The Milagrow Blog

The Milagrow Morning Ritual

2009-06-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

Monday to Friday, when the clock strikes nine, I here some voices around me… come for the ritual. Long time, since I actually worshipped God in the morning… but this isn’t about God and idol-worshipping..!!

A few weeks ago, in one of our internal meetings, we decided that we would follow a ritual. A practice to recite the company’s vision, mission, values & culture, To speak out loud the company’s ten commandments and ten imperatives.

The first thought that struck my mind was… “Oh great, I’d not have to cram these sentences now and would be able to learn them easily in this manner.”

Of course this thought had a reason… Till date, I have no idea about the vision and the mission of the company where I did my summer training. I don’t even remember the number of values they had. No wonder they took some steps to make us learn those… like putting them on posters all around the office, pinning a paper at each desk… but who would have cared to have a look at those.

Once when my colleague was asked about the company’s values, I quietly glanced at the poster in front of me, so that I can speak them out, in case the next turn was mine. Poor chap could not glance at the poster and received a round of verbal bash.

Even during the corporate presentations during my days at management school, I was really bugged when these slides appeared on the screen. My mind used to shout… “I need to complete my assignments and projects. Why don’t these guys quickly move on to the relevant part of the presentation?”

Well, this being my views about corporate vision and mission, the announcement about the morning ritual at Milagrow was a relief. I thought, “This time definitely I’ll be able to learn these.”

Then, the next day onwards, the practice began. In the presence of just half the total number of employees, the ritual was initiated. This being the first day, we opened the corporate presentation on my laptop and read out the slides.

I probably didn’t give much attention to the meaning of each and every word because all I was doing was reading the slides loud.

The next three days, I was out in Mumbai for a client meeting and could not participate in the ritual. On the fifth day, the same practice of reading out the slides repeated. Finally & thankfully, the essence of the practice was checked on the sixth day. When asked as to how many remembered any of the vision, mission, values, culture, etc. not even a single hand was raised. No doubts, the practice had become meaningless.

So, for the next morning, all of us were then told that each and everything should be learnt by-heart and known to every individual. Finally, I learnt them before the next dawn.

Next morning, we all met again. As expected, everyone had learnt everything. But it still didn’t change my views about these things. They were still some English statements, which companies put on papers to show that they work with a strategy.

The practice has now continued for another 2 weeks. I don’t know how, but things have changed entirely in the last 14 days.

Now, every morning when I hear the vision, mission, values and culture, and speak them in my heart, my mind tells me, “Now you know what you are working for..!! What are you expected to do..?? Did you do something which is not aligned to the corporate values..??” A strange change, but probably the essence of the ritual was to achieve the same. When I sit back and think, what brought this change in just 14 days, I feel it was a mix of too many factors.

Firstly, and probably the most important one, the corporate values are aligned to my personal values. It’s just that in the last 25 years of my life, I never cared to list them and think how I am following them in my daily routine. Only when they were repeated daily, I realized that actually this is what I do in professional as well as personal life. However, now since these are listed down precisely, the chances on missing out on any of these in daily life becomes negligible.

Secondly, now whenever I am stuck somewhere in my work and am confused as to what should I do, these act as a handbook. Just a quick reference to the values and the culture, and somehow I get to see the way forward. For example, earlier I used to just finish of the tasks that were given to me. All I used to check was whether my job is done or not. But now, when I speak out daily that “Entrepreneurial thinking is a way of life,” my attitude has changed. Now I no longer check if my job is done, but I foresee that is my work productive? Have I been able to achieve something in the day?

Then during the reciting of the Ten Commandments and the ten imperatives, my mind keeps on checking whether I did it or not. Is there anything that has been left out? In fact a couple of times, during the ritual itself, I signalled my colleague that we have missed out on that point and we need to finish that right after this. Certainly, he was also thinking the same and I could observe a similar reaction from his side too.

It feels great to realize that with a simple practice, I have found a structure in my way of working. And the best thing that I feel is that I and my colleagues have some common things now - the reason for which we are working and our attitude towards our work.

I realize that this ritual would have significance if the employees believe in reaching out to its essence, but for some ignorant species like what I was, it was an eye & mind-opener. This was one of my first corporate learning, which taught me the significance and use of the vision, mission, values and culture of a company.

With me writing so much about it and you wondering what actually has got a change in me, let me simply pen down what I work for at my office.

Vision: We are Venture Catalysts. We Nurture Ideas and Enable Growth Seeking Enterprises to attain Ethical, Sustainable and Profitable Growth

Mission: Become ‘The Destination’ for Micro, Small and Medium Businesses. To partner with aspiring enterprises as a Venture Catalyst and build ‘best in class’ managerial and organizational capabilities in them. We shall a) Nurture Shared Values, b) Develop Relevant Knowledge & Competence and c) Create and Sustain Entrepreneurial Culture

Values: a) Commitment – Own everything we do

b) Ethics – Integrity, Honesty and Transparency in what we do

c) Respect – All Stake Holders

d) Trust – Believe in People

Culture:

* Entrepreneurial thinking is a way of life
* Belief in Youth
* Equal Opportunities to all
* Thirst for Knowledge
* Respect and Recognition for Expertise
* Accessible & Straight forward
* Collaborative approach
* Making things happen
* Passionate and Professional at the same time

Ten Commandments:

1. Have I cleaned my workplace today?
2. Have I updated my schedule on the shared calendar?(All client related, external facing and time bound, time consuming tasks must be on it)
3. Did I reconfirm all my appointments for today?
4. Have I prepared myself for my meetings today?
5. How will I delight my customers today?
6. Have I helped my internal customers today?
7. Did I make a call to my family/friends today?
8. Did I create/capture new knowledge for myself today? Did I blog today?
9. Did I reply to all my emails today?
10. Did I make my HML for tomorrow? (Do the biggest impact and external facing things first)‏

Ten Imperatives:

1. Follow the company templates on external and internal communication
2. All external communication which commits the company to doing a thing must be checked by a peer or superior
3. Record notes of all external meetings and important internal decisions must be made in written and circulated to all concerned within 24 hours
4. Minutes of Client meetings must go out in 24 hours after approval from superiors
5. Weekly Client reports are a must before weekend
6. Monthly Client reports must be printed before the 5th of next month
7. Company nomenclature and numbering system must be followed for all files and folders
8. Google groups must be hosted on every important initiative
9. Open source project management and IT tools must be learnt and followed
10. Always log on to 'Milagrow Chat' unless in meetings

Right to Information

2009-06-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Currently, we are building up a Right to Information Help Desk on our upcoming SME portal which aims to facilitate Small and Medium Enterprises and Individuals to seek information and get justice from the right corridors.

To enable this Help Desk, I am trying to build linkages with RTI Activists across the country so that we can route the queries to respective state’s activists. The portal would act as a platform for bringing together RTI activists present across India for the social good for SMEs and helping them in getting easy access to information.

In this process, I have been talking to various activists across states and am quite motivated and enthusiastic to see how passionate they are about RTI Act and its implementation. Here, I would like to mention that most of them do it voluntarily after their office hours and take out time to bring awareness and keep the RTI flame burning.

For example, today I talked to Mr.Vikram Simha who is quite active in spreading RTI movement in Karnataka. He along with his two colleagues had set up Sakshi Trust which conducts Training Programmes on RTI for enterprises to make them aware about its magical effects.

The other day I was watching few videos on RTI and was surprised to know that the bribe business is worth 21 million rupees in India. To make people aware of RTI, a “Drive against Bribe” campaign was run across 55 cities with 1500 trained volunteers, 8 media partners and more than 700 civil society groups in July 2006. A lot of cases were solved successfully during this campaign. Representatives from Parivartan went on to the streets of East Delhi and made the citizens understand about their rights to seek information as to how their tax money is being spent, where the government is at fault and how they are being cheated. Also around 5 villages of Uttar Pradesh were benefited through RTI campaign by Kabir, an RTI Activist group. Many of the villagers problems regarding discrepancies in providing basic infrastructural facilities like ration, school uniforms, roads, etc. got resolved by filing RTI applications which forced the concerned authorities respond on the irregularities in the system. The campaign had a huge impact and villagers won the battle against the corrupt authorities and now are very well aware of the weapon called RTI.

Several cases related to land disputes, IT returns, passport irregularities, pensions, etc. where government authorities make unnecessary delays and ask for bribes can be resolved by putting the concerned departments in the dock and questioned about the irregularities in the system. It is high time that SMEs too, understand the power of RTI and use it as a tool to avoid exploitation from government bodies and public offices. RTI guarantees a person to get access to all the information and inspect any government correspondence or document, etc. until and unless there are very strong reasons to deny it. Right To Information gives its citizens a legal power to question the way of government functioning and attack the institutional impediments to openness and accountability that are still very dominant in many of the government departments.

Citing lot of discrepancies and loopholes in the operations of govt. authorities, I believe Milagrow’s RTI Help Desk would be a great tool for SMEs to get their voices heard and seek information from the concerned authorities. It is very premature to say how RTI Help Desk would fair in future but one thing is for sure that RTI Movement has to spread its wings and reach to wider audience who could use this powerful tool for their benefit. Milagrow would continue its efforts in making this movement popular and accessible to all SMEs and individuals but we would be requiring equal participation from SMEs to be more active and not hesitate to approach us for filing an RTI.

Learning……. As an Experience

2009-06-04T03:19:00.000-07:00

---Contributed by Divya Bhalla
My third week in Milagrow …… and each day has been better than the previous one.

Milagrow is a workplace of everyday learning, which doesn’t necessarily mean formal training or being a trainer to provide people with learning toolbars of their respective roles.

We get trained and impart training on various spectrums of learning by working as a team.

Hence, my interface with learning has been:

To be constantly conscience of our new strength

To identify opportunities and increase our speed of actions

To implement what we think immediately

To be assertive

To be committed

Our management Gurus say… that people of an organization learn the most when they are motivated and are emotionally committed to their roles.

Though it may sound difficult to inculcate learning into someone, but we can definitely ensure ways and environment that encourages this process.

I would conclude my experience of learning with what – Nelson Mandela said in his Inaugural speech in 1994:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but our deepest fears are that we are powerful beyond measure”.

Open Source – A trend for the SMBs

2009-06-03T00:34:00.000-07:00

Any business, be it small or large is because of People, Project, Process and Technology. Earlier the organization had more focus on People and Projects. People were hired and put into the projects. But today “technology” plays a vital role in the development of any business. This is because technology is applied onto a project to keep track on the processes and activities which in turn helps the people of the organization to achieve goals and success.

