising, pop-ups, search marketing alone. They are about creating rich experiences through meaningful engagements.
It is interesting to see how the Social Networking websites are being adopted by brands for their communication needs. Actually, it gets me thinking on what is it that excites the marketers about Social Networking? The more I think, I am convinced about its similarities with the age old marketing concept of word-of-mouth. It is the strongest influencer that drives sales. Looking from the consumers’ point of view, it is trustworthy and true compared to any edited content such as advertising or PR. And, this word-of-mouth is happening all the time on these Social Networking sites. Haven’t we seen status messages like… “xyz sucks”… “I have updated to xyz phone”…. “love the new xyz app”… “ bought a new xyz and loving it”. These conversations are continuously happening online and brands may choose to participate in then or ignore them.
Consumers are not buying purely because of persuasive buying. I have observed the growing trend of potential buyers going online to search for product reviews and video demonstrations before making their well informed purchase decision with motivation and unbiased feedback. They get to see the feedback of the existing users and comparisons drawn by them. If you need validation for what I am saying, go search for reviews and un-boxing of your favorite phone on YouTube and check the number of views on these videos, you will understand the point I am making. The fact is that brands really do not have much choice on social media participation.
Unfortunately, some of the young Social Media Marketing companies are creating Facebook pages and getting a couple of thousand users to like that page and then claim to be SMM experts. To me Social Media Marketing goes beyond this. Its about an integrated approach to engaging the user in a manner that he “willingly” wishes to participate in these conversations. It has to work hand in hand with the complete marketing strategy of the brand and integrate with the overall communication & marketing plan of the organization and must not be treated in isolation.
Apart from looking at driving sales, Social Media Marketing plays an important role in reputation management and building a connect. Consumers are sharing their feedback, grievances, likes / dislikes with others online. And the design of social media is such that it could spread like viral. As a brand, it is imperative to be able to listen to your customers and be able to steer such conversations to manage the image of the brand. Today, it is possible and imperative for marketers to create a community of its loyal consumers online, and if it does so, it could do anything with that community, whether it is sales, using the community as an advocate of the brand, engage in focus group discussion etc.
It is interesting to see how the Social Networking websites are being adopted by brands for their communication needs. Actually, it gets me thinking on what is it that excites the marketers about Social Networking? The more I think, I am convinced about its similarities with the age old marketing concept of word-of-mouth. It is the strongest influencer that drives sales. Looking from the consumers’ point of view, it is trustworthy and true compared to any edited content such as advertising or PR. And, this word-of-mouth is happening all the time on these Social Networking sites. Haven’t we seen status messages like… “xyz sucks”… “I have updated to xyz phone”…. “love the new xyz app”… “ bought a new xyz and loving it”. These conversations are continuously happening online and brands may choose to participate in then or ignore them.
Consumers are not buying purely because of persuasive buying. I have observed the growing trend of potential buyers going online to search for product reviews and video demonstrations before making their well informed purchase decision with motivation and unbiased feedback. They get to see the feedback of the existing users and comparisons drawn by them. If you need validation for what I am saying, go search for reviews and un-boxing of your favorite phone on YouTube and check the number of views on these videos, you will understand the point I am making. The fact is that brands really do not have much choice on social media participation.
Unfortunately, some of the young Social Media Marketing companies are creating Facebook pages and getting a couple of thousand users to like that page and then claim to be SMM experts. To me Social Media Marketing goes beyond this. Its about an integrated approach to engaging the user in a manner that he “willingly” wishes to participate in these conversations. It has to work hand in hand with the complete marketing strategy of the brand and integrate with the overall communication & marketing plan of the organization and must not be treated in isolation.
Apart from looking at driving sales, Social Media Marketing plays an important role in reputation management and building a connect. Consumers are sharing their feedback, grievances, likes / dislikes with others online. And the design of social media is such that it could spread like viral. As a brand, it is imperative to be able to listen to your customers and be able to steer such conversations to manage the image of the brand. Today, it is possible and imperative for marketers to create a community of its loyal consumers online, and if it does so, it could do anything with that community, whether it is sales, using the community as an advocate of the brand, engage in focus group discussion etc.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Being a good boss / supervisor. My journey of insightful learnings...
“Personality traits of a good boss” has always been a debatable topic. This has been something that I have discussed several times with many people during my career since the time that I was a new kid on the block till now, when I hold a responsible position. Here is my "personal opinion" of the qualities that I have found in some of my favourite bosses, which also includes my idol - my father.
