Building a Leader's Image.
2008-04-24 11:00:00
There's no shortage of ways to bust your image. Here are eight common mistakes executives make- and you should avoid - that have a negative effect on their leadership image.Too much seriousness. Leader
s don't need to be serious to be taken seriously. Leaders who are overly reserved look wooden, stiff and uncaring. A smile goes a long way. Show that you can take a joke or handle pressure with graciousness and warmth. Weak speaking skills. In a media-saturated world, people know a good speaker when they hear one. The standard is high, and a leader with a flat or monotone vocal style, inappropriate volume or poor diction isn't tolerated. Whether talking one-on-one or speaking to a crowd, pay attention to how you speak, not just what you say. Lack of clarity. Of course, what you say is enormou
Read more: Building
, Image
Single-Handed INC
2008-04-26 04:24:00
Freelance and become your own boss.EARLY a hundred years ago, American humorist Robert Benchley said the freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece, per word or perhaps. For a long time, freelancing was hardly a career choice in any profession. It offered very poor pay, little professional status and hardly any opportunities for growth. And it remained that way for decades, until the forces of globalisation brought freelancing out from the cooler and put it in mainstream. Today, the powers of Internet and outsourcing have combined to make freelancing a potentially attractive career choice, and still better, an option to exercise freedom and one’s spirit of entrepreneurship.Freelance outsourcing is spreading like a sail lifted in the headwind. Men and women of all ages are logging on
Stepping Stones To Build Your Business Online.
2008-04-26 04:17:00
FIND A NEED AND FILL ITMost marketers make the mistake of finding a product before they have a market. But unless people are actively searching for your product online, you’ll never make a sale. The trick is to find a group of people with a common problem they’re trying to solve and then solve it.After you’ve done this, use what you’ve learned to create a product for a market that already exists — and do it better than your competitors.WRITE SALES COPY THAT SELLSOn a website, your copy has to do the selling for you. There’s a proven formula for writing sales copy that’ll take visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive: Arouse interest with a compelling headline, describe the problem your product can solve, show them why you can be trusted to solve the pr
Read more: Stepping
, Stones
, Build
, Business
IT Learning, Courtesy Factory Floor.
2008-04-26 04:06:00
Anantara Designs & Integrates,While Suppliers Manage The RestAT FIRST glance, Chennai-based Anantara Solutions might look like another manufacturing company. It designs products, buys components from some 25 supplier companies spread across India, China, Russia, Singapore and the Malta island and assembles them. So typical of any assembly line, but Anantara is an information technology consulting company.Started by a group of former employees of Satyam Computer, Anantara has taken a novel path to technology services business and calls it the ‘second generation outsourcing.’ The business model is based on using the best practices of the manufacturing sector in IT: Design and integrate, but leave the intermediate steps to an ecosystem of component suppliers.And leading the innovation
Read more: Learning
, Courtesy
, Factory
, Floor
Grin and Bear It.
2008-04-26 03:43:00
What does a bearish market mean to the entrepreneur? If the business is based on real value there is nothing to fear.THE week began innocently enough. Thousands of enthusiasts gathered in downtown Mumbai for a marathon, which saw mighty billionaires sweat it out alongside commoners. It was the very epitome of the new India: happy, confident and impatient to leap into the future. And then came Monday. The stock market, which had fuelled the rise of many a business empire, caught the fancy of the middle class and witnessed the rags-to-riches journeys of rookie entrepreneurs during its four-year boom, started melting rather too rapidly. Valuations of companies, big and small, fell in minutes. Fear replaced greed, pouts appeared where smiles beamed, and the air became thick with uncertainty.Wh
Balancing Hiring Needs with Growth.