But today, so much has been spent on technology that there is a need to set up a secure, cost effective and at the same time productive IT infrastructure. Big brands like HP, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle and many others who have created the tech market, also are leaving a big hole in our pockets. So where should the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) look in for technology? The answer being simple is difficult for many to digest is “Open Source”.

According to opensource.org “Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.” Let us understand what actually the above statement means.

Free Redistribution of license, distribution of original or modified source code under the same terms and conditions, the license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time, license must not restrict other software or be specific to a product.

Let us take an example, today when we buy Microsoft Office; we get the software license for usage for around Rs. 20,000 or more. This is renewable license but each up gradation of license would cost extra every year. If you do not renew then your software will expire and after that you would be using pirated software which is not legal.

At that time open source “Open Office 3.0” comes into picture wherein you get the license once you download. After this you have the power to use the software for as much time as you want and for no cost at all. You can also distribute the product for free in compliance with the terms and conditions. If the software has newer versions, all you have to do is download the latest version or update your existing patch code with new patch code.

So when one asks “how do I come to know about the open source alternative of a software”, I reply- with little knowledge, eagerness to learn and an Internet connection one can simply browse to learn the alternatives. Because they are easy to learn with available “help menu” and save you from piracy of software. Apart from this, open source awareness has led to online demo of many types of software on the net.

To actually help you understand, how open source would be benefiting you in terms of cost and usage, let us look at the comparison below along with available options:

S. No	Commercial S/w	Price (Rs.)	Open Source S/w
1.	MS Outlook	5,000/user	Zimbra
2.	Tally	36,000	GNU Cash
3.	MS Office	13,824/user	Open Office
4.	Adobe Reader	8000	PDF Creator
5.	Adobe Photoshop	5000	Gimp
6.	Video Uploading on your website		Kaltura
7.	Web Conferencing tool	Save travel cost	DimDim
8.	MS Proj		OpenProj
9.	Sales Force	3250/ user/month	SugarCRM
10.	Mc Afee/ Norton	2000+/user/year	ClamWin
11.	WinZip	1500	7 zip
12.	Nero	3200	InfraRecorder
13.	MySAP HR		OrangeHRM
14.	Windows XP	6500/desktop	Linux-ubuntu
15.	SAP ERP	10- 25 Lakh	OpenBravo

So you can actually total up your cost of commercial software and save that much amount by using open source model! For SMBs, this can be one suite for their organization IT infrastructure with which they can “develop relevant knowledge and sustain themselves with open source in these recessionary times”.

For more details on open source, watch the space on upcoming SME Portal- IT Solutions.

Five Days @ Passport Office

2009-05-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

---Contributed by Neha Bhatia

The scene of the office of our worldwide identity proof is unbelievable and hard to imagine for anyone who has never been to any government body and has got the work done. I had to go to get the “additional” booklet and I was made to run from pillar to post for 5 days which ideally, is the time you get your fresh passport under tatkal scheme.

With very little knowledge of timings I went on the first day at 3pm. As soon as I entered I saw more than 100 people (some in queue and some fighting claiming to be in the queue). The scene was nothing less than a vegetable market. There were around 15 counters all having a board “This counter is not for general information”. All counters just had one thing written on a blue board “tatkal/ general”

With this I asked around 5 to 6 counters about “where can I get additional booklet” and the responses were counter 6 hall 1, counter 4 hall 2 and many more except the exact information. With hardly any hope to get any answer from inside the passport office, I went to the watchman and asked him the procedure. He said “madam kal line mein lagna subah 9:30 baje, token lena aur fir andar aana”. I asked “ye line kaha hoti hai, kaun se counter par” and that person responded “counter nahi madam, wo toh building ke peeche ek line lagti hai”.

Second day the line for token starts at 9:30 am I reached at 8 am and found atleast 30 people standing in front of me. And by 9:30 am there were around 150 people behind me. Some made their touts stand so that work gets finished faster and paying Rs. 6500 than paying regular Rs. 2500. So I asked someone in front me in the line why there are more than 2 people at the same position so the person said “ye India hai sab jugad hota hai”. I got the token at 10 am and then the passport authority refused to accept the token because I was not getting passport for myself which was violating the rule in tatkal scheme even if I had authority letter. So all my energy, time of standing in the line since 8 to 11 am got wasted or I must say, I had an experience of nothing…

Third day reached around 7am in order to get the work done and still saw 5 people ahead of me. And I thought people are crazy but they were like me who were fed up of the system and just wanted to get the work done as soon as possible. I got the token and I went inside. We (the passport holder and I) got the work done in 15 minutes paid the tatkal fees Rs. 3000, got the date of receiving the passport and left the place. But during this time we also found something strange inside the passport office. They were like “shoes on the table of one of the employees”, “passports and files lying idle” like if they get lost then it is not at all their responsibility because they would say “madam apki file incomplete thi”.

Fourth and fifth day were again just to receive the passport as on the fourth day, not all the passport could be made and we required additional passport of jumbo size. So fifth day again we stood at the gate at 10 am, received the passport (after requesting senior official to give on time because we had a meeting to attend at the office). At the same time I just said “Hope I never come back here”.

But later I realized should I have said that or I just wanted things here to be sorted? Actually I wanted privatization of the passport office so that no common madams (as they called) or anyone would have the same experience as I had there.

But before I end, everyone reading this blog please read below in case you have to get new passport or change of information or additional booklet.

1. Download the form from the website http://passport.gov.in/ for your requirements.
2. Fill and attach supporting documents
3. Go to the passport office next day morning around 7:30 am to get the token.
4. After taking the token, go to the counter mentioned on the token.
5. Specify your need and they would send you to the actual counter
6. Get your forms checked and submit to the official.
7. Pay Rs. 1000 for fresh passport in general scheme which would take 1 month or pay Rs. 1500 for fresh passport in tatkal scheme which would take less than 10 days. Incase of additional booklet charges are extra which is mentioned at the counter.
8. Get the receipt after payment which mentions date of collection.
9. For collection of passports timing is between 5 – 6 pm everyday behind the passport office building at the same place where you collected your token. In other cases sometime they tell you to go to the counters also.
10. Last but not the least “DO NO PAY THE TOUTS”. This can be one experience and also you would save Rs. 4000 by doing your work yourself.

Stepping Again in the Professional World

2009-05-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

As we are in the era of globalization it is important to be target and goal oriented, focused, have a creative mind set to bring about turnaround for one’s respective organization and also for one’s own professional growth.

All the efficiencies and endeavors we possess should guide us to evolve our competencies.

The goals we must set for ourselves should necessarily be rationale: they should be within the parameters of our competence, capabilities and abilities. A goal without an emotional quotient becomes a task and a task is always heavy.

All this is in context to what I have learnt today in my new organization MILAGROW.

It has been a very important day for me today as I have made a comeback in the world of professionalism and Milagrow has provided me with a comeback platform for which I am highly thankful to the epitome of this prestigious organization, Mr. Rajeev Karwal.

In a span of six hours I have learn’t so much. The team here is a bundle of zeal and passion and most importantly they possesses a sense of ownership in whatever they do.

It is an honor and pleasure to be a part of this enriching team

“There are always new opportunities, either you or your competitor will find it”. This is what we all need to keep in mind.

My First Day as an Entrepreneur...

2009-02-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

- By e-mail from Veera Mavalwala

A Day in the Life of an Entrepreneur....

Dear Friends

My first day as an Entrepreneur indeed has been very satisfying! I woke up as usual at 7.00 am - thought I would go back to sleep so set the alarm for 8.00 am - but couldnt sleep so was up by 7.30 am. Read the newspaper back to back (not just glancing through it as I would normally do), had a bath and was ready (make-up and all) at 10.00 am when my Partner Mona came over. I requested her that I would like to say a Prayer and light a diya before we started our first day together. She agreed and I read out a "Mushkil Aasan" prayer which I normal say on Tuesdays and Fridays. We ate the Prasad of channa and elaichidana and started working around 11.00 am on our Presentation for our "NAVROZE ACADEMY - The Finishing School for Business & Admin Professionals". We continued till 1.00 pm when I took half an hour off to prepare lunch - Dal, Rice and Zeera Aaloo. We had lunch and continued with the Presentation. In the meanwhile, Mona got an e-mail for a "Train the Trainer", Training Programme. We liked the contents of the course and after a bit of bargaining (Thanks Rajeev for the tips!) enrolled ourselves for the 3-day Programme from 12-14 Feb 09. Also, made some calls to fix some meetings for tomorrow.

We completed the Presentation by 5.45 pm and Mona just left. I have mailed it to my friend for help and am now sitting to write about my first day as an ENTREPRENEUR!

All in all a VERY POSITIVE start and I loved being at home and working and having lunch with Farokh - he too was happy as he didnt have to just have a sandwich or soup alone. Am now going to prepare dinner.

Best wishes
Veera

"Success doesn't come to you, you go to it" .....Marva Collins

The First Milagrow Entrepreneur...

2009-02-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

-an e-mail from Veera Mavalwala

Here is an email we received recently from one of the Milagrows.. It represents our entrepreneurial spirit

Dear Friends,

I am very happy to inform you that Milagrow has its first Entrepreneur!

Today I 'retire' after 42 years of service but not from work! I have decided to fulfil a dream of mine which has been 'resting' for a long time but now I think is taking shape - a friend of mine and I are starting an Academy or a 'finishing school', primarily focused on training Executive Assistants of CEOs, MDs and Company Directors. The training will also include Personality Development, Grooming and other related aspects. We will be based in Delhi and hope to commence classes from 1 May 2009. I will keep you posted.

Please do keep in touch. It has been great working with all of you and I pray Milagrow grows to greater heights and Rajeev remains a 'Role Model' for all past and present Milgarowites!

Thanks Rajeev and Shobha for your inspirational and kind words today. All the best!

Best regards

Veera

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart, head and hands
…… Robert M. Pirsig

Ethics for SMEs

2009-02-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Kanak Dutta, Knowledge Buddy

Business ethics set the standard for how your business is conducted. They define the value system of how you operate in the marketplace and within your business. With legal scandals concerning insider trading and employee theft making the news, it is no wonder that businesses are increasingly giving attention to the ethical basis of their business and how to lead in an ethical way. While the examples above seem to be clear-cut breaches of ethics, many ethical dilemmas that are not so clear-cut are faced on a daily basis in business. In fact, there may not even be a “right” or “wrong” answer to the dilemma, but how you deal with it will says much about you and your business.

