Yet another Milestone! IWSB’ians Bags 1st Prize at IIM-B in RMAI(Rural Marketing Association of India) Competition.

From the horse’s Mouth:-

The winning of a gold award in a competition organized by a prestigious organization Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) at IIM, Bangalore was a great moment for us. The competition was organized for management students from across the country that did their summer trainings/ projects in rural domain, catering to the markets in rural domain. Our project aimed at setting up an enterprise in the rural setup, an enterprise that was setup to produce sanitary napkins by rural women, who were both the producers as well as consumers of the product. The concept of inclusive marketing was actually practiced in the project by including the consumers at every point in the value chain.

The competition was held on 23^rd September, 2010 at IIM Bangalore’s Management Development Center’s auditorium. The competition started at 10:45 a.m. with the Co-coordinator’s address. The initial presentation was given by the team from IIM Calcutta, followed by the team from SCMLD, Pune & GNIMS, Mumbai. In the tea break, which was immediately after these two presentations, gave us a chance to interact with the teammates of the rest colleges. It made us feel proud that we were competing with the top notch colleges of the country & were at a platform, where the name of our college was unheard of. Immense confidence was generated out of having come at a place where our unheard institute made the mark. Our presentation was scheduled at 6^th place, post lunch. Till lunch, 3 more presentations were given by SPJIMR, IIMI & IIMC. The post lunch session started with our presentation, when the chief guest (Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM-B) & eminent judges arrived. The final presentation was given by IIML. Post presentations came the most awaited moment, the award felicitation. Prof. Chandra delivered words of wisdom to all the participants, post which the awards were finally announced. The list came as: bronze- IIMI, silver-IIML & the gold winner is IWSB, Greater Noida. We were overjoyed with the results & it was like a dream come true for us, having won a competition, defeating the stalwarts of management education at their backyard.

The feedback & compliments given by the judges post ceremony were highly encouraging for us. Prof. Chandra said “I am really proud of you & would wish you both to take this project at national level. I would be very happy to help you people at every step of your journey in the project. Feel free to call me up anytime”. He gave us his card. Mr. Khurram Askari, the coordinator of the competition and CEO, Insight Outreach said, “Your project was the only project which was selected unanimously for first position by all the judges, though there were debates for the 2^nd & 3^rd positions”. A lot of positive feedback by rest participants & other eminent guests further boosted our confidence & gave us the strength that we must look forward on strengthening this project further. The whole competition was a moment of joy & confidence for us.

The details of the 7 participating teams:

1.) Nitesh Yadav  – IIMC

Title -Unlocking the rural opportunities in East India with focus on crackers & cookies category

2.) Angad Singh Uberoi & Kuldeep Singh –  SCMLD – Pune & GNIMS – Mumbai

Title – Study of haats as a marketing hub for FMCG companies

3.) Mohit  Sareen – S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai

Title – Strategic Business Plan for RUDI in Ahmedabad

4.) Sandeep Nair – IIMB

Title – Brand Revival of Asataf –  A National Rural Marketing Campaign

5.) Abhishek Mittal on behalf of Amit Chhabra & Tanvi Dhamija – IIM -Indore

Title – IT Enabled solutions for financial Inclusion

6.) Ankita Gupta & Shobhit Jain  – Indus World School of Busines(IWSB)

Title – Developing & executing a complete business model for an emerging enterprise Sahyog

7.) Ashish Sharma – IIML

Title – Understand and analyze the attitude and usage behaviour of rural consumers in Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra and develop a marketing mix for the rural markets.

The panel of judges consisted of:

1. Mr. R.V.Rajan – Chairman of Anugrah Madison, Chennai
2. Professor Mithileshwar Jha – IIM Bangalore
3. Harish Bijoor – CEO Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, Bangalore

Mr. Khurram Askari, CEO, Insight Outreach Pvt. Ltd. was the coordinator for the competition.

Ankita Gupta

Shobhit Jain

IWSB – Seeking Leadership in a changing World – Satya Narayanan R (Chairman, Board of Governors – IWSB)

IWSB – Seeking Leadership in a changing world

The world is changing. Leadership in a changing world comes to those who are anchored in the tomorrow. Not the yesterday. On the business side, I am sure you are anchored in the future. Similarly, on the education side, IWSB is deeply and singularly anchored in the future –  the world of entrepreneurship which is where the world is moving, according to me.

To us at IWSB, entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial leadership is a fundamental behavioural model, not an activity!

A Testimony :

As I sit down to write this note, I receive a heartwarming news from Arindam Lahiri, Dean – IWSB that our PG-11 students, Ankita and Shobhit, who were at IIM Bangalore in the finals of the RMAI competition on the summer projects that were rural India centric, have actually been crowned the winners. So, the winners podium read as  – IWSB (First Prize), IIM-Lucknow (Second) and IIM-Indore (Third). Needless to say, the project was on rural transformation in India through entrepreneurship and innovation.