2008-04-26 03:38:00
We are a start-up and we don’t have a brand.We want to expand by hiring more, but human resource consultants are expensive. In some cases, they charge more than the hiree’s one month salary as commission.We can’t afford this. How do we go about hiring good talent without spending too much that can strain our meagre resources.The second question is how do we motivate existing employees when we hire more. As the staff strength grows, they start feeling neglected and begin to leave for bigger brands.How do we deal with this?On the first question, it is a very tricky area. If the entrepreneur’s need is special and he has no network to feed in the talent required, then it is imperative to have an HR search firm working for him. What you could do in this case is try and negotiate with th
Read more: Balancing
, Hiring
, Needs
, Growth
Cautiously Venturing Funds.
2008-04-26 03:22:00
Honourable examples apart, are venture capitalists in India generally risk-averse? Do they act more like private equity players?WHEN Sujai Karampuri started soliciting venture capital investment for his fledgling business, Sloka Telecom, in 2005, he was 31 and the company was two years old. Both were too young to be funded, some VCs told him. Some others said the firm would fight a losing battle against giants such as Nortel and Alcatel. Still others were hesitant because the network infrastructure business that Sloka had chosen, was in a downtrend. The start-up approached about a dozen venture capital firms in India, but was declined each time.Mr Karampuri’s experience is typical of hundreds of entrepreneurs in India, who find it nearly impossible to raise venture capital funding for th
Read more: Funds
Make or Break.
2008-04-26 03:15:00
That crucial firstWHAT happens in a year that makes it the make-or-break-period for a small business? People spend most of their start-up money. They don’t have as many orders as they need to pay their bills. And people don’t anticipate the expenses that come up. Also, most entrepreneurs need to build up their markets and loyalty, slowly. Maybe 1% of the people have an unbelievable product, but most have to build up their customer base and they end up running out of money before they get there.The three key things that have to happen within the first year to ensure that a business doesn’t fail.Get to know your product, get to know your market, and get good employees. You have to have good people to back you up, and you have to know your target market or you are wasting your time. If
Read more: Break
Big designs on the small car.
2008-04-26 03:03:00
Big designs on the Small CarMumbai-Based Pioneer Will Supply Body-Side Graphics For Tata NanoGRAPHICS and decorations on vehicles was once a business pursued by the small-time garage operator catering to a local clientele. Even abroad, there were only a few companies in this business, and in India, virtually none. Two decades ago, not many would have seen sense in the need for an organised business to put stripes and designs on automobiles. But Kishore Musale has not only taken that business mainstream, he has also made a number of car and bike manufactures factor in exterior adornment as part of their design.So, it was a milestone for Classic Stripes, which Mr Musale founded in a 120-sq-ft room outside Mumbai in 1987, to have won an order from Tata Motors to provide body-side graphics to
How to Inspire People Like Obama.
2008-04-26 01:43:00
How to Inspire
PeoplePublic speaking skills are critical to the success of every leader. Over the past several years, I have been interviewing, observing, and writing about business, academic, and political leaders who have the ability to influence their audience - leaders who fire up the rest of us. Whatever your political leanings, Senator Barack Obama
(D-I11.) is one of them. For a look at what makes Obama's public speaking skills so effective, I outline four techniques this Presidential hopeful has mastered and explain ways to use them in your own repertoire.1. Hold Out Hope Like Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama speaks in the uplifting rhetoric of hope. After his defeat in New Hampshire, Obama's political oratory was so hopeful
Sporting encounter:Today’s player,tomorrow’s star
2008-05-01 11:34:00
Sporting encounter:Today
’s player
,tomorrow
’s starGloboSport’s Anirban Follows His Love And Sets Up A Market LeaderFOR an entrepreneur in waiting, inspiration can come from just about anywhere. For sports lover Anirban Das Blah, it came in the form of the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise as a struggling sport agent with a struggling sportsman as his lone client. It eventually set him on the path to sports management business. “You will either be an entrepreneur by your mid-20s or after the age of 40,” Mr Das says, recalling those days when he decided to take the plunge at the age of 26.Mr Das had returned to India from a stint with Ericsson Telecom in Sweden and was looking for the next opportunity, when he had a chance meeting with tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi at a bo
Read more: Sporting
Beginning Of A New Financial Year.