These decisions are often referred to as being in the “gray” area. They are not black-or-white, but could be argued appropriately either way.

Importance of Business Ethics in your company
There are definite advantages to owning your own business when you want to establish an ethics policy. Basically ethics come from the top. Without setting an example at the top, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to convince your employees that they too should be ethical in their business dealings. A well-defined ethics policy along with an outline of related standards of conduct provides the framework for ethical, moral behavior within your company.
What is the benefit of developing such a policy, you may be wondering. The benefit is higher employee morale and commitment that in most cases leads to higher profits. But higher profits should not be your motivating factor in defining your ethics policy.

An ethics policy should look at the bigger picture of how we relate to society as a whole and what our responsibility is to the greater good. Of course, in these days of downsizing and increasing change, some may argue that these ideals are unrealistic. However, it is important to note that most of the opponents of good ethics are focusing on short-term versus long-term results.
Many organisations, which have participated in the downsizing mania, are beginning to realise that they have traded long-term employee morale and productivity for short-term profit margins.

The bottom line is “what goes around, comes around”. If you treat your employees with disrespect and distrust, chances are they will do the same toward you.
When you are developing your ethics policy, you must decide what it is you want your company to stand for, put it in writing and enforce it.

How to develop an ethics policy for your company

Consider 4 P’s before you draft the ethics policy for your company.
• Purpose
• Pride
• Patience
• Persistence
• Perspective

Implications of not following ethical policy for your company
To give a live example for this, Satyam scandal raises serious questions about the business ethics. Ramalingam Raju (Chairman, Satyam), being a MBA from Ohio and a course in the Harvard Business School, how it is that people with such elite education are involved in such unethical conduct?

Two things come to mind while answering this question.
• Unethical practices of auditing and accounting.
• Despite of having the above mentioned qualification, this didn’t help him in his transition from the mode of governance suitable for a Small Entrepreneur, which he was before starting satyam, to the kind needed to run a public limited company, where one deals with other people’s money.

As Edward Freeman, who suggested the stakeholder theory, says, “it’s not useful anymore to separate questions of business and questions of ethics.” An integrated way of thinking about business and ethics is via responsibility of action. That is, “businesses and executives are responsible for the effects of their action. They are responsible precisely to those groups and individuals that they can affect or be affected by...”

Importance of ethics for Small and Medium Enterprises
SMEs are characterized by informal understandings and shared expectations among the workforce of how business is done. Any values and ethical principles will usually be implicit rather than formally expressed through ethics policies, codes and programs that are familiar in large companies. The ethics of a small organization is typically influenced by the owner-manager or managing director. Through their very visible presence, their personal attitudes and behaviors will set the tone of the business and have the potential to signal to employees how seriously ethical behavior is to be taken in the organization. SMEs are not typically able to devote as many resources to building an ethical workplace culture as larger organizations.

Ethics in Milagrow

At Milagrow, our values are mainly based on 4 dimensions:

• Ethics- Integrity, Honesty and Transparency in what we do
• Trust- Believe in people
• Respect- For all stakeholders
• Commitment- Own everything we do

Rajeev Karwal, Founder, Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions strongly believes that “values are something which have to be lived from day one. At Milagrow I have always made sure that we follow ethics and integrity with a 360 approach. You can't be corrupt on one day and then say that you will be ethical the other. We have not only lived a corruption free life ourselves but have made many clients who approached us change their unclean ways. We have never manipulated profits to save taxes or manipulated revenues or costs. We have also adopted sustainability as part of our ethical value system”. He firmly believes long-term success occur only if an organization constantly aligns to/shapes the consumer needs/expectation. In an ethical business the essential thrust is on social values. Business is conducted in consonance with broader social values and the stakeholders' long-term interests. This ranges from concepts of nation-building and trusteeship that are demonstrated in the business practices of the Tatas and Birlas, and new generation enterprises such as Infosys, Wipro, Dr. Reddy's and Ranbaxy, where less emphasis is on minimising negative impacts and more on maximising the positive spill-over effects of corporate development. Thus, it is the need of the hour that business houses become more careful and know their responsibilities towards the society as hurting the sentiments of the consumers can really be hard on their finances, profits, share prices and their mental peace.

References:
http://www.smallbusinessjourney.com
http://www.bitc.org.uk
http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/operating/leadership/ethics.html
http://www.goodcorporation.com
White paper from Institute of Business Ethics

At the Emerging Business Forum – Footwear Industry in Agra

2009-02-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Kanak Dutta

Zee Business along with Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions presents ‘Emerging Business Forum’- an exclusive 10 city initiative that aims to enable and empower SME clusters to achieve sustainable development and growth. A buoyant India today is witness to many successes of small and medium enterprise. Their role in terms of employment creation, upholding the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation has been crucial in fostering competitiveness in the Indian business and economy.

Beginning December 17th 2008 (Agra), this forum is in the format of panel discussion which would be continued across ten important cities which includes Agra, Ahmadabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Indore, Ludhiana, Merrut, Moradabad, Pune and Tirupur.
The forum was first initiated in Agra which is known for Taj Mahal world over and has an enormous leather industry. This city is catering to the huge demand of footwear in the country.

From Milagrow, Kavita Joshi(Knowledge Mentor) and myself were appointed to attend the forum. The main objective was to network with SMEs in Agra and spread the awareness about the Milagrow services among the entrepreneurs. We wanted to understand their problems and try to explore how we could contribute to solving them. A short questionnaire was prepared by me to investigate the hindrances companies have been facing with regards to the smooth running of their business (like taxation, export, economic recession, association benefits etc).

Attendees of this forum were mainly the manufacturers and exporters of leather in Agra who have already established their business but due to various obstacles, are not satisfied.

The panel members included Kavita Joshi- Knowledge Partner, Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions, Gurgaon, S N Ganguly- Director, Central Footwear Training Institute, Agra, Shiraz Ahmad Farooqui- Vice President Marketing, Indiamart.com, Noida, Sharad Sharma- General Manager(Network-2), State Bank of India, New Delhi, Capt A S Rana- President, Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chambers, Agra, Opinder Singh Chhatwal, President, President, Agra Shoe Manufacturers Association.

Kavita Joshi discussed about the overview of the footwear industry, problems faced by the footwear industry and recent initiatives taken by the government. She also discussed as to how Milagrow can play an important role in enabling and empowering SME clusters to achieve sustainable development and growth.

Agra Footwear cluster is a prime example of a rooted low-tech cluster with predominantly small producers. The cluster has predominantly small scale of operations & the industry thrives on footwear making artisans/skilled workforce available in plenty in the cluster, but suffers from acute shortage of managerial and supervisory staff with technical qualifications. Footwear in Agra is a very labour intensive industry and almost no mechanization exists.

Problems faced by the industry are similar to those faced by many small scale clusters.

• Chinese footwear
• Labour shortage
• Technology
• Current status of Information communication & technology
• Taxation issues
• Weak Dollars
• Spiralling input cost

Now the question arises as to how Milagrow can be of any support?

As “consultants” for Small and Medium Enterprises, Milagrow plays an important role in providing the right solutions (“not just ideas, execution also”). Our mission only clarifies that we partner with aspiring enterprises as a Venture Catalyst and build best-in-class managerial and organizational capabilities in them. There may be various measures by which we can help the SME Cluster in growing their business.

• Understanding the business and working along with the footwear companies as partners in their growth.
• Doing a comprehensive cluster research study on the loopholes present in the system and giving the remedial measures to overcome.
• Milagrow can also help by arranging the growth capital required by SMEs
• Help in screening for the best manpower for managerial and supervisory work with technical qualifications.
• Provide a cost effective and quality mailing solutions service.

Before signing off, I would like throw some light on the response which we got after the discussion was over. After Kavita gave a wonderful insight into the world of Milagrow, the audience (entrepreneurs) started approaching us even before the networking session could begin. These entrepreneurs had various questions to ask - for instance, how to market their product, expand their sales across territories etc. At one point of time, there was a queue waiting to be attended by Milagrow team. I am sure that Milagrow has the answers to all their doubts. This was just the beginning and we hope to make a significant impact on the cluster in the near future.

There were many entrepreneurs coming from different parts of business. Since Milagrow is in itself an SME, I was able to understand the passion and ambition of today's entrepreneurs. Through this initiative we were successful in reaching out to our target audiences. I felt as if our mission was accomplished. Thanks to Kavita Joshi and Milagrow for such a wonderful experience.

Internal Maintenance Contracts - A Best Practice?

2009-01-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Sarath Srinivasan

Recently I visited the facilities of a 'service' retail outlet in a small town in Nagpur. The interesting aspect was that the owner of this enterprise had trained his employees to perform maintenance on the equipment. The innovation from his side was that he had done with by awarding maintenance contracts to individuals within his organisation. So if there were 4-5 machines to be maintained in a shop, each had a maintenance contract which was given to a person working at the shop. This person was then trained to perform the job. By providing a monetary incentive for maintenance in the form of a service contract he was able to ensure that his equipment was taken care of. This would also ensure that preventative maintenance is undertaken on a regular basis. Esepcially if the maintenance contract is on a fixed fee basis, it make so much more sense for the person to maintain the equipment and ensure no failures rather than spend inordinate amount of time trying to repair failed equipment under time pressures.

This approach stands out for two reasons. One it creates an entrepreneurial culture in the organisation - even for a task such as maintenance there is a monetary incentive that drives employees to upgrade skills and learn more about the tools they use on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps this can be backed up by reasearch but I think the productivity on his machines would have been far higher than any other shop. In fact anecdotal evidence points to the fact that the down time on his machines has been far lower since he implemented this scheme. The second reason this stands out is the reliance on performance based compensation. In most companies in India there is a much lower component of variable pay compared to fixed pay. This must change in the coming years and perhaps this small enterprise is showing the way for the future.

Compare this situation with a typical office setting - when the internet in office does not work or when a person's laptop does not work, often the immediate reaction of a number of people is to put their feet back, relax and let the IT person handle the job. This is a typical scenario played out in a number of offices around the world. Especially when it comes to work laptops etc, employees always feel that it is someone else's job to maintain the asset. I think in today's world employees must be expected to upgrade their skills to be able to perform basic trouble shooting and maintenance of their laptops. In case the internet is not working they should know how to fix it. It is not rocket science, it requires a bit of effort. Perhaps the right set of incentives or disinectives need to be provided to ensure that people maintain their own laptop/ desktop. In other words you Make the 'User' the 'Owner.'

