Three traits every entrepreneur should possess

I recently attended a lecture by Mukund Mohan at CIIE, IIMA (the incubation centre inside IIMA). You can find more about Mukund Mohan here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mmohan

The lecture was about the most important qualities that any entrepeneur should have. Here are the excerpts. According to him, there are 3 main qualities every entrepreneur should possess:

1) Attitude: Entrepreneurship is one long hard-journey. More often than not, people fail in their first few entrepreneurial venture. Dhanush's 'Kolveri Di' was his 94th song, which shot him to fame. His 93 prev. attempts were all flop song/soup soung. Similarly, 'Angry Birds' was the 54th game developed by Rovio. They had failed in their prev. 53 attempts. Had the company or the singer given up after the first few attempts, they would have never achieved so much success which they eventually did.

Thus, every entrepreneur should be patient and persistent. Don't bother the failure. In failures, the person who hurts the most is the person who failer. No other person cares a damn. So just relax and enjoy. Since the journey is so hard, an entrepreneur should be really passionate about what he is working on, else he will lose interest and fall in between!!

2) Story-telling: Every entrepreneur has to be a great story-teller in order to market or sell his product/service. This, I believe, is what most Indian entrepreneurs lack. Good story-telling involves narrating the story to the listener/potential buyer by making a connect from his everyday life. Understand that only when the customer can relate to the product through his everyday experiences, will he then buy your product. Watch this video to get a clearer idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dklERlulQA

Although the video has no audio, but even then the video is attempting to connect to the everyday user and explaning how his product will help them cope up with everyday challenges.

3) Discipline: This consists of two parts
    a) Hard Work - It means doing lots of work and slogging, taking appropriate   breaks in between (chunking) and having absolute clarity and focus on what you want to achieve
   b) Smart Work: It means asking lots of questions (the art of asking the right questions will come once you ask a lot of questions), measuring your work continuously and willing to experiment with new things.

Difference in culture between North and South India

India is a vast country comprising of multitude of religions, ethnicity and languages. I got a good measure of it, as soon as I landed at Chennai city in southern India to commence my undergraduate education at IIT Madras. Till then, I had been raised in the northern and western parts of the country. The language, dress, food, mannerisms of Chennai all looked alien to me. Almost no one knew Hindi, my mother tongue, as a mechanism of protest (started in 1960s) towards domination of north Indians in the political and cultural sphere.

I found myself isolated and alone in the first few months. Fortunately, I found a good south-Indian friend as we played and attended classes together. Through him, I experienced the south-Indian culture as he shared stories of his upbringing. I realized the stark contrast with my own family and traditions. For example, while he received books and volumes of encyclopedia on his birthdays, I was gifted clothes and shoes midst much fanfare on my birthdays. I started respecting the knowledge-driven society of south India. No wonder, most of the top bureaucratic positions in India were and are still headed by people of south-Indian origin. However, as I embraced the culture further by learning Tamil language and reading local dailies, I found commonality with the rest of India with respect to deeply rooted superstitions and caste-system. 

I spent five years with tremendously diverse and quirky individuals with varied passions (not necessarily engineering). I learnt to appreciate diverse viewpoints and realized through participation in various extra-curricular activities that when these diverse individuals work on a common problem, innovation is bound to happen. I couldn’t have asked for a more balanced education during the formative years of my life.

But, North has a lot to learn from South in terms of bringing up their kids, being humble and god-fearing instead of being cocky and flaunting their wealth. The crime scene in North (esp. Delhi/NCR) is on the rise and perhaps beyond point of return. I have had the fortunate of living in several cities in north as well as south: Bangalore, Hyd, Chennai, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Ahmedabad - and I can safely say that south is a much better place to live and settle down.

On  a side note, I strongly believe that in order to change the pathetic and middle-age mindset in North India, we need to educate parents first. Parents and elders should be taught how nurture and raise their children. Sadly, there are hardly any parental-coaching classes in India (any entrepreneur listening).

IIMB interview experience

IITM Dual degree

Work-ex: 32 months (decent work-ex in a reputed firm as well as a small startup)

Wat Topic: Do you think it is justified to spend so lavishly on weddings etc. What can be done to prevent it

My preparation: 3/5

My performance: 2.5/5

Three panelists: I guess 2 were profs and one was an old alum (not sure though)

P1 & P2: Aa toh gujarat no dikro che! Started reading out my SOP which was in front of them on the laptop. Asked what do you mean by entire supply-chain

me: explained

P1: What is the difference between supply-chain and value-chain

me: Sir, not sure about value-chain, but I guess it means ...