2008-05-01 11:26:00
IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR TO PAUSE & MARCH ONStart-Ups Need To Realise The Potential The Beginning Of A New Financial
Year Brings And Gear Up To Tap It.THE passing of March is the death of weariness and the birth of April the start of hope all over the world. Centuries ago, Geoffrey Chaucer opened his Canterbury Tales expressing his love for the sweet showers of April and the drought of March that pierce to the roots. For businesses, it is the end of the financial year, time to close old books and open new ones. It is when one squares off pending transactions, be they receipts or payments, evaluates performance, takes stock of inventory, realigns talent pools and makes strategic corrections. While big corporations have evolved time-tested models to take advantage of the changing of
Tips to tally year-end accounts.
2008-05-01 11:21:00
Tips to tally year-end accountsMANY small business owners have to manage with minimal staff strength. They often leave the function of transactions, record keeping and accounting to inexperienced staff. Depending on how the accounting documents are filed and kept, the accounting personnel may face the following three scenarios:FIRST SCENARIO — THE WORST CASEHere, the owners have little or no knowledge of accounting and transactions record keeping. No accounting records or transaction records listing are kept. No separate recording of receipts and payments made. All the accounting documents, including receipts and invoices, are in a mess. Before you bring order to the accounts, the three steps to follow are: sort all the accounting documents by types and in chronological order; identify a
Start-ups Seek an Enabling Environment.
2008-05-01 01:17:00
START-UPS SEEK AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENTWhat does the forthcoming Union Budget mean to an entrepreneur and how do this year’s wishlists look like.FOR long, union finance ministers have been presenting budgets to stimulate government revenue flow or exports or consumption or revival of sick industries. But increasingly, they face one more priority. It is no longer enough to announce a few concessions, rejig taxes and leave the rest to god and a compliant citizenry. The primary objective of a modern day budget is not just to balance state revenues and expenditure, but to nurture an ecosystem for economic activity. It is natural that entrepreneurs expect the budget to ease conditions for business, so they can go ahead and give expression to their ideas. This year, finance minister P Chidambar
Read more: Start
, Environment
Championing Financial Inclusion.
2008-05-01 01:06:00
Championing Financial
InclusionM2i Founders Chase A Dream; Set Up Firm To Offer Advisory Services To Microfinance CosIMAGINE building a business plan by combining a love for travel, desire to see development in villages, financial acumen and college friendships. That’s what three students at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) did in 2001. Deepak Alok, B Atul and Rajeev Kumar used to discuss how market forces could aid development. One compelling area to look at was the fledgling industry of microfinance, banking for the marginal sections of the society. It was not yet mature, but had all the ingredients of any mainstream industry, they believed.A college project on rural finance and insurance convinced them that there was a need for professional intervention to take banking
Unleash the innovator within
2008-05-01 00:58:00
Unleash the innovator
within
Five key ways to unleash the hidden potential for innovative thinking in your business and achieve high levels of success:THINK TWO GENERATIONS AHEADEnvision your company 50 or even 100 years from now, even if you don’t foresee your product or service lasting that long. Such forward-looking reflection creates an umbrella for long-term innovation to occur. Working back from your 50-or 100-year vision plan in 10-year increments, ask and answer the critical “who, what, where, when, why and how” questions about your business. For instance, who will your target demographic be; what will your core products and business focus be; where will your office(s) and facilities be located ; when will key business milestones be achieved, why will your business matter 10,
Direct Logistics Derives A Sizeable Amount Of Its Revenue From China.
2008-05-01 00:43:00
A soldier charges ahead on his own & tames the Dragon Direct
Logistics Derives A Sizeable Amount
Of Its Revenue
From China
IF CAPTAIN Sunil Devrani of Indian army of the early 1990s had said that one day he would set foot in China, his listeners would have read war in his prediction. Go to China he did, but in a more peaceful way, as an entrepreneur many years later. Direct Logistics, which he started with a capital of Rs 20,000, after quitting the armed forces, is the only Indian logistics firm to derive a sizeable revenue from China.Mr Devrani says after leaving the army, he had no idea what he was going to do next or whether he would be able to adjust to the “world outside”. The pyramid-like hierarchy of the armed forces bothered him. “Only a few make it to the top and I wasn
It Pays Rich Dividends To Stay Ethical.
