I’m presenting below entrepreneurs who IIM A,CIE, ET have shortlisted as “change agents who will rock India”.
A brief analysis (list 1 analyzed, List 2 will be uploaded soon),
Sector-wise analysis :
Media -2, Mobile -1 IT/Web -3, Education -2, Logistics -1, Retail -2, Cleantech/energy -3, health care -3
Products/services:
New Products- 5 New service -12
Majority of the ideas where service based, new products might require lots of research.
Majority of the ideas where based on improving a social cause i.e. helping poor artisans, helping school children in labs or thinking skills development, dealing with renewable energy resources, traffic monitoring.
They received a cash grant of Rs.5 Lakhs to start.(The capital required to start is less than Rs.5,00,000)
Majority of the products are intended for mass consumption i.e the number of people who consume the product or use the service is huge. Except one( high end lingerie shop ).
Here is a list of entrepreneurs who have got selected for the economic times power of ideas 2010. Also I have listed what sectors they are working on.
Sector: Mobile/Telecom
1. Aaditeshwar Seth
Idea: Information services to rural India using mass media
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Sector: IT/Web
1. Amit Jain
Idea: Web based application providing asset tracking solutions for all movable assets to prevent transit theft.
2. Ankit Sabharwal
Idea: Offline/online application enabling online exploration of locations replacing photo and video galleries.
3.Briraj Vaghani
Idea: Traffic monitoring system to aggregate data from vehicle tracking systems disseminating via web interface to commuters, police and transportation services
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Sector: Media/Entertainment
1. Anirudha Gupta
Idea: Technology based service using unbreakable copyright protection and flexibile payment systems, making content distribution easier
2. Harjaap Mann
Product enabling better outdoor ad campaign planning for corporate clients with data from various cities across India
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Sector: Logistics/Transportation
1. Ankur Tripathi
Idea: Electronic road transportation exchange, reducing lead time of transportation requirements and improving reach and efficiency
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Sector: Retail
1. Annu Grover
Idea: Retail chain outlet selling green gifts and lifestyle to those who seek to flaunt the same, giving employment to artisans
2.Arpita Ganesh
Idea: High end lingerie boutique offering women a variety of exclusive brands and products, as well as consultation to choose the most suitable innerwear
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Sector: Cleantech/Energy
1. Ashok Jagatia
Idea:Energy efficient hardware and software for outdoor and indoor lighting reducing carbon footprint.
2. Brijesh Rawat
Densification of fuel from loose biomass and development of gasification technology
3. Hemanshu Bhatt
Idea: Integration of PV cells with arraying and controls, power electronics and digital logic, to enable highest performance at lowest cost reducing energy cost by 40%
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Sector: Health care/Life sciences
1.Ashok Mital
All encompassing dental health services to serve patients better,
2. Ashwini Nangia
Pharmaceuticals co-crystals that will help discover new and improved medicines
3. Gaurav Porwal
Idea: A chain of dialysis centers
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Sector: Education
1. Ashutosh Khurana
Curriculum on thinking development to develop cognitive, social and emotional thinking skills.
2. Hitesh Mehta
Idea: Worlds most extensive fibre optic table top lab equipment which helps expose students to the real life situation encountered in labs.
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Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Role model for the week – Sapolai Yao
Sapolai Yao is a Papua New Guinea athlete. He participated in the recently conducted common wealth games held in Delhi. He participated in the men’s steeple chase tournament. He came last in the finals.
Why have I chosen him as this weeks role model?
During the finals, he was pitted against the strong Kenyans. He was from the “smaller nations”, small built, the climate was too hot for him. He ran the entire race at a steady pace and didn’t falter despite being many places behind the top 5. As the distance between him and the others grew steadily, never once did he allow the pressure get onto him. He still maintained the pace. There came a point when his opponents over took him i.e. he was a lap behind them. Everyone expected him to stop the race, but he plodded on. Finally the race finished. He still had one lap to go. He ran the last lap with the entire stadium watching him run. All the other athletes had completed the race and were getting ready for the prize distribution ceremony, our man was still running.
He carried on at the same pace. When he finished the race finally, he got a standing ovation from the entire crowd. Some people clapped in mockery, but other people applauded his spirit.
What would you have done?Would you have given up the race knowing very well that the competition has beaten you hollow or would you have carried on at the same pace and come last.