Can this same principle be applied across industries? For every asset a single person who uses it the most also needs to know enough to be able to do its basic maintenance. My understanding is that in all such cases the productiviy of the asset in question will increase.

World SME Conference Event Flow

2009-01-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Veera Mavalwala

Day 1 of the World SME Conference organized by Milagrow Business & Knowledge Solutions kicked off on 12 December 2008 with a simple ceremony of Release of Milagrow Study “State of India MSMEs 2008” by Dr Jagdish Sheth, Charles H Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, followed by an inaugural address by the Founder Director Mr Rajeev Karwal welcoming the august gathering of Speakers – from India and overseas - Government officials, media and a hall full of delegates from all over India. During the day other Milagrow Studies were released -“Government backed initiatives and the progress of MSMEs in India” and “Women Entrepreneurs of MSME Clusters in Hyderabad – How Women bettered Men”,

The Emcee then introduced the first Speaker of the Day, Mr Pravir Kumar, Jt Secretary, Ministry of MSME. He was bombarded with questions, which he tried to answer in a diplomatic way. He apprised the audience on the steps being taken by the Ministry to help the MSMEs in the country. The Media thronged him after his talk to get ‘bites’ for their TV and newspapers.

Mr V Vaidyanathan, Executive Director, ICICI Bank then gave a bank’s perspective of “Winning in difficult Times” – he explained how the bank functions in these difficult and “Rocking Times”. He too had to answer a lot of difficult questions which the media and audience wanted answers for.

With some humor the Emcee introduced the next Speaker of the morning, Mr Guriqbal Singh Jaiya, Director SMEs from WIPO Geneva, who gave his views on intellectual property and how this can be used as a sustainable competitive tool by the MSMEs.

This was followed by release of the Milagrow Study on “Women Entrepreneurs of MSME Clusters in Hyderabad – How Women bettered Men” by none other than Ms Sudha Pillai, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Dr Rajnee Aggarwal, President, FIWE and Dr Liyan Zhang, Prof of Finance & Economics, Tianjin University of China. Ms Sudha Pillai then gave a very interesting talk on “Get Skilled or get Killed – Attracting, Acquiring, and Developing & Retaining Human Resource”. Her Presentation was an eye-opener and very exhilarating to see how over-whelmingly well the women in Hyderabad were faring over men.

After lunch the Emcee introduced the star Speaker of the Day – Mr Douglas Tatum, Founding Chairman of Tatum LLC of USA. His insight into “What to do when your Company is too big to be small, but too small to be big” was his own personal experience of running an organisation, taking smart decisions and financing the business, effectively. He explained how he started as a very small enterprise and has since grown into a multi-faceted company.

After this interesting Session we had the privilege of having amongst us the High Commissioners of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Trade Commissioner of the Pakistan High Commission – this Session was anchored by Mr Kamal Nath, Director & CMD of AIMA and the discussions centered around SAARC and SAFTA and the Opportunities for SMEs to collaborate and cater to the emerging domestic economies in this potential region. It was very clear that the objective of all the countries present was to promote their SMEs and all are striving very hard to develop the SME space.

This was followed by yet another interesting Panel discussion – this time we had Dr. Liyan Zhang, SME expert and Professor of Finance and Economics, Tianjin University, China, Mr. Vittorio Mecozzi, Director, Trade Commissioner, Italian Trade Commission, Kolkata, Mr. Windu Matoka, SME Director, Zambia Development Center, Mr. Phil Baldey, CEO, Baaldi & Baaldi, New Zealand and Mr.Giovanni R.van der Lugt, Counsellor, Economic & Commercial Affairs, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands discussing “Collaborate to Compete: Lessons from Developing and Developed Economies”; the Panel Moderator was Mr. Kirtan Patel, Managing Partner, Kumar Pathak, LLC from USA. Each one gave their point of view pertaining to their country and how they have gained success through learnings from developed countries and outlooks.

The last session of the day, and certainly the most thought-provoking was a discussion by two stalwarts of the Indian Industry, Mr. Ishan Raina, CEO, Out of Home Media (OOH) and Mr. Anurag Batra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Exchange4Media. Both with a very similar thought process (and physical build!) discussed “Frugal Marketing during Recessionary Times”. The discussions centered on the importance of marketing tools during a recession period and how the right kind of branding and marketing can keep companies from going under.

With this the Day ended with Mr Rajeev Karwal giving an overview of the day’s proceedings and gave a glimpse of what was in store for the next day.

Day 2 began with the release of the Milagrow Study on “Sickness and Rehabilitation of MSMEs in India”, followed by a very stimulating Mentoring Workshop by Dr Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University on, where he apprised all the delegates, on how to avoid building a self destructive culture in a company and the blind spots which lead to the eventual destruction of a successful organisation. He explained the principles of keeping a company ‘alive’ and not getting complacent and avoid certain “Self Destructive Habits of Owner Driven and Small Companies” which are the downfall of most good running organisation. A very inspiring session indeed.

This was followed by another star speaker of the day - Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Power & Industries and Commerce – the delegates and media were awe-struck with his views on “Opportunities and challenges for Indian MSMEs in today’s globalized and open market economy.” A lot of questions were raised by delegates and media and Shri Jairam Ramesh did full justice to their curious minds as to the actions being initiated by Government in the SME space.

Another Panel comprising the IT fraternity was next on the agenda. We had IT gurus like Mr. Rajeev Mittal, Group Director, Small and Medium Enterprises, Microsoft India, Mr. Bikky Khosla, CEO, Trade India (Infocom Network Ltd.), Mr. Neeraj Athalye, Director, Solutions (Sales & Operations), SAP - Asia Pacific Japan, Mr. Jyotish Kumar Ghosh, President (SME), Times Internet Limited, Mr. Anish Tripathi, Partner, Markets & Strategic Services, Grant Thornton, Mr. Abhas Abhinav, Founder, Deeproot Linux and Panel Moderator, Mr. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman of the CyberMedia Group, South Asia's first and largest specialty media. A heated discussion took place on "IT solutions for MSMEs: Lip Service or Real Solutions?” – lot of questions from the audience as a lot of SMEs seem to have IT problems and need very specific solutions.

After this yet another Panel discussion took place with Panel Chairperson, Mrs Ranjana Kumar, Vigilance Commissioner, CVC and former Chairperson NABARD, with Panelists, Mr. Sudhir Sethi, Founder & CMD, IDG Ventures, Mr. Vijay Chandok, Head, Small Enterprises Group, ICICI Bank and Mr. Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4India. Mrs Ranjana Kumar made a Presentsation on "Sustaining growth in tight monetary markets" to kick off the discussion and the audience were happy with the conclusions and suggestions made.

Post lunch the group split into two – a Mentoring Session ensued on “Accelerating Growth with Acquisitions” Mr. C.N. Madhusudan, Chief Executive Officer, VectorSpan Inc. and Former President and Chief Operating Officer, NIIT (USA Operations) and another one on “Grooming India’s Readiness to Run the World”, by Dr. Rajiv Tandon, Ph.D. Founder and Chairman of Adayana, Inc, USA.

In the other group - Paper Presentations on “ Issues in SMEs” were made by Professors from Institutes; we had received 59 Papers out of which 7 were shortlisted and these were presented to be judged by Dr. BS Sahay, Director, Institute of Management Technology (Ghaziabad), Professor Liyan Zhang, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, China, Mr. Anurag Batra, Editor-In-Chief, Exchange4Media, Mr. Vinay Hegde, Knowledge Mentor, Milagrow, and Ms Shobha Ahuja, Senior Economist, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Winner and 2 Runner-up Awards were given during that afternoon session; all Professors were also awarded trophies.

The groups met once again to hear a very heartening talk on “Women Entrepreneurship and the support system in India” by Dr Rajnee Aggarwal, President, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs. She spoke about how she was one of the first woman entrepreneur and how she had to struggle to make a place in this male dominated society.

A Panel discussion then took place on " Impact of Global Financial Crisis on Exports from MSME sector in India", the panelists being Mr. KT Chacko, Director, IIFT, Dr. K.Rangarajan, IIFT, Mr. Ajay Sahai, Director General, FIEO
Mr Rajeev Karwal, Founder Director, Milagrow, Mr. R. Seshadri, Director, Tilda Riceland Pvt. Ltd., Mr. AS Kumar, Super Steel flexible hose Ltd and Dr R.Bhola, Managing Director, Bholasons Enterprises.

The Valedictory address on “How India can become an innovation superpower and set benchmarks for the World” by Prof Anil Gupta, Hon. Value Ombudsman, Milagrow, Professor, IIM – Ahmedabad, was the breath-taker of the Conference and everyone thoroughly enjoyed this session which left a lasting impact on not only the delegates but also all the Speakers present.

The Conference ended but not before Mr Rajeev Karwal invited everyone for the next Milagrow World SME Conference 2010 – in January 2010 when the theme remains “Get Set Grow” and will also hold an Exhibition with the theme “Grass Roots to Global”. See you in January 2010!

The Milagrow Values

2009-01-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Team Milagrow, Compiled by Sarath Srinivasan, Knowledge Guide

When the entire Milagrow team got together in July 08 to define the Vision of the company we also listed what we believed were the values and culture that bound us together.

Our Values

Ethics – Integrity, Honesty and Transparency in what we do
Trust – Believe in People
Respect – For all Stake Holders
Commitment – Own everything we do

Our Culture

Entrepreneurial thinking is a way of life
Belief in Youth
Equal Opportunities to all
Thirst for Knowledge
Respect and Recognition for Expertise
Accessible, Straight forward,
Collaborative approach
Making things happen
Passionate and Professional at the same time

This blog is a compilation of the proverbs and quotations that we at Milagrow have shared with one another because those words reflected the values and culture that we believe in. I hope that this will be the first of many such blog posts and that this tradition continues for a long time at Milagrow.

Don't miss the beauty of the journey by focussing only on the destination

" If you are not a part of the Solution, You are part of the problem" - Peter Madden

"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart, head and hands" - Robert M. Pirsig

"Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes." —The Buddha

"People may not always believe what you say, but they will believe what you do."

"Ships are safest in the harbor but they are not meant to be there. They have to sail long and hard and face stormy seas to reach the comfort of a desirable destination" - N.R Narayana Murthy

"Life is mostly froth and bubble, but two things stand like stone, kindness in another's trouble and courage in your own" -Princess Diana

"Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable." -Denis Waitley

"Within each of us is a hidden store of energy.Energy we can release to compete in the marathon of life.