During my last assignment at Google where I was leading the Content Partnerships for India and was working on the official launch of YouTube in India, I realized that my reporting manager did not ever get into micromanaging his team. This was completely in line with the hiring philosophy at Google that focused on spending time to hire people whom you consider smart and then trust them to do their job. This also made me believe that people do not purposely make mistakes. If you go back to introspect on decisions that went wrong, in most cases you would find that you would have probably taken the same decision that they took under the circumstances at that time.
Something that I learnt during the time I was assisting my wife in her start up, I realized that young professionals like to be challenged at their work. You could push them, but you must also know when to back off to get the best out of them. I remember the time when we were working against stringent timelines that we had set for ourselves and I was pushing my team, I was advised by one of my advisors to rather share with them the objective of why it was important for us to meet the timelines and then back off. This worked and the team ensured that we delivered the results not only within the time, but also with the desired quality.
In my most recent assignment, I was faced with challenges within my first few days of joining, with some legacy issues. I learnt that your team members are as important as your clients if not more. Saying “Thank you” and “sorry” could do miracles. A team which I felt was complacent and not used to working beyond hours started doing their extra bit to help me meet some unreasonable requests of a client which saved us from embarrassment. At the end of the day, we deal with people, in any role and for anything. Showing respect is the least that we can do.
Being fair is the most important trait of a good supervisor. I once read that people who play favourites have priorities that may not be understandable by all. This raises concerns among the rest of the team and creates a divide among the team members which ultimately reflects on the company’s performance. While I say fairness is important, there may be situations where you may need to make exceptions for certain humane reasons. These will be well supported by all other team members.
Trust is another factor. After working with some of the American organizations, both large as well as start ups, I learnt a beautiful thing from my senior colleagues. They trusted each employee fully till that person broke the trust. On the contrary in few of the other organizations I term “conservative”, I find this trust missing. These companies would frame policies assuming that people will misuse them.
Another learning from my latest assignment is that it was important to have fun. People work not just for money but to learn new things, meeting people, enhancing their skill sets etc. Most people in India spend a large part of their day at work which makes it imperative to have an environment where having fun is not looked at as a “non-serious behaviour”. I realized it when someone actually pointed out that my predecessors used to share their time with the team playing table tennis or going out on the weekends and how that created a bond that I realized my team saw as a void. The moment I started spending time with my team playing ping pong or just sitting and sharing a cup of tea, made me a part of them instantaneously. I thank them for providing me this space to learn something so important.
Rewarding people for their hard work is an important thing for any manager to do. People love to be recognized for the efforts that they have put in for the company’s success. As I mentioned earlier, money is not the only thing that people are here for. They need to feel satisfied that they have contributed to the success of the business.
JRD Tata during his farewell speech from Air India said “People come and go, companies remain”. This brings up another very important learning which is that we as bosses or supervisors must never think that we are indispensable. I have worked in some critical roles earlier, but nothing in those organizations ever changed after I moved on to my newer assignments. It is so important to be grounded.
As a boss / supervisor, it is your duty to create a team that you can be proud of. Another thing that I learnt during my stint at Google is that the only one time that you can say that you are the best is when you are the only one. Your each hire has to be better than yourself. As a boss, it is your role to sell them the goal and give them the direction. You are there to make profit and you hire people because you know that you cannot do it alone.
When you hire the best, then you give them the freedom to perform. Like you, your team members also have their experiences and an opinion. Listen to them and you may be surprised that at times they may come up with a better point of view. This may not be true for all your employees, some of your team members may be fresh into work and there it becomes your responsibility to mentor them and teach them the skills that helps them to help you.
Never play one person against the other. As a good boss, you have to be above petty office politics. Credit snatching does not work and if you are confident of your team, there should be no reason to feel threatened when your team suggests something better than you, in fact that should make you proud that you hired the right person. You must make such people feel valued. In the early days of my career, I learnt from Mr. Siddharth Ray (the founder of Data Access, a start up which worked as a partner of PCCW of Hong Kong) that your employees can go ahead and add so much more value to the business if you make them feel empowered, respected and valued.
As a boss, you must inspire. One of my favourite bosses, Mr. Rajesh Sawhney, then COO of Indiatimes who currently is the President of Reliance Entertainment, always led by example. He would set achievable goals and helped us win business. The time that he would spend with us sharing with us our strengths and helping us overcome our weaknesses helped me reach where I am today.