Lessons learnt
Keep your fighting spirit, till the end. You never know what destiny has in store for you. The trick is to be focused on what you are doing and not let anything disturb your equilibrium. You might win the race or come last, but at the end of the day you are a winner in your own way. Yao came last in the race. Yet his fighting spirit inspired people at the stadium and inspired me to write about him.
Go ahead fight till the end, irrespective of what happens at the end.
Why have I chosen him as this weeks role model?
During the finals, he was pitted against the strong Kenyans. He was from the “smaller nations”, small built, the climate was too hot for him. He ran the entire race at a steady pace and didn’t falter despite being many places behind the top 5. As the distance between him and the others grew steadily, never once did he allow the pressure get onto him. He still maintained the pace. There came a point when his opponents over took him i.e. he was a lap behind them. Everyone expected him to stop the race, but he plodded on. Finally the race finished. He still had one lap to go. He ran the last lap with the entire stadium watching him run. All the other athletes had completed the race and were getting ready for the prize distribution ceremony, our man was still running.
He carried on at the same pace. When he finished the race finally, he got a standing ovation from the entire crowd. Some people clapped in mockery, but other people applauded his spirit.
What would you have done?Would you have given up the race knowing very well that the competition has beaten you hollow or would you have carried on at the same pace and come last.
Lessons learnt
Keep your fighting spirit, till the end. You never know what destiny has in store for you. The trick is to be focused on what you are doing and not let anything disturb your equilibrium. You might win the race or come last, but at the end of the day you are a winner in your own way. Yao came last in the race. Yet his fighting spirit inspired people at the stadium and inspired me to write about him.
Go ahead fight till the end, irrespective of what happens at the end.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Your role model for the week- Luiz Urzua
He was the shift commander of the Chilean miners who were pinned nearly half mile underground by 7,00,000 tone of rock.
He used all his wit and his leadership skills to help his men stay calm and in control for 17 days till the rescuers found them and then over two months while the rescue process was on. He stretched the emergency food supply meant to last just for 48 hours to over two weeks.
He made risky but calculated decisions to use a bull dozer to carve into a water deposit. A minor error could lead to a cave-in or the cave filling with water.
He is the man who kept his people’s spirit high by using prayer,morale boosting stories and at times force. He is the man who the world salutes.
Luiz Urzua – our role model for the week.
Our lesson:
Entrepreneurship is a lonely road. In philosophy, the bleakness of the human condition is a recurring theme. Place people in a situation where they are reduced to the most basic instincts of survival and their darker selves will take over. Entrepreneurs should have a strong will to survive. What ever happens there is no looking back. Whatever be the challenges ,you should guide yourself and your team members to shore. No problem is unsolvable, it can be solved by looking at it in another perspective.
He used all his wit and his leadership skills to help his men stay calm and in control for 17 days till the rescuers found them and then over two months while the rescue process was on. He stretched the emergency food supply meant to last just for 48 hours to over two weeks.
He made risky but calculated decisions to use a bull dozer to carve into a water deposit. A minor error could lead to a cave-in or the cave filling with water.
He is the man who kept his people’s spirit high by using prayer,morale boosting stories and at times force. He is the man who the world salutes.
Luiz Urzua – our role model for the week.
Our lesson:
Entrepreneurship is a lonely road. In philosophy, the bleakness of the human condition is a recurring theme. Place people in a situation where they are reduced to the most basic instincts of survival and their darker selves will take over. Entrepreneurs should have a strong will to survive. What ever happens there is no looking back. Whatever be the challenges ,you should guide yourself and your team members to shore. No problem is unsolvable, it can be solved by looking at it in another perspective.
Inbound marketing vs outbound marketing.
Inbound marketing
making people come to a neutral point and then making them come to you.
If you have a website and if you want to promote it. Start a blog, make the blog popular (post reviews,answer comments in social forums). Link the blog to your website, thereby increasing footfalls to your website.
Pros
• It doesn’t take money to market, other than maybe internet charges.
• Its increases your reputation and fame
• It makes you popular among your peers and friends; Your peers see you all over facebook,orkut… You
become a star….
• You can do it alone, You need not have a marketing team
• Future clients see you as a person and are able to relate to you more.
Cons
• It take a lot of time to get a steady flow of visitors your site. (for me it took a year to make steady visitors
of minimum 1000 a week)
• If your site doesn’t have great content or if doesn’t have a repeated value (read fresh content every
week), then your visitors will not come back to your site, further they might spread the word that it’s a
horrible site to visit. Then you are out of business.
• You need to be innovative and attract visitors with new events and lots of freebies.