Within each of us is a hidden store of courage.Courage to give us the strength to face any challenge.

Within each of us is a hidden store of determination.
Determination to keep us in the race when all seems lost".

-Roger Dawson

"Our thinking and our behavior are always in anticipation of a response. "— Deepak Chopra

"If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in theirlife, then it means they had never tried a new thing in their life…"- Albert Einstein

1) Life is not tough enough, that is why we complain
2) If you are responsible, you have the power
3) If someone tells you your dream follow it
4) Acceptance gives peace
5) True value of business is vision. Without that it is project management.
-Yossi Ghinsberg

The Journey from a Distributor to a Brand

2009-01-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Lessons learned from a distributor who ventured to launch his own brand....

- Contributed by Akash Kumar, Sales Buddy

Recently I was handling one of our clients (let us call it Ram Pvt. Ltd.) from the IT hardware industry. They were into IT networking products, under which they were mainly focused on IT networking cables i.e. CAT5E, CAT6, CAT6A LAN cables and Fiber networking cables. It was interesting to work with this client due to two reasons. First, Ram Pvt. Ltd was the only Indian company that had a presence in this specific product category. They were competing against MNCs who were having a stronghold all over the world. Second, they were changing their image from Trading Company (Distributors of MNCs brand) to a branded company with their own global brand.

While handling this client, I came across a number of new challenges which I feel that one can learn only through experience. Based on my learning, I am presenting those precautionary steps which a distributor firm must take before launching their own brand.
Image transformation of Trading Company to Branded Company should be Gradual Process. Even though Trading Company would be having sales staff, reach, supply chain, efficient working capital, it should not stop their entire trading operations suddenly and start selling only their own branded products. Typically the driver for the firm to launch their own brand is a higher margin. Although the distribution business will continue to offer lower margins the trading business will be crucial for the survival of the business.

Brand: Ram is well placed but one thing which one needs to remember is that until Ram decided to launch their own brand they were selling other’s brand (say ABC).Customers (with whom Ram is having good relations) are purchasing that ABC product and not Ram’s product. Ram is only a service provider for customers. If tomorrow, Ram will stop selling ABC brand and start his own brand; his customers will stop purchasing from him and will start purchasing from those, who will be appointed as a new distributor for that particular ABC brand. The question that arises here is why are customers so loyal to particular brands in Network Cabling Industry? Because, it is being used in critical applications and thus to protect the entire data and huge investment, companies prefer to go for those brands that are well established and have market acceptance in terms of huge past orders. In order to build a known brand in market, SMEs should not think that giving print ad or TV or Radio ad is the only solution. They should think of innovative solutions such as how to leverage maximum out of web 2.0. They can create differentiation by sending out newsletter to their prospective customers, putting online queries, using website optimizing techniques etc. Such techniques can especially be effective in sectors like the networking industry where close to 100% of the buyers would be internet users.

Working Capital: When Ram was in trading business, it used to get good credit from ABC Company. Therefore, Ram used to sell in market at 30 days of credit at the same time he used to get 30-45 days of credit from Branded (ABC) companies. Thus, Ram was using ABC’s money and generating profit from it. During this whole process, he was having almost Negative working capital. But when Ram started his own brand he had to procure goods on low credit periods and was forced to give long credit periods in the market to push distributors. Thus, Ram Pvt. Ltd. had come from Negative working capital to huge Positive Working Capital. Due to this its cash flow got affected.

Therefore, to protect your cash flow you need to go for gradual parallel process of increasing the share of the own brand business and at the same time reduce the inventory of the other brand’s goods.

Sales Team Transformation: In Ram Pvt. Ltd., the management was of the opinion that the functions of sales and marketing were one and the same. Creating and establishing a brand is a difficult thing to accomplish. Creating a logo does not mean that a brand has been created. Brands require proper launch in market. The Sales team needs to understand how the company is trying to present the brand in the market. In my case, I found that Ram just had good knowledge of product and began procuring the products and attempted to build a brand by putting a new logo on the products. This did not work partly because his sales team was not familiar with the brand, presentation of technical differentiation, Knowledge Up gradation etc.
This example brings out the importance of training your sales staff, so that they can take your brand in to market without any fear of any competition from giant competitors.

Market Selection and Entry Strategy: For any brand, there should be proper target market. When Ram Pvt. Ltd. launched their brand, they had a well established network with distributors. Although initially they managed to convince them to start selling Ram’s brand by giving a longer credit period and other distributor friendly policies, after a certain duration, Ram found that due to some other problems (mentioned above) his brand was not able to command any substantial market share. Thus, distributors stopped paying back to Ram. In this way, Ram’s working capital got increased and finally cash flow was affected badly. Therefore, when a company launches their own brand in the market it must be very focused about the segment to be targeted. There should be a clear entry strategy as well as an exit plan for future.

In conclusion, my suggestion to entire community of distributors, who are also integral parts of SME eco-system, is that everything is possible. There are a number of live cases around us which always reminds us that trading firms can also become branded companies. Samsung, which at some point of time was a trading company associated with some of the World’s renowned brands, is today’s global giant in Consumer Electronics.

World SME Conference 2008, A "first" in the truest sense of the word..

2009-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Tapan Bhatnagar

The Milagrow World SME Conference concluded successfully on the 13th of December 2008. The conference was a tremendous success, and I'm not shooting off the cuff here. The success of the conference is measurable in terms of the number of speakers, number of delegates, Press attendance, number of Partners, profitability, number of press ads etc.

The conference to an outsider would look like Mission Impossible part I - II - III combined, but here at Milagrow, as with any other projects, we are strivers. The conference was properly conceived and though we were on a road less travelled, we were sure of the positiveness of the outcome. The idea was conceived almost a year back with basically two ideas:

I. Bring Global MSMEs on a common platform to interact with each other as well as with industry captains and govt officials to interact and understand the challenges faced by the MSME ecosystem.

II. Take a leap as an authority in the MSME space in India

Based on these ideas, the development of the conference began. This started with creation of the compilation of the ideas and output we expected to achieve from the conference and what was our plan to achieve the same. Mind you, at this point in time, Milagrow was just a young organisation - less than 1 year old! But, the difference between Milagrow and any other organization is that we dream big and then strive to achieve that dream.

Once we created the compilation of the ideas, expected output and our plan for achieving this into our event abstract, came the next step of setting up our advisory board. The advisory board plays an important role in the success of any conference. The advisory board not only plays the role of being a mentor to the entire conference but at the same time from their experience and expertise and network open doors which were previously inaccessible and unreachable.

Once the backbone of the event was in place, came the setting up of the skeleton of the conference. A painful, step-by-step time consuming process. This included developing the proposed schedule for the event based on the event abstract, getting the comments of the advisory board on the proposed schedule and their recommended speakers for the same. This was followed by the arduous task of actually inviting the speakers and the Government officials. Before proceeding further, I must point out that at the beginning of the preparation of the conference we had decided that our event would be world class or we would not do it at all. Leading from here you can well imagine the level and seniority of the speakers we were looking at. Each and every speaker was a expert in their field and was either in meetings or travelling 300 days in a year!!

At the same time that speakers were being invited we parallely started the development of Government Linkages and partnerships for the event and also scouting for sponsors and partners for the event. All this parallel work was possible only because the event was conceptualized well and the plan was made in pain staking detail. In case of sponsorships we had already planned for the kind of paid sponsorships and the proposals for the same even as we were preparing the abstracts. Similarly all possible partnerships in kind and with associations were thought out and proposal for each created. Not only that, the team had brainstormed and selected the target organizations/associations for each of the proposed partnerships. This was the reason that even though we were a lean team we were still able to achieve much more than most of the organizations.

An important cost incurred in any marketing budget is the advertising budget. And considering the fact that we had to at all points in time keep our budgets in check this was a major factor of concern. Now if we consider that we placed ad couple of advertisements in the print media our expenses would have been 10 times and if we added television advertisements then - good bye profitability! This is where our carefully laid out plans worked and we made the most effective utilization of our database of 6.6 lakh users and also effective usage of digital marketing. This not only helped us achieve many more eye balls but also allowed us to leverage the print media effectively. Our planning in advance helped us tremendously, since we had built in the factors into our budget and also considered planning for partners in it. As a result, we were able to effectively target and get the correct partners to assist us in the marketing and promotion of the event.

We also decided that we will always over deliver to our partners and sponsors and even though based on previous experiences we were expecting some unpleasantness from the sponsors. Surprisingly since, as a matter of principle, provided so much more than they were expecting, we
had our sponsors praising the event long after the conclusion of the event.

There are many other aspects and insights into the conference which include the "special roles played by Apex industry bodies", the "Venue Story", the Government story, the story of the Advertisement timelines etc. The story of WSME are many and each more interesting and planning is already underway for the next World SME Conference, Get Set Grow, There will be more to share from this side in the near future, until then

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there."

The Delegates at the Conference

2009-01-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

-Contributed by Charu Gupta, Knowledge Buddy

The 1st World SME Conference organized by Milagrow was a huge success and went off very well. I was a part of delegate registration team where we approached various Associations, Banks, Retail and IT Companies specifically dealing in SME sector who could participate as delegates and gain from the conference. The Mumbai blasts tragedy had just struck the whole country few days before the conference but that too didn't deterred us and also our participants and we saw massive participation from the industry and the event was attended by more than 250 delegates.

The task of delegate registration was started in the last week of October which was a little late but still we managed to get pretty good response. We tied up with various prominent associations and portals which helped us to create the buzz and seek active participation for our conference. The whole delegate registration process involved getting the delegates, making follow-up calls to prospective delegates, receiving the payments of confirmed ones and sending them invoice and an acknowledgment mail immediately, sending the reminders to those whose payments were due, sending final mail informing about the venue, timings and the final schedule to all the delegates and also meanwhile maintaining a complete excel sheet of the same.

On the day of the conference the delegates were received at the registration desk where we had prior segregated list for press, special guests, paid delegates and delegates from sponsors and partners. The names were cross checked and the delegates were handed over the delegate kit and the schedule of the conference. On the second day, the names were again cross-checked to avoid any chaos.

At the end of each day, we distributed a feedback form where delegates were askedto rate each session and give their suggestions which we compiled after the conference. Most of the sessions were rated "Good" and the delegates appreciated the well managed conference and its format. Attendees gained a lot of valuable insights on the issues faced by Small and Medium Enterprises and how they could make their businesses more competitive in the current scenario.