I thank all the people who have generously spent time in teaching me the values which has helped me make friends in the industry who trust me.
During my last assignment at Google where I was leading the Content Partnerships for India and was working on the official launch of YouTube in India, I realized that my reporting manager did not ever get into micromanaging his team. This was completely in line with the hiring philosophy at Google that focused on spending time to hire people whom you consider smart and then trust them to do their job. This also made me believe that people do not purposely make mistakes. If you go back to introspect on decisions that went wrong, in most cases you would find that you would have probably taken the same decision that they took under the circumstances at that time.
Something that I learnt during the time I was assisting my wife in her start up, I realized that young professionals like to be challenged at their work. You could push them, but you must also know when to back off to get the best out of them. I remember the time when we were working against stringent timelines that we had set for ourselves and I was pushing my team, I was advised by one of my advisors to rather share with them the objective of why it was important for us to meet the timelines and then back off. This worked and the team ensured that we delivered the results not only within the time, but also with the desired quality.
In my most recent assignment, I was faced with challenges within my first few days of joining, with some legacy issues. I learnt that your team members are as important as your clients if not more. Saying “Thank you” and “sorry” could do miracles. A team which I felt was complacent and not used to working beyond hours started doing their extra bit to help me meet some unreasonable requests of a client which saved us from embarrassment. At the end of the day, we deal with people, in any role and for anything. Showing respect is the least that we can do.
Being fair is the most important trait of a good supervisor. I once read that people who play favourites have priorities that may not be understandable by all. This raises concerns among the rest of the team and creates a divide among the team members which ultimately reflects on the company’s performance. While I say fairness is important, there may be situations where you may need to make exceptions for certain humane reasons. These will be well supported by all other team members.
Trust is another factor. After working with some of the American organizations, both large as well as start ups, I learnt a beautiful thing from my senior colleagues. They trusted each employee fully till that person broke the trust. On the contrary in few of the other organizations I term “conservative”, I find this trust missing. These companies would frame policies assuming that people will misuse them.
Another learning from my latest assignment is that it was important to have fun. People work not just for money but to learn new things, meeting people, enhancing their skill sets etc. Most people in India spend a large part of their day at work which makes it imperative to have an environment where having fun is not looked at as a “non-serious behaviour”. I realized it when someone actually pointed out that my predecessors used to share their time with the team playing table tennis or going out on the weekends and how that created a bond that I realized my team saw as a void. The moment I started spending time with my team playing ping pong or just sitting and sharing a cup of tea, made me a part of them instantaneously. I thank them for providing me this space to learn something so important.
Rewarding people for their hard work is an important thing for any manager to do. People love to be recognized for the efforts that they have put in for the company’s success. As I mentioned earlier, money is not the only thing that people are here for. They need to feel satisfied that they have contributed to the success of the business.
JRD Tata during his farewell speech from Air India said “People come and go, companies remain”. This brings up another very important learning which is that we as bosses or supervisors must never think that we are indispensable. I have worked in some critical roles earlier, but nothing in those organizations ever changed after I moved on to my newer assignments. It is so important to be grounded.
As a boss / supervisor, it is your duty to create a team that you can be proud of. Another thing that I learnt during my stint at Google is that the only one time that you can say that you are the best is when you are the only one. Your each hire has to be better than yourself. As a boss, it is your role to sell them the goal and give them the direction. You are there to make profit and you hire people because you know that you cannot do it alone.
When you hire the best, then you give them the freedom to perform. Like you, your team members also have their experiences and an opinion. Listen to them and you may be surprised that at times they may come up with a better point of view. This may not be true for all your employees, some of your team members may be fresh into work and there it becomes your responsibility to mentor them and teach them the skills that helps them to help you.
Never play one person against the other. As a good boss, you have to be above petty office politics. Credit snatching does not work and if you are confident of your team, there should be no reason to feel threatened when your team suggests something better than you, in fact that should make you proud that you hired the right person. You must make such people feel valued. In the early days of my career, I learnt from Mr. Siddharth Ray (the founder of Data Access, a start up which worked as a partner of PCCW of Hong Kong) that your employees can go ahead and add so much more value to the business if you make them feel empowered, respected and valued.
As a boss, you must inspire. One of my favourite bosses, Mr. Rajesh Sawhney, then COO of Indiatimes who currently is the President of Reliance Entertainment, always led by example. He would set achievable goals and helped us win business. The time that he would spend with us sharing with us our strengths and helping us overcome our weaknesses helped me reach where I am today.
I thank all the people who have generously spent time in teaching me the values which has helped me make friends in the industry who trust me.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Indian Lawyers can now get LL.M in US Laws without leaving India
During my stint with the two American organizations I worked with, I always asked myself a question that “Why don’t they train the Indian lawyers on US laws?” I have always felt that it is so very important for the legal counsels for US based companies who start their offices in India, to have complete understanding of the US laws which can facilitate quicker decision making. Apart from the speed of decision making, it also helps in reducing the risks emerging out of decisions based on lack of knowledge.
I am happy to see that someone has taken notice of this and done something about the need of the hour. I understand that an institute called Florida Coastal School of Law has started a LL.M. program for Indian lawyers to get trained in US laws. It also comes at a time when few of the legal firms are believed to have shown interest in starting their offices in India whenever the opportunity exists. This 13 subject course with 2 credits each aims to offer a LL.M in US laws at the end of 53 weeks and even permits the graduates to appear in American Bar exams in a few states in the US. I think this is a brilliant opportunity for Indian lawyers. I am not sure how much it costs, but I believe the fee is a fraction of what it costs for someone to go and attend a residential program in US.
Thanks to Tact Education & Knowledge Systems (www.teks.in) to facilitate this and hope they take notice of many more of such opportunities for all streams of education.
I am happy to see that someone has taken notice of this and done something about the need of the hour. I understand that an institute called Florida Coastal School of Law has started a LL.M. program for Indian lawyers to get trained in US laws. It also comes at a time when few of the legal firms are believed to have shown interest in starting their offices in India whenever the opportunity exists. This 13 subject course with 2 credits each aims to offer a LL.M in US laws at the end of 53 weeks and even permits the graduates to appear in American Bar exams in a few states in the US. I think this is a brilliant opportunity for Indian lawyers. I am not sure how much it costs, but I believe the fee is a fraction of what it costs for someone to go and attend a residential program in US.
Thanks to Tact Education & Knowledge Systems (www.teks.in) to facilitate this and hope they take notice of many more of such opportunities for all streams of education.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Entrepreneurship cannot be taught but can be learnt
It is my pleasure to sit on the board of one of the successful management institutes in India and see things from the other side of the table. One thing that I have lately observed is that our education system, especially the one at the Post Graduate level has always stressed so much on the “quality of job” as the most important success parameter, that right from the time the student is considering which B-school to apply to, he starts judging the institute and the courseware by the successful placements the institute has had in the past. To me it appears that we may be taking away the ability of the students to learn to take risks (read calculated risks) by creating so much pressure on him on this one success parameter. It seems that we may be creating excellent managers but very scared entrepreneurs.
During some of my recent stints with global organizations one thing that I recognized was that these companies had grown not only because they had people working for them who had great experience and academic backgrounds, but more because they hired people who could think and work like entrepreneurs. The basic difference between these two sets of people was that a person with entrepreneurial bent of mind thought holistically and not just about his expert area. I am not saying that being an expert is bad, but I am just trying to say that do not ignore other aspects of business while you think of your expert area.
Now, coming back to my basic question, “Can Entrepreneurship be taught?” I personally think that though the aspects of entrepreneurship can be explained but the ability, the willingness and the eagerness to take risks is something that comes naturally. Rather than teaching “entrepreneurship”, the management institutes must explore ways to let people identify these traits and nurture these basic abilities in their students.
Starting an “entrepreneurial program” can do only so much. What we lack in our systems is to give practical exposure and an opportunity to actually experience entrepreneurship. Some institutes like the IIT’s and IIM’s have done this with success and it shows in the number of successful enterprises that have been created by the past students of these institutes. I have always loved the “culture” of entrepreneurship that is there at Stanford and have wondered what is so different there.
I believe that we need to give an honest opportunity to our students in India. They get stopped by basics of starting business, lack of moral support and mentoring. It is time for successful entrepreneurs to give back to the society by training these students by experiential process rather than creating merely theoretical classroom sessions.
After much deliberation, I am taking this responsibility to create a group of likeminded people who can share their experience and knowledge to mentor such students who are keen to experience entrepreneurship and create enterprises which they dream of. The structure is a simple collaboration between students with a rock solid idea and though process creating confidence on his / her ability to execute (business plan), the education institute and a team of mentors who can guide them and support these students with their industry network. Wondering what to call it, I think I will call this project “Anirudha” which means “being unstoppable & boundless” and invite entrepreneurs and successful managers to come forward and create a generation of young entrepreneurs who not only create a support system for themselves but opportunities for others as well.