Outbound marketing-
Placing an advt in the newspaper, popular website and hoping that people will see the advertisement and come.
If you have a website and if you want to promote it. Put an advertisement in MSN or Yahoo home page. Don’t worry about the cost, it will cost around $2000 or Rs.1,00,000 per day. I guess it will make a big hole in your purse.
If you are running a retail chain with atleast two outlets in different parts of the city and if you have deep pockets, Then out bound marketing is your best bet.
Pros
• It gives your brand good visibility
• It gives your brand a size( this is necessary for B2C market)
• It gives you brand a high recall value
• You get a good social standing from future investors, clients…
Cons
• It is very costly
• It has to be sustained over a long period of time
• You need lots of people to coordinate with you so that all the promotional activities happen at the same
time.
Overall if you are a just starting a company; go for inbound marketing. If you want to scale up fast go for outbound marketing+ inbound marketing.
Remember there is not right or wrong channel(web,newspaper,posters…) of communication. Don’t forget to simultaneously display the product or the brand through all the channels. Don’t do it one at a time.
making people come to a neutral point and then making them come to you.
If you have a website and if you want to promote it. Start a blog, make the blog popular (post reviews,answer comments in social forums). Link the blog to your website, thereby increasing footfalls to your website.
Pros
• It doesn’t take money to market, other than maybe internet charges.
• Its increases your reputation and fame
• It makes you popular among your peers and friends; Your peers see you all over facebook,orkut… You
become a star….
• You can do it alone, You need not have a marketing team
• Future clients see you as a person and are able to relate to you more.
Cons
• It take a lot of time to get a steady flow of visitors your site. (for me it took a year to make steady visitors
of minimum 1000 a week)
• If your site doesn’t have great content or if doesn’t have a repeated value (read fresh content every
week), then your visitors will not come back to your site, further they might spread the word that it’s a
horrible site to visit. Then you are out of business.
• You need to be innovative and attract visitors with new events and lots of freebies.
Outbound marketing-
Placing an advt in the newspaper, popular website and hoping that people will see the advertisement and come.
If you have a website and if you want to promote it. Put an advertisement in MSN or Yahoo home page. Don’t worry about the cost, it will cost around $2000 or Rs.1,00,000 per day. I guess it will make a big hole in your purse.
If you are running a retail chain with atleast two outlets in different parts of the city and if you have deep pockets, Then out bound marketing is your best bet.
Pros
• It gives your brand good visibility
• It gives your brand a size( this is necessary for B2C market)
• It gives you brand a high recall value
• You get a good social standing from future investors, clients…
Cons
• It is very costly
• It has to be sustained over a long period of time
• You need lots of people to coordinate with you so that all the promotional activities happen at the same
time.
Overall if you are a just starting a company; go for inbound marketing. If you want to scale up fast go for outbound marketing+ inbound marketing.
Remember there is not right or wrong channel(web,newspaper,posters…) of communication. Don’t forget to simultaneously display the product or the brand through all the channels. Don’t do it one at a time.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Small towners, think big.
Recently I read articles about some small town entrepreneurs who have come up in life. I noticed few common features
- People from small towns are more determined to achieve their goal and put their maximum efforts to achieve them
- They are very stubborn. Come what may they are fixed onto their ideas.
- They have no support system. When they move from small city to a big one, they are usually alone and have to build a team from scratch.
- They are used to hardship and are able to face the hardships head on
- They have rock solid family relationships. When they make sacrifices and when they take risks, they get family support.
Knowledge is power.
Indian info line message- very apt
“Rockets didn’t put man on the moon
Nothing adds up to anything without knowledge
Stocks multiply money only when you pick the right ones. In fact its our research that brought us a million investors. And convinced juries to to vote us India’s best broking house*. After all, finance is more than numbers.”
True if you want to start anything study the market, study the product, study the competition, study the pricing strategy, study the city, study the location, study the weather, study the purchasing power of the customer, study the business model, study the communication channels, study, study,study,study,study,study,study,study,study,study,study…………..
“Rockets didn’t put man on the moon
Nothing adds up to anything without knowledge
Stocks multiply money only when you pick the right ones. In fact its our research that brought us a million investors. And convinced juries to to vote us India’s best broking house*. After all, finance is more than numbers.”
True if you want to start anything study the market, study the product, study the competition, study the pricing strategy, study the city, study the location, study the weather, study the purchasing power of the customer, study the business model, study the communication channels, study, study,study,study,study,study,study,study,study,study,study…………..
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