Active participation from SMEs as panelists where they can share their own experience, Awards to SMEs in various areas, Success stories of SMEs, Session focusing on exports from SMEs, Session on business development services for promotion of first generation entrepreneurship, Keeping more time for Q&A and networking, etc. were some of the suggestions which were given by the attendees.

On the operational part, we faced a little difficulty due to the absence of specific badges. We hadn't created specific badges for delegates, press and partners which created a little hassle. Also, I feel that if we would start a little early to register delegates, we would be able to generate much more participation from SMEs for our next World SME Conference 2009 and could make it a greater success.

Learning Experience – “Call for Paper” @ World SME Conference 2008

2009-01-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

Contributed by Neha Bhatia, Knowledge Assimilator

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do. - Benjamin Spock

Hard work, sincerity and trust in ourselves sometimes make us achieve what we think we would never be able to do. This spirit was seen at first of its kind truly global “World SME Conference 2008”. Two of my most enriching experiences during this time were handling the deliverables with Industry associations and working on Paper presentations by best scholars of India at the “Call for Papers”. This experience taught me certain practices to follow in everyday routine like

Follow up is the key to execution
Deliver what you promise and thrive for what you deserve
It is the result in the end that matters, small achievements might not yield the final product. Try/Fight until you don’t succeed

The last point takes me back to how each reminder for a mailer to be sent out to the association would get us delegates. With each delegate confirming we would get energized to get more. But it was the end which made us satisfied when we saw packed conference hall.

Call for papers was in itself an inspiring task. Starting from marketing to get scholars to write papers, confirming the Jury Panel, accepting the abstracts, informing to each dignified scholar of acceptance or rejection of their abstracts, reminders for deadlines of submitting Papers, accepting papers, sending papers out to the Jury, awaiting their results and finally getting the best scholars on board for Paper Presentation on 13th December 2008.In between these we also faced some minor issues which taught us very meaningful lessons like changing of our Jury at the last moment. With all these I not only came in contact with such well researched papers and scholars but also got to explore new activities everyday.

I would like to give light on post conference comments by few of our Professors who submitted well researched papers

It was a pleasure attending the conference. Thank you for all the arrangements and hospitality. Prof. Subhash Kasturi ,e4e Business Solutions
You people were wonderful. Thanks for the hospitality. Looking forward to meet you again. Dr. Sheenu Jain IBS Goa

In the end, there were few next year suggestions for paper presentation that we should target 250 final papers from 1000 initial contributions and they should be majorly contributed by SME practitioners.

Well done Team Milagrow!

Milagrow - Venture Catalyst to Private Equity

2009-01-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

-By Sarath Srinivasan

There have been quite a few SME focussed private equity funds that have set up shop in India in the last few years. This trend has been driven by the significant demand for growth capital in the SME sector which has been growing at a rapid rate during the sustained economic growth period of the last few years. The private equity investors, besides providing the growth capital, help their portfolio companies grow by providing strategic insights and instilling corporate governance standards. But in the SME sector, lack of management capital is a significant barrier to growth. Management skills, critical to the success of an enterprise, are in short supply and this problem is even more acute in the SME sector. Many private equity investments are in owner driven companies which need to make the transition to a professionally managed enterprise. For the owner of such companies, the transition is fraught with risks due to the possibility of high attrition rates. An SME owner might hire professionals into senior management positions in his firm but in case the new hire leaves within a short span of time it leaves the owner in a worse situation than he was previously in.

While private equity investors would have the management skills essential to the success of the companies that they have invested in, providing management support to the portfolio companies is not high on the priority list of things-to-do. The typically small PE firms, remain focussed on increasing the number of investments that they make. They are in no position to provide the intensive management hand-holding that SMEs require. SME managers learn best when they are taught with a hands-on approach. They learn best in the context of environments in which they are comfortable – this means learning on the job. This is where the venture catalyst approach works. With one of our clients we were able to clearly understand the market scenario was vastly different from how the client had imagined it to be. But it was hard task to communicate our ideas and build consensus within the client organisation. It was only when we made joint visits with sales team members to some of their stores that we could convince them that we were right. The client was not convinced about our suggestions and insights until he learned it in the context of a store visit.

With the venture catalyst approach we can make a real difference to the portfolio companies of private equity firms. The companies could need management support in either scale-up stage, operational excellence setting. In certain cases it could even be a turn-around for investments that have gone bad. A key question to be answered here is the mode of operation of the venture catalyst in such firms. In companies where the PE owns a minority stake they can only suggest and recommend the services of the venture catalyst whereas in case of a majority stake they can make the decision to bring in external support. Once the decision is made a process has to be put in place to follow through on the strategic initiatives that the company requires. This is taken care of by constitution of a Decision Management Board (DMB). The improvement initiatives/ projects that need to be launched in any company will have to report to a Decision Management Board that includes a senior member each from the PE firm, Milagrow and a representative of the promoter. The DMB will set the strategic agenda for the company. Project teams are formed with team leaders from within the client organization. The teams will report to the DMB during review meetings. Knowledge Guides from Milagrow become team members in these initiatives and drive the change by adopting a hand-holding approach with the SME managers.

The benefit of the approach is that it allows the PE firm to focus on what they are good at and allows them to ensure that the strategy is having an on-the-ground impact on the organization. The cultural transition that the promoter-centric organization has to go through is facilitated by this arrangement. The ability of the organization to deliver on the expectations of the DMB are enhanced allowing the PE investors to feel much more in control and yet not be involved on a day-to day basis. The management capital acts as a second pillar to support to the financial capital provided by the PE firm.

World SME Conference 2008

2008-10-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

World SME Conference 2008

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: sme milagrow)

The Dilemna of a Venture Catalyst

2008-10-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

By Sarath Srinivasan

Recently a fellow venture catalyst and I were having a discussion on the real meaning and intent of a Venture Catalyst. The debate revolved around on what we must and must not do for a client. What does a client truly value in a Venture Catalyst? How should a Venture Catalyst add value?

To answer this we must look at the Milagrow vision – "We are Venture Catalysts. We nurture ideas and enable enterprises to attain ethical, sustainable and profitable growth."

We must work with clients to add value in a sustainable manner. A quick way to test whether we are engaging the client in a sustainable manner, at any point of time is to perform a thought experiment. If we have been carrying out a host of activities and we decide to stop those activities at some point in time - will the organisation have benefited in the long run? If the answer is yes then you are on the right track, if the answer is no then we need to rethink our role in the organisation.

Initially in any organisation there is an inertia that we need to overcome. We will need to push more from our side and do more ourselves and less through the client teams. But as we move forward we must consciously take the effort to ensure that we are operating through the client and that our efforts are resulting in real on-the-ground change in the organisation. If the effort comes solely from our side without client ownership then our though experiment will clearly tell us that there was no sustainable change in the organisation. And thus the growth that gets enabled by the change falters.

Coming back to the debate, I believe that while we must make every effort to get things done and this means taking the lead and showing the way – such efforts must be restricted to situations where a particular initiative is stalled purely through lack of conviction or ability. If an initiative is not moving forward due to lack of manpower or lack of effort on the client part then our role must not be to do it for them. If we reduce ourselves to that role we are no longer Venture Catalysts. We become manpower.

In conclusion there are two questions that we must all try to answer to ensure that we are being true to our vision.

What are the objectives of our engagement with a client? - Can we clearly state in simple terms, the change that we seek to bring.
Are we engaging the client in a sustainable manner at every level?

Below I would like to add some excerpts from my previous blog post a few months back, on the meaning of Venture Catalyst. As the organisation has grown it might be appropriate to recall.

People within an organisation intuitively know the inherent problems. Often, they even know what kind of changes and initiatives are required for the organisation to improve and grow. Typically, this knowledge does not lead to improvement. The ingredients for change are there but the change does not happen.

The role of the catalyst is to make the change happen - faster. The reaction involves taking the individual's knowledge of the firm's inherent problems, the intricate working knowledge of the way the company operates and turn it into solutions and opportunities. This strengthens the foundation and removes the barriers to growth. The catalyst turns the organisational strengths into gold – The catalyst is an alchemist.

Organisational change is successful only if it is effected by people within the organisation. Although it would be the organisation's own personnel effecting and driving the change, the catalyst ensures that the reaction happens. As catalysts, a refreshing attitude and a commitment to the growth of a company has its impact

Where an organisation sees problems, we see opportunities for improvement. In our roles as Catalysts in a Scale Up or Turnaround process for example, we keep the organisation focussed on identified problems so that solutions are developed. We help the personnel in a firm put on their organisational hats. This works because we begin by building a thorough understanding of a firm's strengths and weaknesses. We remain focussed on capitalising on the strengths and countering the weaknesses. We are not weighed down by the past baggage that people within the organisation carry. Although we are embedded as team members within the organisation, working on different projects, our point of view remains neutral and objective.

Venture capital cos may focus on growth equity

2008-10-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

Source: www.livemint.com

Experts say because of changing risk profiles, there may be a shift away from earlier stage to later stage investing

Bangalore: In the face of a global meltdown, some venture capital firms are planning to shift from early stage start-ups to backing companies that have been around for some years and need capital to push growth.

“There may happen a shift away from earlier stage investing to later stage safer investments simply because of shifting risk profiles,” says Mohanjit Jolly, executive director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson India Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd (DFJ). The firm, which started as a pure early stage technology focused fund in India, has now decided to take decisions on a case-to-case basis.

This would be a repetition of what happened between 1999 and 2001, when the fortunes of dot-com firms, whose basis of valuation was eyeballs rather than revenues, nosedived and several Indian investors such as ICICI Venture and ChrysCapital (then Chrysalis Capital) moved away from funding early stage companies.

Mumbai-based Matrix Partners India says the stage shift will be visible in the number of deals in the near future. “There will be a decrease in the number of deals in early stage, while the deal flow in growth investment is actually improving,” says co-founder and managing director Rishi Navani, adding that as risk aversion is rampant currently, growth equity will appear safer.

Matrix began with a $150 million (Rs721.5 crore today) India fund focused on early stage investing. Last year, it raised an additional $300 million to invest in growth equity deals as well. So far, it has made two growth investments—Murjani Group, a luxury retailer, and Tree House Education and Accessories Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based preschool chain. The company has also made five-six early stage investments in firms that include Quickr India, Itz Cash and Yo! China.

Matching the drop in risk, growth stage investments come with lower returns, but venture capital firms seem comfortable with that. The liquidity horizon for a seed stage company is 7-10 years, while a growth stage business provides a shorter exit period, generally about three-five years.

