People, Passion, Perseverance: You've Got Entrepreneurship- Steve Case

Cell Phones- Transforming Rural Life

Just saw this wonderful presentation by Iqbal Quadir: The power of the mobile phone to end poverty. Iqbal is the founder of hugely successful Grameen Phone.

I am convinced about the power of Mobile telephony as an effective poverty reduction tool. Experiences like the Grameen Phone have shown that provision of phone connectivity to a village serves several purpose- it leads to the economic development by helping individuals and business gain economic efficiency through communications; it promotes social and economic development for individuals who own and operate the telephone enterprises.

One of the basic principles of the Information Age is that information can be a source of power, efficiency and cost savings.

Profit vs Market Share

And the debate continues...

I have friends who work across various industries-FMCG, including Retail, Telecom, Technology, Financial Services, etc. We meet up regularly, and I often ask them a naive' question: So, how is the company doing?

And invariably, their answer is: "Great! We have the largest market share in this product category";" My territory market share has gone up by x% "; " Oh! We are feeling some pressure; our market share is falling".

Does this sound familiar? , almost everyone seems to be talking about 'Market-Share,' but very few talk about 'profitability.' So let me share my perspective on the same…

Awakening Entrepreneurship: (Jagriti Yatra 2008)

I wanted to do something similar for a long period of time- get to know the real India, meet up with social and business entrepreneurs, understand what drives them, study their business model and assess the impact, and all this in a highly charged up environment with bright, young, and ‘fresh’ minds.

Surely enough,I signed up for TATA Jagriti Yatra, the moment my friend Jayanti Datta told me about it. This is going to be exciting- 18 days on a train, 13 villages and town, exchanging ideas with 350 + participants, 8000 km, meeting and learning from 18-20 real ‘change makers’.

Tata Jagriti Yatra '08 ( 24 Dec 08 to 11 Jan 09) is a train journey across India to meet with and learn from bottom-up innovators and entrepreneurs who are changing and challenging the definition of ‘Impossible’ at a grass-root level.

Bootstrapping!

Bootstrappers , as we now know, are people who build their businesses with sweat equity, not by writing intricate business plans, pursuing investment bankers, or wallowing in market research. Instead they focus their energy,intelligence,and skills on creating business that can thrive in a competitive environment. Bill gates bootstrapped Microsoft;Masaru Ibuku bootstrapped Sony,Pierre Omidyar bootstrapped eBay etc.

Guy Kawasaki wrote an excellent piece recently on American express Open forums : The Art of Bootstrapping. Have a look...

Don't Wait Too Long to Become an Entrepreneur

There was a good post recently on Harvard Discussion forums. Noam Wasserman initiated a conversation on 'when is the perfect time to become an entrepreneur' . He talks about the challenges faced by people transitioning from being big-company employees to becoming entrepreneurs.

His advise : Waiting for the "perfect time" to make the jump is usually futile, for there's no moment that's truly perfect. So even if you're early in your corporate career, when a winning new-business idea comes along and sparks an entrepreneurial passion in you, carpe diem.

I think the best or right time is when you see a right opportunity...time doesn't matters . I was reading a report on "India business houses -Family Fortunes" by a leading equity brokerage firm. Of course the names were obvious-Tata, Birla, Premzi, Mittal, Ambani , Aggarwal(Vedanta), Goenka(RPG), Singh(DLF) etc . The common points across all success stories were :

(a) Ability to identify opportunity well ahead of others;

(b) Effectively using leverage (OPM);

(c) Appetite for risk;

(d) Perseverance -not giving up in the face of difficulties ; Passion.

The Ant philosophy by Jim Rohn

Over the years I've been teaching kids about a simple but powerful concept - the ant philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That's a good philosophy. If they're headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they'll look for another way. They'll climb over, they'll climb under, they'll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you're supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That's an important perspective. You can't be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.
An ancient story says, "Don't build your house on the sand in the summer." Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to think ahead. In the summer, you've got to think storm. You've got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun.