Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Rural Entrepreneurs: An Evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien
Rural Entrepreneurs: An Evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien: An Evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien We, PRM-31 had an interactive evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien on 8 th March, 2012 at AMUL Auditorium. ...
An Evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien
An Evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien
We, PRM-31 had an interactive evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien on 8th March, 2012 at AMUL Auditorium. The description of Q & A session[1] is as follows:
“I like meeting students because some of their youth gets transferred to me. I am 90 years old and I need frequent transfers of youth to me. The Institute of Rural Management was set up in Anand so that the youth in Anand may remember and appreciate their youth.” - Dr. Kurien.
Q1: Sir, Can you tell us the story of establishment of IRMA and its episode with IIM, Ahmedabad?
A1: “I wondered that there should be some arrangements in Anand for training young people to become rural managers. I asked IIM Ahmedabad that whether they can arrange to produce students of rural management. IIM said that you want to produce rural managers to milk cows! That put me off because their concept of rural managers was those who milked cows. I said that I don’t want rural managers to milk cows. I want them to look into the rural problems that beset India and find solutions to these problems.”
“I had a cousin who worked in Ahmedabad. He happened to be the Director of IIM Ahmedabad- Ravi Mathai. He said that rural managers cannot be produced easily. They must learn all the problems of rural areas and possibly evolve solution to those. So why don’t you start your own Institute of Rual Management? He said I can help you teach rural management to the students you may admit into. So they agreed to help me and this led to the starting of Institute of Rural Management. Ravi J Mathai unfortunately passed away when he was still young. So it is that I was left without the man I had selected to help me. The only thing I could do was to talk to Prime Minister and invited and persuaded him to dedicate the library of IRMA to be institute’s library. So that is how IRMA got built. You are all lucky to be students in this Institute of Rural Management, a creation of Prof. Ravi Mathai.”
Q2: Sir, your suggestions to the outgoing batch who will be starting their careers in one month’s time?
A2: “Those suggestions are to be found by yourself. You have to find your own solutions, I cannot teach you.”
Q3: Madam (directed to Mrs. Kurien), you are the person who backed him and made him. Can you help us understand how Sir operated and how you had contributed to it?
A3: “I was just a housewife. The only thing I could do was support him, nothing more than that. He knew that I was there for him.”- Mrs. Kurien.
Q4: Sir, Whether u knew that whatever you are going to do will turn out to be a successful model?
A4: "I do not start anything unless I am sure of its success. Everything I started had to be successful.”
Q5: Sir, What is your expectation from IRMAns?
A5: I expect the Institute of Rural Management to turn out graduates who would work for rural development. India is a rural country. It has a no. of people, no. of regions, religions and plenty of scope for rural development to be taken up. My expectations from you would be that you should create Institutes of Management throughout the country. India is a very big country, it has many religions, castes, creeds and to develop them in a uniform manner is not going to be an easy job. You will have to play an important role in doing that. If you need any help for that, you can approach Professors; they are here in order to help you. And if that does not happen then you will have to look at libraries and many other places from where you can derive some help. There is no other Institute of Rural Management in my knowledge in India. This is the only institute so the responsibility on you is very high.
Q6: Sir, For people like us, handling one job itself is very difficult! But you were the MD of GCMMF, Chairman of NDDB, Chairman of IRMA and also many other boards at the same time, how did you manage your time?
A6: Why do you say that you are not able to handle even one task! You come from a place like Anand where institutes and people of different types are there and you can find satisfaction in developing those people. I feel students of IRMA should find satisfaction in their job. If you are not then you should consult the professors, if still not you should consult library. It should be possible for you to find satisfaction in the jobs you are asked to do. You all are bright young students. If you cannot decide, I do not know what professors are here for, whom they are going to satisfy!”
Q7: Sir, How did you expertise in handling different roles at a time?
A7: “I don’t transfer it to them (students). They should be able to find it themselves.”