DFJ’s Jolly says investors will be willing to take a reduced exit value of four-five times of their investments in growth stage firms compared with as much as 10 times for early stage companies because there is more uncertainty around exits for the latter.

More emphasis will now be given to profitability and cash flow of a company rather than its revenue growth, says K.P. Balaraj, managing director, Sequoia Capital India. The venture capital firm is now looking for late stage investment opportunities in real estate and infrastructure as entrepreneur valuations have come down.

Data from a research firm tracking deals confirms the trend. Provisional figures from Venture Intelligence shows $9.7 billion has come into India by way of private equity and venture capital investments until the end of September, compared with $9.5 billion a year ago.

“Venture capitalists have been very active in this market. Their total share of investments going up from 25% over the whole of last year to 35-40% this year so far,” Arun Natarajan, chief executive of Venture Intelligence said. “This is because many of them have also been doing growth type of deals, rather than just focusing on early stage funding.”

Investors, who fund both early stage and mid-stage companies, will also try to diversify their portfolio and make it an equal mix of both risky and not-so-risky investments.

“Some venture capital firms may stop doing early stage investment and do only mid- stage funding. Others, at this point, would look at having a portfolio of about 50:50 for risky and non-risky investments,” predicts Lightspeed Advisory Services India Pvt. Ltd’s managing director Srini Vudayagiri. Lightspeed, whose portfolio till date has been primarily around technology, is now scouting for non-tech investments, as are Canaan Partners and DFJ.

Still, diversifying into new sectors and stages may not be easy for funds that have a smaller corpus and have until now focused on early stage investments.

Harish Gandhi, executive director, Canaan Partners, says his fund cannot diversify into new sectors at the moment as they have a small corpus and getting into a new sector could be more riskier due to a lack of expertise in new areas.

The Entrepreneurial Flame

2008-10-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

by Sarath Srinivasan

When the promoter of a company seeks help in scaling up, it stems from an underlying feeling of unease. Possibly his company has been performing well over the past few years but has just hit a plateau. More often, the entrepreneur feels that something is wrong even before it manifests itself in the form of slowing growth. She knows that the business idea has been validated but somewhere-somehow things are just not right. All is not well with the business. The promoter knows that there are weaknesses within his organisation that will act as an impediment to further growth. The company is perhaps a victim of its own success. The initial entrepreneurial spirit of the company is replaced by a team that is restricted to just doing their job – even though that "job" might not be clearly defined. The organisation needs help. But then there is that famous saying that goes – "God helps those who help themselves." The solutions to the apparent problems lie within the organisation. When organisations come to Milagrow for help as venture catalysts, they have to be fully committed to travel on this path of discovery. At the end of the rainbow lies a glorious age for the organisation where the promoter gets back in touch with his dreams, feels fully empowered to take on the organisation to the next level of growth. He knows that the entrepreneurial flame of his organisation will be lit.

The most common refrain that you hear from employees that prevents companies from growing – "But that's not my job, it's the managements job." It is this refrain that pushes all decisions upwards. Ownership is an oft-repeated word in this context. The environment for the growth of the organisation is not created because the employees loose the sense of ownership. This happens over a period of time as the organisation grows – the employee starts to feel insignificant. Where once he was driving the growth of the company he is now restricted to performing his job. Little does he realise his own potential and ability to drive the growth of the organisation. What ensues is a vicious circle with neither the employee nor the organisation realising full potential. Perhaps one way of creating the sense of ownership within the organisation is to actually transfer a percentage of ownership to the employees. Since this might not always be suitable, another option is to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit within the firm – this should be the focus of a venture catalyst.

It's trendier and easier to build your own startup

2008-10-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Source: www.economictimes.com

Many individuals consider themselves ‘born entrepreneurs’. They may work regular jobs and earn monthly pay cheques but deep down, believe that the

y have what it takes to strike gold some day. Add to this the fact that today, it’s trendier, easier and infinitely more desirable to build your own startup.
No surprisingly, more people with bright ideas and an independent streak are now quitting their jobs to be the kings—or queens—of their own domain. But then not everyone makes it. In the corporate jungle, an alarming majority of startups, even those with a great business proposition, get mauled by high operational costs, lack of skilled manpower and market fluctuations.

In such a situation, some find it comforting to put their entrepreneurial urge to use while staying on with their employers. Enter the ‘Intrapreneurs’ who combine the best of both worlds: a secure job that comes with the freedom to innovate, sans the risk. They also raise an interesting question: Even if the grass is greener on the other side, why not stick to the side you’re on right now?

While many organisations pay lip service to the concept of building entrepreneurs at the workplace, there are some who take it seriously. Lalitesh Katragadda works for one such company. An engineer with Google India, Katragadda, is also the developer of Google Mapmaker, a tool that allows users to edit and modify points of interests, such as roads, schools, parks, etc. on virtual maps.

He recalls, “About four years ago, when we started the Indian office at Bangalore, our mandate was to create a product that would have local application, and also create a global impact. It also had to be in keeping with Google’s core philosophy, viz, that it had to be a completely new product and should have the potential to touch every user on the planet.”

Katragadda mulled over this for a bit before the solution struck him. “Today, technology has diminished distances, but most people’s lives still revolve around local things, such as a neighbourhood restaurant, school or shop,” he explains, “So we designed a solution that would help people understand their localities better.”

The solution was Mapmaker, an ambitious project in 2004 owing primarily to the fact that back then, Google had ‘zero local information’ on India. That problem was solved by using satellite imagery via Google Earth. Users would be given tools to trace data on maps based on these images.

In typical Google fashion, once founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page approved the idea, a team was quickly allotted to the project. Key issues were worked on and solved in 6-9 months. The product was tested and launched earlier this year.

In just a few months, Mapmaker has gone live in 122 countries and counting and Katragadda, who steers the product, has been catapulted to an elite group of successful Googlers. Says Vinay Goel, head of products at Google India, “It is a conscious decision at Google to hire people who possess an entrepreneurial bent of character.

We then give them a culture where there is no failure cost and where innovation is highly regarded and rewarded. And the results are there to see.”

Laura Parkin, executive director of The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), says, “If you’re not sure about whether you should give up the comfort of a steady job to start your own enterprise, use these three filters: first, is your big business idea aligned and synergistic with the goals of your current organisation? Second, how do you stand to benefit if you do sell your idea to management and third, if you quit, can you handle the lack of structure and be responsible for all the everyday aspects of your business?”

The Aditya Birla group actively promotes intrapreneurship and incubates employee ideas through annual competitions run across its group companies. For example, through ‘Idventure’, managers from various levels are given a platform to suggest new business ideas.

“We got 75 such ideas in the last competition,” says HR Shashikant, VP-HR of the Aditya Birla Group. These ideas are then put through three levels of screening and a list of top eight entries is prepared. The one person/team finally selected is given three months off from work and gets funding to further develop the idea.

“We get both new business ideas, which fit within our ecosystem and those that are not really connected. The group helps them get VC funding if required and incubates them,” he says. The caveat though is that ABG will hold part of the company when they plan to get out. Shashikant feels that the benefits of intrapreneurship are multifold.

The first advantage is that the person is already comfortable within the company and doesn’t need to prove himself again. When one starts his own venture, there is a need to prove yourself to the outside world,” Shashikant says. More importantly, such a system allows one to fail.

“The person has a safety net to fall back on. The employee can pursue his or her dream, and even if it fails, he or she is richer for the experience,” he says.

Vishal Borker stands on the other side of the fence. Borker started his company, NextBit Computing, in 2005 after quitting his job at Isofttech, an IT firm. He quit because he had an idea and was sure it would work. And it did, after some initial struggle.

NextBit’s offering, gCoSign which allows advertisers to remotely manage signage screens at less than half the cost, has already got a few customers, some of them global. But it wasn’t easy getting out of a job and starting on his own.

“I had a hard time convincing potential clients about my idea,” he says. Faced with a lack of quality talent, Borker had to hire freshers straight out of college and spend considerable time training them. And all this while, he was struggling with attrition. “All these hassles are bypassed when you are an intrapreneur.

You have talent at your disposal, easier access to R&D facilities and free mentorship,” he says. But the feeling of being his own boss still fascinates Borker. “With some ideas you are so confident that you are willing to take that entrepreneurial risk,” he says, cautioning, “But if there is only a 50:50 chance your idea will succeed and if it is a capital-intensive business, being an intrapreneur is a better option.”

He feels that the lesser the risk, the lower the pressure. There might be pressure to deliver, but unlike in a venture of your own, the pressure to deliver might not be there. “To survive, an entrepreneur does crazy things,” he says simply.

Chennai-based Suresh Sembandham, founder and CEO of OrangeScape, agrees. Sembandham, who worked with Hewlett Packard and Selectica before quitting in 2003 to start his own venture along with Mani Doraisamy, endured many finance-related struggles before the going became smooth.

Compared to that, his days as an employee were a breeze, he says. “At HP, as well as Selectica, I worked on quite a few independent projects that were appreciated and rewarded. However, in 2003, when the insurance division, which I headed at Selectica, was taken over by Accenture, I realised that I could not continue,” Sembandham recalls.

The problem was that Accenture, being a consulting company, would probably not encourage product innovation anymore. “They had well-defined rules and procedures that could not be violated. So I took the opportunity to quit and work on my own company,” he says. After two years of research, his decision was justified when ‘DimensioN’, a software that helps users build web-based applications using spreadsheets, was born.

Like Sembandham, Manish Khera has seen both situations. The organisation Khera heads, Financial Information Network & Operations (FINO) started off as a venture incubated within ICICI Bank in 2004. Khera feels that this helped the fledgling company tremendously.

“The initial cost and the formal and informal costs of setting up a company were taken care of by ICICI. Spending a few lakhs on pilot projects was not a problem. But if we had to invest our own money, things would have been a lot different.

Also, a big parent company backing you makes life easier when it comes to building your supplier network,” he admits. At the same time, Khera says that being associated with ICICI put certain constraints on FINO’s freedom. “The initial decisions we wanted to take had to go through many filters.

How start-ups can survive the credit crunch

2008-10-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

Source: www.smartcompany.com.au

The current financial crisis is rocking the business world, but start-up businesses have a special challenge: how to keep growing while trying to stay afloat.

With that in mind, here are some tips to stay ahead of the game during the financial crisis. While this list was written for the US publication Cnet, some of these suggestions will no doubt apply to you and your business.