2008-04-30 23:54:00
It Pays Rich Dividends To STAY ETHICALIt May Be Painful In The Short Term, But A Strong Ethical Code Is What Builds Lasting Value For A Start-Up.“It is better to lose a billion dollars than a good night’s sleep.” NR Narayana Murthy IT TOOK place nearly a decade ago, but is still fresh in the mind of R Satya Narayanan, founder of Career Launcher. Officials from the income-tax department were scrutinising the account books of his online education services firm, when an officer suggested he planned to disallow some expenses and impose tax on them. Mr Narayanan argued the expenses deserved to be tax-free, but the officer didn’t agree. After much haggling, the officer suggested he could allow the expenses if a certain sum was paid to him. It was the entrepreneur’s moment of truth. He
Eight Costly Marketing Mistakes.
2008-04-30 23:49:00
Eight Costly Marketing
MistakesMARKETING ONLY IN THE SLOW TIMESTo grow your business, you need an ongoing, targeted marketing programme you can manage year-round along with the day-to-day demands of your new business. One mistake start-up entrepreneurs often make is to put marketing on the back burner and focus exclusively on the few customers they’ve got. Marketing only during the slow times dooms you to living on an economic roller coaster.FAILING TO FOCUSOften, start-up marketers fail because they try to tackle too many types of prospects on a limited, start-up budget. Going after everyone who will listen is a shortcut to failure. On the flip side, when you narrowly focus your marketing efforts on a qualified target audience, you’ll get spectacular results.OVERLOOKING TESTING AND RE
Read more: Eight
, Marketing Mistakes
Building A Core Team.
2008-05-02 12:56:00
START-UPS NEED TO WAKE UP TO THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING A CORE TEAMIt’s the quality and performance of the top few executives that decide the success of any new business, says S SrinivasanFOUR months ago, Bangalore-based optical networking company, Tejas Networks, staged a coup of sorts by roping in 46-yearold Rangnath Salgame as its president. Mr Salgame had made his name by developing a $1 billion business in India for global networking giant Cisco. Technology industry veterans were surprised to see him move to a company with revenues of less than $100 million.Mr Salgame had then said he was surrendering to his entrepreneurial impulse and the temptation to build a product company out of India. Tejas was lauded for getting a visionary leader for its core team. The next news, many expect
Read more: Building
A Doctor’s Journey from Pain to entrepreneurship.
2008-05-02 12:50:00
A doctor’s journey from pain to entrepreneurshipDr Patil Uses Acupuncture To Cure His Migraine And Set Up A Flourishing BusinessIT WAS 1966 and 26-year Ratnakant Patil had to leave his examination hall. A severe headache made his final-year MBBS exam at the Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore a nightmare. He had a severe migraine attack and was vomiting. His sympathetic professors, who had been treating him over the previous few years, let him wait out this bout at the back of the hall. When he felt better a few hours later, they let him finish his paper in an empty hall.Little did they realise that a couple of decades later, this experience would push Dr Patil to start his own business of curing people, just with a set of pins and needles.Stress had kick-started the migraine, and for
Read more: Doctor
, Journey
Dealing with investors on the board.
2008-05-02 12:47:00
Dealing with investors on the board.SOME tips to help you make the most of your board when your investors become directors. Advisors are not directors, and directors are not advisors. As an entrepreneur, if you’re looking for an advisor, get a consultant. Don’t rely on your board to give you advice. Their job is to hold you accountable for goals that drive your business’ success. Most entrepreneurs like the idea of recruiting an advisory board. Often, it provides instant credibility. For first-time entrepreneurs, it also gives them confidence that smart people believe in their business concept and are willing to lend their reputations to help the company grow. In reality, it takes a lot of work to make advisory boards give advice that’s helpful to your company.GIVE YOUR INITIAL DIR
Financial well-being.