P1: Draw on a piece of paper, take your time and answer again

me: Drew something random. Explained it

P1: See don't throw random jargons. You are using more jargons than even my MBA students

me: Sorry sir, I meant..

P1: You can say that you don't know value-chain, but if you give random gyaan, you are gone.

me: Ok sir, I dont know value-chain

P2: Tell me why MBA?

me: Gave reasons. P2 interrupted on each and every reason. Countered every argument. I had to come up some real strong third point to keep him quiet (for a while)

P2: Be very careful about what you are saying.

me: Sir, I have done my research and spoken to a few students in IIMB

P2: Who me: named them

P1&P2;: Discussed and murmured about the information that I gave

P1: See, I am not going to give you that much time to engage in extra-currics once you are in college

me: But, sir I will take out some time. I have done it in undergrad and second year is relatively free.

P1: Who told you that?

me: (Come on..) told them some gyaan

P1: You would have spoken to a few students in A,C etc

me: Yes sir, told them how A will be academically more rigorous than B and second year is relatively chill in each college

P2: Why dont you apply to US b-schools

me: Told them..

P2: What about ISB

me: Applied and have an admit

P3: Still you can pursue your long-term goals without mba.

me: Very true sir..some gyaan

P1: Asked some industry specific question

me: answered it. he nodded in agreement.

P1: Any questions for us

me: asked

Thank you!

Few tips:

1) Read each and every word of your SOP

2) Prepare why MBA thoroughly

3) Some industry related questions can come up

IIMA interview experience

My interview experience for IIMA (date: 8th March, 2013):

WAT Topic: No country can develop unless its citizens are educated (pretty easy to write, I believe)

There were 2 professors, one slightly old and another very young (P1 & P2):

The interview started with they asking me explaining my current role - they were slightly confused about my exact work profile. Then it moved to me explaining my previous job in detail

P1: So tell me about your job duties in greater details.

me: Started with my first company..told whatever was written in form

P1: So what do you mean by supply-chain

me: Sir, my key responsibility was...

P1: I am not asking about your key responsibility..how would you explain supply-chain in theoretical terms

me: Ohk, it means (answered)..

P1: So it has a lot to do with cost optimization

me: I said yes and also about on-time in-full delivery

P1: That also means reducing costs

me: I said yes (though it was not true)

P1: Ok, what were the main challenges

me: Told them..

P1: What did you do to solve them?

me: told them one point

P1: Don't tell me all this about meetings etc. Tell me some fundamental change that you did

me: told them a fundamental change in strategy

P1: Ok, so how did you decide where to store inventory given the problem you faced

me: It depends..given the problem I faced it makes sense to store it as lowest node

P1: Really (in a sarcastic tone)? What will be the adv of storing it at the lowest node

me: told them one point

P1: Didnt agree - gave me 2 counter arguments? Tell me fundamentally how will you decide where to store inventory?

me: I started the answer in middle of his sentence (cut short by P1 in between saying that I am not letting him complete - viewed as negative)

P1: Forget it..

me: Sir, just listen to me..blabbered one or two words

P2: So moving on to a different topic. What is CAD

me: answered. told them in india it is because of oil and gold

P2: What are the ratio

me: Answered something, which was wrong. though he didn't object

P2: Do you agree with the Facebook IPO and its valuation

me: Well I fundamentally dont agree. A six year old company to be valued at 100 billion dollars

P2: On what basis can you say that. What was the RPU

me: Sir, not sure about RPU. P2 explained

me: Ok, at the time of IPO, I guess Revenue was 1 billion USD. 

P2: I guess you are talking about quarterly earnings. I told them, could be as I am not very sure

me: Sir, the revenue to valuation ratio was 1:100, which is too high

P2: What is the corresponding number for your industry. Told them. He nodded in agreement

P2: Do you agree with such young entrepreneurs receiving such hefty amounts.

me: Told them with many examples in support. P2 nodded. P2 looked happy. Over to P1 now

P1: So what does your degree mean (VLSI and microelectronics)

me: explained

P1: what are the advantages of such large integrations (billions of txs in a small space)

me: Told them

P1: Why was it not done earlier say in 70s. Was it a problem of material science, physics or something else.

me: Told them something..explained in little more detail on prodding

P1: But still why was it not possible in 70s. 

me: technology was not advance that time. The second reasons could be

P1: You didn't answer me the first reason itself. I thought you studied it for degree and should know that much

me: Sir, I am sorry but I am not sure why the technology was not that advance. Gave a few complications in the technology and how it is not as easy as it sounds.

me: Gave 2 more reasons, which P1 nodded

P1: I am done. to P2, do you want anything more

P2: No Sir, I am done

me: Sir, can I answer that question on supply-chain.

P1: No, I am not interested

me: Thank you

P1: collect your toffee

me: Sure Sir. Thank you!

Walked out.

Important tips:

1) Relax during the interview. Keep your mind blank before entering the hall.

2) Listen to profs first. Don't rush in to your answers. I committed this blunder. 

3) The profs are mostly looking for theoretical answers. Be sure to research theoretical concepts related to your work.

Result: Made it to IIMA

Freedom of speech and democracy - an interesting take

http://www.timescrest.com/coverstory/the-politics-of-protest-9683

Few important takeaways:

1) You should never comment on something just on hearsay.

2) There are two sides to every story. We should patiently listen and give everyone a chance to defend and present their case. This, probably, is the single most important element in justice.

Why cricket is the best sport

Here is an interesting article supporting the same. What more, it refers to my favorite batsman : Sachin Tendulkar

http://moreintelligentlife.com/section/sambit-bal

Check it out!

Frustration is the key to motivation - Dr. Harish Hande

Around 2 months back, I had the privilege of listening to Dr. Harish Hande. Youth for Seva (YFS) arranged for this wonderful lecture. For those, who don't know about Dr. Hande, pls. visit this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harish_Hande

Dr. Harish gave some really insightful views and here are the excerpts:

1) He could get into IIT because 600 mn others didn't know what IIT is. Had they known, it was close to impossible for  him to get into IIT. Maybe true.
I myself am really fortunate to get one of the most subsidized educations in the world. Even the lunch that we ate was subsidized by some 8 Rs., which was paid by the govt.

2) Travel and explore when you are young. In case your dad is not uber-rich, always have rich-friends :)

3) How to gel with a different community: It is better not to know the language initially because when you don't know a language, you are all the same (same as the auto-rickshaw driver)

4) The deeper you go into the economic strata, the more you pay for basic services like cooking gas, electricity etc.

5) India's Human Development Index is a pathetic 131 (8% growth is actually a mirage and even that is history now)

6) Rural cooking : 2 meals a day = 2 packs of cigarettes!!

7) 20mn girls in this country are collecting woods, and as the forest cover is receding, it takes them more time to collect woods as compared to the prev. generation. So many households live on the forest eco-system which is getting destroyed at an alarming rate. Look at the malls in Bangalore and Gurgaon with all the glass buildings. They are so energy-inefficient.

8) Street vendor is the ultimate social-entrepreneur (there are 2 crores of them in India) - he/she will come to your house daily to distribute vegatables (be it floods or any calamity), they will take 900 Rs. loan in the morning, pay interest of 100 rs. (11% per day!), 15 rs. for policemen, 50 Rs. for the cart and sell off all their stuff by the evening. Comprare them with Kingfisher, with all the Chartered accountants and technology at its helm, it still incurs an annual loss of 7000 Cr.!!

9) Have you ever heard of any non-english speaking person getting any equity investment?? The world is skewed towards privileged people, who are most likely to default and commit frauds.

10) Privilege education is actually a bottleneck. It constraints your thinking, makes you shallow and reduces your risk-appetite. And this is particularly true for Indians. Selco receives far more applications from MIT and Yale than IITs to work in their rural-labs (some 300 kms from Bangalore). They have stronger tie-ups with MIT D-lab than any IIT in India.

11) Some of the so called 'ordinary folks' working  in his organization 'Selco' have come up with the most radical ideas. Recently, they faced a problem of lighting a rural household, which had 3 different rooms. An ordinary B.Com grad viewed this as a problem of 'lighting 3 rooms' rather than 'light in 3 rooms'. He created a small hole on roof-top to light all the 3 rooms with same solar-light; he white-washed the kitchen walls to reflect more light there.

12) India can be the center of business-model innovation (soft super-power of solutions) - whether it be solutions for poverty alleviation and sustainability. Only in India, you have such a confluence of rich and poor, educated and uneducated. The youth of this country has to be more sensitive towards the rural india.

13) If Poverty is alleviated, Dubai will collapse :)

14) Frustration is the key to motivation (perhaps the most powerful line of the evening) - There is nothing wrong in being frustrated, esp. when you are young. Don't settle down until you find your destination; keep looking!