1. Don’t rely on advertising. If your start-up relies heavily on advertising revenue, don’t exclusively expect it to keep your business afloat. When there’s less consumer spending, advertising declines, so make sure your contracts are sealed and you have a plan for the months ahead.

2. When searching for revenue, you may want to consider selling to businesses. While it’s harder to sell to businesses than individual consumers, you’ll be rewarded with slower churn and predictable margins. Make sure your sales team is up to scratch!

3. If you want to sell to a business, make yourself credible. No one will trust a start-up with little experience, so partner up. Join a business with more experience and you’ll likely have a better chance of selling your products or services than if you worked on your own.

4. Focus on angel investors. And forget about venture capitalists for early stage development.

5. Conserve credit! The difference between now and the 2001 bust is that credit is even scarcer, so lay off on unnecessary spending and stock up for your business’ hibernation period.

6. Go with the flow. Don’t be scared into retaining all your credit and never spending a thing. Watch the markets and go where they go. If the economy doesn’t look set to recover relatively quickly, move to a booming one.

Problems faced by Start ups

2008-09-08T01:39:00.000-07:00

Contributed by Sashank
Milagrow, Hyderabad

Start-ups face many problems from starting up to gaining birth weight and catapult into bigger leagues.

The woes of a start up begin at validating the Idea and understanding its potential. Many start-ups, being driven by young and aspirant minds, are wedded to their ideas and tend to justify the chinks rather than re-design. These start-ups do not have the resources to conduct primary research to validate their ideas. So it is very important for them to get third person perspectives from experienced corners to validate and get reassured of their ideas.

A successful start-up has a dedicated, passionate yet level headed, core entrepreneurial team that leads from the front. These teams, despite being high potential teams, tend to be a bunch of ‘everyone does everything’ type wanderers due to lack of proper delegation of responsibility and a strong organizational design. When these bunch of people come together and set out with big dreams, they need mentoring and hand holding to channelize their energies better and achieve more with less.

Business plan development has been as area where start-ups often falter. Some reading on the internet will not guide a start-up enough to develop a business plan. Start-ups are usually lost, not knowing what are the areas that require planning right at the start, and how forward they should look. They need strong experienced hands to guide them with planning to execute an idea that has immense potential.

Funding has been an area of concern for most start-ups. Cribbing about getting funds consumes more time than actual work for many start-ups. Many a time it is not the eco-system to be blamed, but the start-ups themselves. The start-ups don’t know whom to approach, with what and how. They are wedded to their ideas so much, that they feel complacent that the universe is waiting to buy their idea and all those who have rejected them are missing out on opportunities. In a way they may be right about it, with the given potential of their ideas. What usually lacks is content in the pitch these start-ups make to their investors. Many start-ups need guidance in making the right pitch to their investors, by incorporating the right elements about return and exit.

Start-ups get overwhelmed by the fact of doing business and tend to neglect aspects of infrastructure planning. They tend to overspend on unnecessary luxuries and undermine certain important items, purely because of lack of experience and poor planning. Start-ups do not think through sufficiently about this important aspect, but it can make or break.

Dealing with the government is not an easy job. Mere idea and its potential do not ensure a market entry. There are usually a slew of regulatory compliances to be obtained before the start itself. Mere complying with some laws at start is not enough, but they need to carefully monitor the effect of these compliances. Start-ups need support to understand and comply with least damage to business. There are many schemes that govt. announces for the benefit of start-ups, which they are unaware of.

Many start-ups feel that defining policies at the start curbs their business and it is an unnecessary exercise. But it is very important for start-ups to make the organization as people independent as possible. Start-ups are highly people dependent, and loss of small resource can lead to major vacuum in Start-ups. As far as possible some important policies must be laid down to free the business of individuals and protect them against their first clients. Sticking to certain pre-defined policies can protect small companies from being overrun or cheated by their first few big clients.

Branding the services or products and defining a go to market strategy is a big challenge for start-ups. Defining the 4Ps for a start-up is a major task. Defining a target group, where and when to launch, what price to quote, and how to market the product is an uphill, stammering task for start-ups. Many start-ups lack managerial expertise and experience to be confident about the definition of the 4Ps.

Today technology is such an enabler for businesses! In the context of start-ups, implementing the right technology as part of the journey to build flesh in the business can enhance the organization’s growth. Investing in the right technology is a critical decision many start-ups will have to take.

Plans are made with certain factors in mind. Direction is chosen initially with certain focus, and these plans are implemented diligently and passionately. But many start-ups fail to audit their performance as diligently as implementation. Start-ups begin to justify their failure rather than taking corrective action. This at times can lead to the fall of the organization.

The standout of the success of a start-up is to wage through the problems effectively and capture market.

Ten Essentials for a Startup

2008-09-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

--Contributed by Ankit
Gurgaon, NCR

Opening a business in India has never been a more attractive option. With domestic and foreign investors inundating Indian soil with investments, more and more people are taking the entrepreneurial plunge. But most of these start ups lose the plot midway due to inability to gauge the needs and requirements for their start up. Here is a list of 10 essentials for a start up which act as the foundation stone for future success.

1. Business Idea: This is the starting point of all successful ventures. Gauging the potential of the idea is very important and subsequently following it up with right actions is the first step towards building your own company.

2. Core Team: People are the most valuable asset for any startup. With no fully developed product and service, people are the only assets startups have. It is extremely important for startups to manage and retain their people in a right way.

3. Business Plan: Business Plan helps in transforming an idea into a executionable plan. Without a sound business plan, organization loses focus and direction.

4. Funding: An organisation requires funding at various stages of its life cycle. The initial launch funding for a start up is as important for it as the idea itself. Linking up with VCs and investors is one of the many ways of getting that initial launch funding.

5. Initial Infrastructure: Each organisation has its own set of infrastructural requirements. From office space to web space, all requirements must be fulfilled in order to ensure smooth functioning.

6. Regulatory Compliances: Registering your company and understanding the legalities and compliances is very important.

7. Policies and Procedures: Policies and procedures of an organisation provide a definite method to the various activities being carried out in it. Keeping the standard industry practices as a benchmark, the organisation can arrive at its own set of best practices.

8. Brand Strategy: Proper positioning and brand differentiation helps in making the right kind of impact on the customers. A properly crafted brand strategy goes a long way in creating a sustainable brand equity.

9. Use of Technology: Using the right kind of technology helps in increasing the efficiency and productivity within the organisation. It is thus important to understand the technology requirements of the business.

10. Performance Audit and Course Correction: After the kick start of the operations, you need to sit back and analyse the performance of your company and you need to make the necessary corrections to ensure that you don't tread the wrong path.

Why Venture Catalysts are not Consultants

2008-09-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

---Contributed by Sarath Srinivasan

Often people ask me, how is what we do different from what consultants do. Although I know the answer to that question, it is often difficult to put into words. But when I use the word Venture Catalyst, it just makes sense. A Catalyst is substance which is not consumed during a chemical reaction but increases the rate of the reaction. Catalysts generally change in the course of a reaction but are regenerated. We are Catalysts and each of our engagements is a Venture - A journey on a growth path.

Without a catalyst a reaction will happen, but at a very slow imperceptible rate. For a company change is inevitable and unfortunately change often happens out of necessity and crisis rather than in a planned and proactive manner.

People within an organisation intuitively know the inherent problems. Often, they even know what kind of changes and initiatives are required for the organisation to improve and grow. Typically, this knowledge does not lead to improvement. The ingredients for change are there but the change does not happen. The knowledge is stuck in a quagmire created by the lack of focus on improving the company. Each individual tries to protect his own interests and finds no reason to spend his time in trying to improve the organisation. Very often corporations fail to create the right environment for the individual to take an interest its growth. It does not encourage it. The fear is that the "altruistic" nature of the task of improving a firm will be interpreted as inefficiency. The fear is that the benefits of the effort will not accrue to the individual.

For example let us consider a small firm of about 50 people. The firm has been in existence for 4-5 years and has seen rapid growth driven by a core group of enterprising people. But during the last few years the company has suffered due to the haphazard and individualistic nature of the same people who were responsible for the growth of the company. They do not have the right processes to deal with bigger operations. Despite realising this, individuals within the company do not want to conform to a singe process since it would mean a lesser degree of freedom in their day to day work.

The role of the catalyst is to make the change happen - faster. The reaction involves taking the individual's knowledge of the firm's inherent problems, the intricate working knowledge of the way the company operates and turn it into solutions and opportunities. This strengthens the foundation and removes the barriers to growth. The catalyst turns the organisational strengths into gold – The catalyst is an alchemist.

Organisational change is successful only if it is effected by people within the organisation. Although it would be the organisation's own personnel effecting and driving the change, the catalyst ensures that the reaction happens. As catalysts, a refreshing attitude and a commitment to the growth of a company has its impact. At the end of a project the catalysts are refreshed - ready to catalyse the growth of another company.

Milagrow as Venture Catalysts:

Where an organisation sees problems, we see opportunities for improvement. In our roles as Catalysts in a Scale Up or Turnaround process for example, we keep the organisation focussed on identified problems so that solutions are developed. We help the personnel in a firm put on their organisational hats. This works because we begin by building a thorough understanding of a firm's strengths and weaknesses. We remain focussed on capitalising on the strengths and countering the weaknesses. We are not weighed down by the past baggage that people within the organisation carry. Although we are embedded as team members within the organisation, working on different projects, our point of view remains neutral and objective.

An Analogy:

A good example of a catalyst is in the disproportionation of hydrogen peroxide to give water and oxygen:

2 H2O2 --> 2 H2O + O2

This reaction is slow (hence one can buy solutions of hydrogen peroxide). Upon the addition of manganese dioxide to hydrogen peroxide, the reaction occurs rapidly as signalled by effervescence of oxygen. In demonstrations, the evolved oxygen is detectable by its effect on a glowing splint. The manganese dioxide may be recovered and re-used indefinitely, thus it is a catalyst — it is not consumed by the reaction.
Source: From Wikipedia.

Taking this analogy further, as catalysts we help generate the water and oxygen in a company. The water and oxygen help companies grow. In a scale up process we help the company gear itself up so that the effort required to manage their day to day processes diminishes. From people dependent the organisation becomes process dependent. The oxygen and water becomes easily available and after that the organisation has room to breathe and focus on the future and growth of the company

As Venture Catalysts, we venture where no one dares venture. We Catalyse change in companies. In companies where the reaction to the threats and opportunities at hand were slow, we speed up the reaction. A Venture is an investment. Venture capitalists invest money. We invest time and belief and reap rewards.