Q8: “Great success comes with great involvement”. Sir, how are you able to be involved in everything that you do?
A8: “May be I am a very versatile man! If there are people who know more than me, I learn from them. You must be always prepared to learn. It is not difficult to learn if you set your mind to it. And in a place like Anand where there is so little you can do other than to learn.”
Q9: Sir, What should IRMAns be, future leaders who leads and make others to follow or better managers who mingles and walk along with the team?
A9: "Students of IRMA are supposed to lead. Of course when you lead you have to walk with others. You cannot lead unless you work with others."
Q10: Sir, What is that which distinguishes us from other managers like those from IIM, Ahmedabad?
A10: “Have you been to IIM, Ahmedabad? Tell me how is your accommodation? (Participants answer- “Very nice”). What about the fact that you are given single rooms? (Participants answer- “Excellent”). All these were not done accidentally. The students of IRMA are given the best facilities to stay, to study, to work.
Q11: Sir, Why were chimes put up in IRMA?
A11: “All educational and religious institutions I had seen had chimes and bells. It is a sign of educational institutions. So I decided to have chimes and to have chimes is not easy. I had to get it imported from Netherlands. When it came here I got into trouble as nobody could tune it. So I had to call someone from Netherlands to come here and chime these bells. But when you build anything, you have to build into it character. You don’t build institutions without character. I asked one of the best architects in India that whether he can build character into it. He said let’s see. And what we today see is an Institute of character.”
Q12: Sir, What was the motivation behind doing all these?
A12: “I was born to create. And fortunately for me when I joined Amul in 1949, I decided to work under a man called Tribhuvandas Patel. He inspired me! You must find such people who inspire you and Tribhuvandas was that man for me. He was a simple man but he was able to inspire me. First and foremost he was a man of character. Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru was another person. I was fortunate to have such people.”
Q13: Sir, One thing you still want to create?
A13: “If I do not create, I will not be happy. Each one should have an inspiration to create and you should give full commitment to that inspiration.”
THANK YOU KURIEN SIR – from PRM-31, IRMA
Monday, March 5, 2012
My Startups- Lessons learned by Nainwal
11 years after IRMA 3 start ups out of which 2 were personal failure doesn’t make me an authority on start ups but it does gives me some insights into what went wrong. My mistakes are particularly precious to me because I try very hard not to make the same mistakes twice ( or in some cases thrice).
Here are some lessons that I learned
1) Work for at-least 2-3 years: Starting fresh from out of college like I did might sound like a cool thing but getting a couple of years of experience in a proper organisation is extremely valuable. While there are advantages of starting fresh like not getting used to a corporate salary and perks but they don’t come close to getting experience of working in a formal set up.
2) Don’t work with people you have never worked before: Pick your co-founders carefully. My first start up ( www.ivolunteer.in) worked out well because the three co-founders had studied together in IRMA and were part of numerous class assignments. We learned about each other’s work style, strength and weaknesses and were able to support each other. In other two I was not so lucky. The worst situation for everyone in a start up is when you don’t like each other’s work styles. And I have been there at-least once.
3) You can’t run a business part time : This is the worst mistake that I made is that started the other two companies thinking that I will be able to give time to them while continuing in present organisation. Very soon I was dealing with conflicting priorities. Don’t try make something that can be good hobby into business if you cannot spend 8-10 hours on it.
4) Start working on customer database right from day one : Once you are in business this becomes your most valuable asset. Don’t wait for even a single day to start this. Once you reach some sort of scale this is the most difficult thing to start. This is our biggest pain point at iVolunteer.
5) Learn to say NO: Wrong YES sucks away time money and attention. If you don’t like some idea or proposition so NO and walk away.
6) Move ON: When things don’t work out don’t burn bridges- walk out with grace. Move ON.
7) Pretend like a big business: Don’t save money on getting good logo, website, cards etc. Save money in paying yourself less, travelling by train etc etc.