2008-05-05 12:34:00
Financial well-beingIS YOUR startup spending unwisely, taking on orders it cannot execute or sitting on underutilised assets? Monitor the following ten parameters continuously to ensure the financial health of your company.1. What are your assets? Yes, yes, we all know that assets are the things that a business owns. Tracking your equipment, furniture, real estate and other holdings should be easy. But to have a true idea of the value of your business, you also have to track changes in the value of those assets. More than one small business has found itself located on a piece of land that’s worth more than the business itself. Similarly, you also will want to track the declining value of assets such as computers and office furniture.2. What are your liabilities? Again, on the face of it
Read more: Financial
Health and care for all.
2008-05-05 12:46:00
Health and care for allTHAT India’s primary healthcare is in dire straits is well known. While the affluent sections are being overwhelmed with the choice of superspeciality service, there is a widely held belief that there is no money to be made in providing healthcare to the bottom of the pyramid. Some entrepreneurs are challenging this as a myth and trying to improve the health of healthcare in India.Ziqitza Health Care Services, the company behind the 1298 emergency ambulance service in Mumbai, has shown the way that it is viable to provide services at a subsidy or for free. Anyone can avail of their dial-in ambulance service, and the company has made it clear that ability to pay will not be a defining factor for using the services.It was a few years ago that five individuals decided
Read more: Health
Making Money with the Click of a Mouse.
2008-05-05 12:39:00
MAKING MONEY WITH THE CLICK OF A MOUSEAds remain the main model of making money from the Net. But, now the advertiser is demanding more tangible benefits from the site ownerIN THE heady days of the dotcom bubble, when the flow of venture capital burst the plumbing, online businesses started in every street corner with the idea of deriving revenues from advertisements. To say that ads will bring in the money was easier than designing a cash flow model for the raw business. Though the ensuing bust thankfully put an end to such websites, Internet businesses and online advertising have continued to evolve. Today, at least half a dozen portals and websites in India have demonstrated that successful business models can be built around advertisement revenues. And some estimate online promotional
Read more: Money
, Click
, Mouse
On Wings of Social Entrepreneurship
2008-05-08 12:39:00
On Wings
of Social
Entrepreneurship
Corporate Professionalism Is Spreading To The Social Sector, As Professionals Give Up Comfortable Corporate Careers To Work With The MassesWHEN 24-year-old Anand Shah was flying out of India back to America, another Indian sitting next to him on the flight was complaining. “The taxi drivers, they fleece you. The food, the water… oh, I was sick for four days out of ten.” Born in the USA and trained at Harvard as a biologist, Shah thought to himself that criticising came easily to us, but not the initiative to change things.Mr Shah, on his part, decided to do something for the country of his parents’ origin. He looked around and realised there was a huge need for talent to work at grassroots organisations in India. “What India needs is people time
Towards Sustainable Welfare.
2008-05-08 12:35:00
Sustainable Welfare
TODAY, about 300 multinationals control 25% of the world’s assets. Indian companies currently comprise only a fraction of this number. However, with our economy coming of age, more and more of them will lay claim to this elite list.While this is truly a matter of great pride, we must remember that there rests an equally momentous responsibility on us to give back to the society that has nurtured our growth. Today, most companies contribute to society by means of well-defined corporate citizenship initiatives executed by their not-for-profit trusts and foundations. However, we believe it is important for corporations to look beyond charity and redefine the act of ‘giving back’. Corporations must look at cultivating and encouraging social entrepreneurship in society
Read more: Sustainable
A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure
2008-05-08 11:36:00
'A Leader
Should Know How to Manage
Failure'(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , March 22,2008)Question : Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?Kalam : Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control ce
No title
2008-05-12 00:24:00
Hai To Everyone Regards,Gopalan.S
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