I invite ideas and suggestions to make “Anirudha” a reality.
During some of my recent stints with global organizations one thing that I recognized was that these companies had grown not only because they had people working for them who had great experience and academic backgrounds, but more because they hired people who could think and work like entrepreneurs. The basic difference between these two sets of people was that a person with entrepreneurial bent of mind thought holistically and not just about his expert area. I am not saying that being an expert is bad, but I am just trying to say that do not ignore other aspects of business while you think of your expert area.
Now, coming back to my basic question, “Can Entrepreneurship be taught?” I personally think that though the aspects of entrepreneurship can be explained but the ability, the willingness and the eagerness to take risks is something that comes naturally. Rather than teaching “entrepreneurship”, the management institutes must explore ways to let people identify these traits and nurture these basic abilities in their students.
Starting an “entrepreneurial program” can do only so much. What we lack in our systems is to give practical exposure and an opportunity to actually experience entrepreneurship. Some institutes like the IIT’s and IIM’s have done this with success and it shows in the number of successful enterprises that have been created by the past students of these institutes. I have always loved the “culture” of entrepreneurship that is there at Stanford and have wondered what is so different there.
I believe that we need to give an honest opportunity to our students in India. They get stopped by basics of starting business, lack of moral support and mentoring. It is time for successful entrepreneurs to give back to the society by training these students by experiential process rather than creating merely theoretical classroom sessions.
After much deliberation, I am taking this responsibility to create a group of likeminded people who can share their experience and knowledge to mentor such students who are keen to experience entrepreneurship and create enterprises which they dream of. The structure is a simple collaboration between students with a rock solid idea and though process creating confidence on his / her ability to execute (business plan), the education institute and a team of mentors who can guide them and support these students with their industry network. Wondering what to call it, I think I will call this project “Anirudha” which means “being unstoppable & boundless” and invite entrepreneurs and successful managers to come forward and create a generation of young entrepreneurs who not only create a support system for themselves but opportunities for others as well.
I invite ideas and suggestions to make “Anirudha” a reality.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Pitching for your big idea
Have you ever come across a situation that you have a good idea (at-least you think it is good) but pitching it to your boss or a potential investor was terrifying? And, it’s because you have a lot to lose.
We human beings are very scared to being rejected. We take it so personally that we start feeling that it was not our idea that was rejected, but it was we who got rejected. Its a very uncomfortable situation be in. I recently went through this experience last week when I encountered questions that I was not prepared with and thought that it was the end of the project. It was sickening to see someone reject something that I was in love with.
It was then I gathered myself and reminded myself from a recent development course that I attended where we are taught the art of communication in a way that it “touch, move & inspire” people that we communicate with and “enrol” them in our ideas. But what is even more important is the process of preparation and the fact that we cannot be stingy in devoting time in planning.
I then sat down and started writing down what is important for me to create an effective pitch. Some of the things that came to my mind were:
Who are you pitching to?
Identifying the right person whom you should be pitching to is the key. Does the guy you are pitching to have the authority to decide or is he the expert in the domain to judge. Once you have identified your target, find out about his / her personality, his views or any information you can know about the person. When you pitch to this person, your job must be get him to understand why your idea is doable.
The idea is the reason why you are pitching. Prepare your pitch well.
We must master the art of trying to summarize our idea and then create a story. And this summary must be able to grab the targets attention in no time. Once you grab the attention then begin your story. Don;t be afraid to share your concerns and difficulties you envisage, no one got businesses rolling without facing difficulties. Identify the challenges that are faced today and how your idea can transform these challenges into making things better. The greater the challenges, more convincing will be your idea.
Create different presentations for different needs.
I have learnt that people are in their mood swings when they meet you. They can decide to even reduce the time made available to you for your pitch. I would suggest that one must be prepared with shorter pitches when you go for your meeting. Or even vice versa. The guy may get interested and may want to know more and so you must have a slightly more elaborate pitch presentation handy with you.
Be prepared for questions.
The only way to kill your brilliant idea and initial pitch is by not being ready with the possible questions. People are very interested to know what you need from them.
Also, if the pitch is rejected, be prepared to ask why your pitch has been rejected. This information and explanation can help you polish your next pitch.
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