8) Don’t scale in a hurry: Actually don’t worry about it at all. Remember unless you are absolutely sure don’t fret your energies over scaling up. Done in a hurry scale impinges on quality.
9) Love it and love every moment of it: Do things from heart. Believe me the customer can feel it when you are interested only in his money and not in him. And have fun. What’s the point of doing it anyways if you are not having any fun doing it. You might as well get a job.
10) Narrower you focus the bigger you become: Focus narrowly and you will be hugely rewarded. Focus everywhere and you will be lost. We dropped 3 well paying things to focus on volunteering and it has been hugely rewarding for us.
11) Please don’t give up. I have failed but I have not given up. My newest venture is a walking holiday outfit called viawalks .Currently its more of a hobby and I won’t call it a business till I have quit whatever else I’m doing. Because I’m clear about what I want viawalks to achieve I’m loving every moment of it. You can read more about it atwww.viawalks.wordpress.com
Monday, November 28, 2011
'I did not want to wait till 40 to be a CEO'
“Even when I was in college I was sitting with the new business idea every week, so the thought of doing something on my own was never out of the question” says this economic graduate who completed her MBA from IMT and is now founder and CEO of e-commerce giant 99labels.com
Leap of Faith
The brilliant entrepreneur was soon spotted by Cadbury’s soon after her MBA completed. After a three-and-a-half year stint with Cadbury, where she handled the brand management of both the confectionary division and Cadbury’s Dollops ice-cream Ishita was itching to do something on her own. Reason, there was nothing left to learn, and Ishita liked the learning curve’s upwardly movement more. So she quit Cadbury’s and teamed up with a school time friend to start up her first company called the Orion Dialogue which was going to be instrumental in the ITES sector in India and one of the first to focus solely on the Indian market.
“We did our research before jumping to the business bandwagon. Back in the 1994-95 the BPO industry was just starting out and it was a good time to venture into the same. We did our research and with as good as no money in our pockets and no backing we took a big leap of faith and founded what we called the Orion Dialogue private limited company” she tells proudly.
“Fortunately for us, the business was soon spotted by a leading international bank who wanted us to do this for them” she tells. Ishita says that they were well equipped with the expertise on the field and were lucky that the profits started rolling in much sooner than expected but it was not all as hunky dory as it sounds” she adds
There were many times when she and her business partner would approach investors with a business plan and they would turn her away asking her to get her father and then they would discuss things further or would simply not take them seriously enough.
However, in the 11-year-run that Orion Dialogue had, Ishita and her partner now were operating out of three offices from different cities in India which was quite an achievement she tells.
After leading the company to great heights she was bought out by to Aegis BPO in 2006 leaving Swarup to achieve even greater heights. While she was deciding her next venture, Ishita also helped setting up businesses but consulting other women entrepreneurs.
99labels.com
Ishita tells us that as tough as it may seem to start an e-commerce business, her creative experience at Rediff and Yahoo helped her immensely. In spite of her corporate accomplishments she opted to become an entrepreneur and eventually launched 99labels.com.
The idea of 99labels.com says Ishita made a lot of sense as a consumer. She says, 99labels offers an exclusive chance for people to buy credible, branded items from a reliable source at discounted prices and from the privacy and convenience of their own home. So from a consumer’s point of view it was a win-win situation. Swarup further adds that the timing of entering the market seemed perfect too. E-commerce was big abroad and people in India had started to accept the idea and hence there was huge potential for a site like 99lables.com here.
On being a woman entrepreneur
Ishita says that she always wanted to do something of her won. “You see I never wanted to wait till I was forty-years-old to become a CEO. I became a CEO at the age of 25, when the rest of my friends or ex-colleagues were cribbing about their unsatisfying jobs.
Ishita personally feels that being an entrepreneur itself empowers a person, and if a woman wants to build a career as an entrepreneur there is nothing that is more satisfying. She even feels that being a woman entrepreneur has more advantages than otherwise.
“Being an entrepreneur gives women the freedom to work the way she wants to, when she wants to and how she wants to. A woman sometimes struggles more in the corporate world than when she works on her own terms” she quips. As an entrepreneur gets to explore more and push her limits which is not really possible when it comes to working in a structured atmosphere. She even says that now is the time to start your own ventures, when the market is ready, investors is ready and when the mindsets too are ready to accept women who run their own show.
Leap of Faith
The brilliant entrepreneur was soon spotted by Cadbury’s soon after her MBA completed. After a three-and-a-half year stint with Cadbury, where she handled the brand management of both the confectionary division and Cadbury’s Dollops ice-cream Ishita was itching to do something on her own. Reason, there was nothing left to learn, and Ishita liked the learning curve’s upwardly movement more. So she quit Cadbury’s and teamed up with a school time friend to start up her first company called the Orion Dialogue which was going to be instrumental in the ITES sector in India and one of the first to focus solely on the Indian market.
“We did our research before jumping to the business bandwagon. Back in the 1994-95 the BPO industry was just starting out and it was a good time to venture into the same. We did our research and with as good as no money in our pockets and no backing we took a big leap of faith and founded what we called the Orion Dialogue private limited company” she tells proudly.
“Fortunately for us, the business was soon spotted by a leading international bank who wanted us to do this for them” she tells. Ishita says that they were well equipped with the expertise on the field and were lucky that the profits started rolling in much sooner than expected but it was not all as hunky dory as it sounds” she adds
There were many times when she and her business partner would approach investors with a business plan and they would turn her away asking her to get her father and then they would discuss things further or would simply not take them seriously enough.
However, in the 11-year-run that Orion Dialogue had, Ishita and her partner now were operating out of three offices from different cities in India which was quite an achievement she tells.
After leading the company to great heights she was bought out by to Aegis BPO in 2006 leaving Swarup to achieve even greater heights. While she was deciding her next venture, Ishita also helped setting up businesses but consulting other women entrepreneurs.
99labels.com
Ishita tells us that as tough as it may seem to start an e-commerce business, her creative experience at Rediff and Yahoo helped her immensely. In spite of her corporate accomplishments she opted to become an entrepreneur and eventually launched 99labels.com.
The idea of 99labels.com says Ishita made a lot of sense as a consumer. She says, 99labels offers an exclusive chance for people to buy credible, branded items from a reliable source at discounted prices and from the privacy and convenience of their own home. So from a consumer’s point of view it was a win-win situation. Swarup further adds that the timing of entering the market seemed perfect too. E-commerce was big abroad and people in India had started to accept the idea and hence there was huge potential for a site like 99lables.com here.
On being a woman entrepreneur
Ishita says that she always wanted to do something of her won. “You see I never wanted to wait till I was forty-years-old to become a CEO. I became a CEO at the age of 25, when the rest of my friends or ex-colleagues were cribbing about their unsatisfying jobs.
Ishita personally feels that being an entrepreneur itself empowers a person, and if a woman wants to build a career as an entrepreneur there is nothing that is more satisfying. She even feels that being a woman entrepreneur has more advantages than otherwise.
“Being an entrepreneur gives women the freedom to work the way she wants to, when she wants to and how she wants to. A woman sometimes struggles more in the corporate world than when she works on her own terms” she quips. As an entrepreneur gets to explore more and push her limits which is not really possible when it comes to working in a structured atmosphere. She even says that now is the time to start your own ventures, when the market is ready, investors is ready and when the mindsets too are ready to accept women who run their own show.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Starter Quotes
25 intriguing startup quotes
I stumbled across a startupquote.com today, a great Tumblr blog by Rollin’ Egg. So I had a look through the hundreds of quotes and these are the ones that stood out for me. All the images below link through to the specific Tumblr post. They are in no particular order.
http://www.doeswhat.com/2011/06/02/25-intriguing-startup-quotes/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)