The Entrepreneurial Journey

MBA 2nd year students

Chandu
Feb 11, 2016

Agenda
A quick background
Key learnings on various fronts- entrepreneurial
Post entrepreneurial journey- Investor, advisor
India opportunity, what we can do, trends

The story

Scopes evolution over the yearsVer 1

1987

199096

The start 5 IIMA grads start South Indias first

specialist industrial MR company

Client commissioned market research

Strategic assignments across specific domains/
industries
Indias first syndicated chemical /petrochem etc
studies.
Growth phase. Earnings above avg.

Scopes evolution over the yearsVer 2

1997
-99

1999

Trouble between partnersDiffering perceptions /risk / willingness to stretch.

Company faces closure in a growing market.
Partners foray into other things.

Buy out of 3 founding partners

Entry of Angel Investors
Company refocus and change of name
Avatar 2- fresh start
Move to Dotcom B2B / industry content- News,
Features and Articles for various portals, industry
reports; product/ market profiles

Scopes evolution over the yearsVer 3

2002

Dotcom bust. Company faces closure again.

Move towards knowledge process outsourcing
KPO business.
Avatar 3- fresh start yet again!
New name to reflect intent.
Search for debt finance
1st overseas marketing foray
Venture capital firm enters, Angels exit

2003

2004
-06

Moves into databases, content enhancement and

organisation, B2B data services
Newer offerings - IP research, medical content.
100% overseas focus. Induction of overseas
marketing personnel.

Scopes evolution over the yearsVer 3 grows!

2007

200810

Strategic investor enters VC exits with 8

times Acquisition of a significant stake by a team
who are pioneers in BPO

Newer lines - Library Information & Technical

Services, Master Data Management, etc.
More technology focus
Induction of senior management personnel
Greater integration with parent group in
certain areas

Other entrepreneurial (ad)ventures

Key learnings

Entrepreneurship Vs Management
Entrepreneurship
Creating something new-product, method of production/
delivery, markets, source of raw material, business
model
Challenges the norm
Management
Protects
Stewardship of existing resources

Surat- I felt motivated seeing the Gujarati

entrepreneurial spirit, while working for a Gujarati

What is the Role of the Entrepreneur?

Opportunity recognition
Market uncertainties
Dealing with the future
Risk taking
Businesses, financial and personal
Resource gathering
Profits / Reward

Hurdles in starting up a business

Lack of the right business idea

Complicated regulatory efforts
Own financial risk
Lack of courage
Lack of right founding partner
Lack of equity
Lack of debt capital
Know-how-deficit
Lack of contact clients/customers
Economic cycle
Business environment
Fear of failure
Support by family and friends
Lack of time
Lack of entrepreneurial skills

When you are

young, with a
magic slate
mind, not given
to deep
thinking of a
long term
career, and
pretty
adaptable,
these seemed
more like
challenges

Biggest learning- A whole list of unknowns!

ENTREPRENEUR

ABILITY

UNKNOWN

IDEA/TECHNOLOGY

POTENTIAL

UNKNOWN

MARKET

DEMAND

UNKNOWN

FINANCE

AVAILABILITY

UNKNOWN

TEAM (EMPLOYEES

CONFIDENCE

UNKNOWN

FORMULA FOR SUCCESS:

A+B+C+D+E=
UNKNOWN

Starting Off!
Know yourself
Who you are.
What you can do.
How you can do it.

Psychological Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

Need for achievement

Locus of Control
Internal

External

Risk-taking Prosperity

Tolerance for ambiguity

Type A Behaviour
Impatient, time urgency, driving ambition, competitiveness

Need for Independence

I wonder! Did I / do I really fit this

profile?

Core Competencies (exercise)

What are you really good at?

Special skills, knowledge,
experience, assets
Compare these
Continue to keep track of any
strengths, weakness, opportunities
and threats that you discover

Begin

Soft aspects are critical- sometimes, more so!!

Negotiation
Networking
Communication/ presentation
Inter-personal skills
Creativity and innovation- Pivot!
Adaptability & flexibility- learn to learn!
Reliable- making and keeping
commitments

E.g.,NetworkingWhy?
More business decisions occur over lunch and
dinner than at any other time yet no MBA courses
are given on this subject. Peter
Drucker,management guru
Networking is an essential part of building
wealth. Armstrong Williams, businessman

Only 5% to 25% of jobs are advertised

Men get this more easily

Understand the game..who are you? Exer.

A tale of two marketing consultants
I work with small companies as their
outsourced marketing manager, but I also
work alongside existing marketing
departments
I help solicitors /in
lawyers
larger
wincompanies
profitable newwhen they
clients
need
an extra resource.
Who shows no knowledge of their subject (or what they
are looking for)?
Who focuses the audience on their expertise and
market? And benefits?

How would you DESCRIBE yourself?

Its a cycle- you make it virtuous or vicious

Do you really want to be on your own ?

You dont necessarily have to be an entrepreneur Its a
lifestyle choice more than a career choice
Understand the risks involved
Be prepared to bootstrap, work hard, make sacrifices and fail
Overnight success usually takes about 10 years

I am not sure I really figured this all out

But this is how it turned out!

WHAT WORKS?

HOME WORK
HARD WORK
SMART WORK
TEAM WORK
NET-WORK

SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS INCUBATORS REQUIRE ONLY

sum OF
THIS..WORK
SOME

Opportunities for Entrepreneurship India

Opportunities for Entrepreneurship Indian Economy

19th century -Europe, 20th century America, 21st century likely Asias.
Goldman Sach -Economics of Knowledge if exploited
properly, could lead India into worlds 3 biggest economies by
2050
Critical input to give a big boost to Indian Economy would be
the entrepreneurial mindset of its human resources.
Opportunities are aplenty!
Building entrepreneurial capacity is key

INNOVATION VS. ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Japan
Sweden

High

Silicon
Valley
Israel
U.K

Innovation
INDIA

Hong Kong
Low
Low

Entrepreneurship

High

IndiaMore
Jugaad,
than
Systemic

DOES TECH MATTER? OR JOBS?

HIGH TECH

IT- BPM sector

Revenues of Rs 9.50 trn
($146 bn)
8+% of India GDP
Exports -$ 98.5 Billion
Directly
employing
nearly
VS. LOW
TECH
3.5 million professionals
Travel and tourism
sector

Rs8.22 trillion ($127bn)

7% of Indias GDP
Forex earnings- $1.4bn
37.4 million jobs~ 9% total
employment
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/h3ejs6Bz6NJ0BOW86ar1VL/Travel-and-tourism-industry-to-grow-75-in-2015-report.html;
http://www.nasscom.in/robust-growth-indian-itbpm-industry;

WHATS IMPORTANT?

IT IS ANY TECH THAT

MAKE BUSINESS SENSE

IT ACTUALLY DOES NOT

MATTERWHAT TECH IT
IS.

WHAT TECH IS OUR CORE

COMPETENCY

IT, BT, NT, DESIGN,

MANAGEMENT
INFRASTRUCTURE, ETC

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS NOT INNOVATION; NOR

IT IS TECHNOLOGY
IT IS MONETIZING THESE..AND MORE!

EMERGENCE OF NEW AGE

ENTREPRENEURS
Traditional/ family biz

New gen entrepreneurs

Strong family ties/ overhang

Largely independent- espy on matters

finance

Source of money- ??

Mostly legit- salaries/ sale of company/

dividends

Transactional/ trader mindset

Business building/ LT oriented

Biz/ personal income mingling v

high

Early stages yes, later- rarely

Exceptions are there

Traditional businesses- largely see

touch feel- domestic

New economy businesses- largely

intangible- globally oriented

Reliance on native intelligence

Reliance on data, logic, analysis

Intuitively understands money

Overall intelligent; financial literacy

levels vary
29

Business Model Innovations

The Long Tail

What Business Models

were Enabled?

"We sold more

books today that
didn't sell at all
yesterday than we
sold today of all the
books that did sell
yesterday.
Josh Petersen, Amazon Employee explaining
the long tail to a colleague that did not get it

Virtual Goods?!?

Rs 242.85 cr rev FY15; 647,000

paid subs

Indias biggest e-commerce

player- total amount earned from
users in ticket fares stood at Rs
20,620 crore FY 2014-15

Nextwave Multimedias new 3D

game World Cricket
Championship 2 Nasscom
winner

Flipkart India-revenue Rs 9,351.7

crore in March 2015

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/a-game-of-cricket-closer-to-reality/article8124841.ece;
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-01-31/news/70222599_1_irctc-website-tatkal-online-ticket-booking;

Funding Innovations

Alternatives in India- Equity

Deal discovery and fulfillment platforms: (Angelist of India)

LetsVenture, Termsheet, Ah!Ventures, Applyifi, EquityCrest
SME Exchanges- NSE, BSE- poor traction Family offices/ individual investment vehicles
Incubators/ consultant services/ optg partner/ investor combine(Y Combinator clones)

Alternatives in India- Non equity

Crowdfunding product/ film/ project etc funding

(Indiegogo/Kickstarter) Ketto, Wishberry, Catapoolt, RangDe +
Peer to peer lending
Customer or vendor / creditor 'funding'
Loan guarantees' to provide financing for qualified candidates
- Goldman Sachs, whose 10,000 Women program trains women
entrepreneurs around the world, announced a partnership with the Danish
government to provide loan guarantees to qualified program graduates
through Tanzanias CRDB Bank
Classic trade receivables (bill discounting)/ factoring/ packing credit
guarantee (eg ECGC)

http://yourstory.com/2015/08/sme-lending-startups-address-unmet-financial-needs-attractingmillions-capital-investors/; http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-0306/news/59844613_1_capital-float-saif-partners-startups

So, time for a check. Lock kiya jaaye?

Motherhood
statements
Find your
sweet spot and excel in it.
Change the way you play the game. Or change the game!
Personal and professional inter-mingle
Focus on the effort and outcomes like a better product
/service, happier employees /partners, satisfied & repeat
customers... Monetary and material success is a logical
consequence.
Keep learning, innovating, changing, adapting, & to move on
Saraswati Lakshmi correlation!

38

And finally

Thank You

References
Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, BITS Pilani
Prof Parameshwar P Iyer, Indian Institute of Science
Tyler Elliston http://
bplan.berkeley.edu/index.cfm?section=Resource%20Center TiE members / sessions
Infoedge
http://www.walterhottinga.com/organization-development/greinerevolution-revolution-growth-model-for-organizations/
http://www.pittsburghfuture.com/innovation/entrepreneurs.html
Various magazines