This is just an early testimony to the value IWSB would bring to the world of management education this decade. My conviction comes from an undeniable truth of the world – The Change!

How has the world changed ?Over the past two decades, the world has shifted from being an administered society to an entrepreneurial world!  The change is far more remarkable in the developing world than we care to take note of!

66% (13 out of 20) of the top-20 Fortune500 companies have changed over the past decade and a half. The MarketCap leaders or stars in India today  were unknown small and medium enterprises even a decade ago.

80% of the enterprise wealth represented by the BSE  is contributed by just about 200 stocks and half of these did not even exist on the stock market or were miniscule just a decade ago. Nine of the 25 wealthiest people / families of the world are Indians this year compared to none in 1996.

There is only one common theme to all these shifts in the world – Entrepreneurial Leadership.

What about the future ?

There is an observation that the richest man of 2030 is not born yet and the idea with which s/he will make that fortune is not known yet.  Even today, over 90 per cent of the business entities in India would be classified as ‘Small and Medium Entreprises’.  A visible percentage of these SME of today will emerge as the star companies or organizations of tomorrow.

Focus on the Emerging and gast growing Companies :

I believe that the top notch B-school of 2020 will get there by focusing and contributing to the world of entrepreneurship. These contributions would come in various forms – knowledge creation through active research,  entrepreneurial education, real world incubation, growth support to the CEOs, in-take of students linked to this goal,  reaching out to the ‘Bharat’ and so on.

IWSB already has a head-start in this space. Right from inception, IWSB has focused on this sweet spot singularly and the dividends are beginning to come our way!  The red carpet at IWSB rolls out to the CEOs of young and dynamic companies such as Nettpositive, Pinstorm, Netambit, Infoedge, SKS microfinance, Educomp, Career Launcher, Gaja Capital, Core Tree, and so on.

Half of these entities are still unknown to the readers of ‘The Economic Times’ or a CNBC TV-18 viewer.  However, IWSB students are already working in these stars of tomorrow.

At the same time, large entities who continue to focus on growth love recruiting entrepreneurial youngsters at any stage of their growth. Perhaps, Google’s success can be half-explained by their DNA that is closest to entrepreneurship even at this stage and size!

Any CEO or head of HR who is intent upon bringing in the talent that comes with the self-starting entrepreneurial attitude, values that works for the morrow and the work-ethic that is contagiously positive cannot afford to miss out on the youngsters from IWSB.

Of course, our students are our best ambassadors!  Now, We have a few CEOs too!

Sincerely

Satya Narayanan R

“My Journey” – Sridhar Iyengar

Sridhar Iyengar is former chairman and CEO of KPMG India. He has been with KPMG for 34 years as a partner in the UK, US and India.  Currently, Sridhar is an independent mentor capitalist to early-stage companies. He sits on the boards ofAmerican India Foundation, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Rediff, OnMobile, among others. He has also served as president of TIE and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Sridhar Iyengar is also on the board of governors of Indus World School of Business (IWSB), that promotes entrepreneurial leadership among youth through hands-on learning experiences integral to the business programmes. Last week, Sridhar was on the campus to interact with the faculty and students. The interactions were amazing and threw a lot of questions that Sridhar went on to address. At the end of the visit, Sridhar spoke about how we need to reassess all our Basics.  Thanks Sridhar for sharing your invaluable thoughts.

“My Journey” features Vishwadeep Bajaj, Founder, ValueFirst at IWSB campus

Entrepreneurial journey across borders – Vishwadeep Bajaj. ValueFirst

Mr. Vishwadeep Bajaj, Founder, ValueFirst, one of the new-age mobile technology major, delighted the young CEO aspirants at IWSB (iwsb.in) campus. It was a first for him and also students at the IWSB campus though he has been figuring in our brochure and communications and also has been a judge at one of the regional rounds of ‘SRIJAN’, business plan competition of IWSB this year.

Vishwadeep did his MCA and CFA, and went on to work with CMC and then Siemens in India and Germany. Even during his college days he used to dabble in Stock Markets! He switched between corporate life and entrepreneurial life a couple of times, before starting his steadfast journey as an entrepreneur in Europe in the technology space. He has since then founded a couple of companies in UK/Germany and exited before founding Valuefirst. Valuefirst, with headquarters in India, serves in many countries across Asian, African and European continents.

Vishwadeep is a down to earth, approachable, jovial person ever keen to help a learner. He has been a great risk-taker. Not so great on technology, but has always managed to rope in core-technologists to execute his ideas. As we always hear, ‘Hire a guy who is better than you’ to run your company. He has been doing it all the time.

His talk at IWSB :

– About ValueFirst : An organization where learning comes first
o We go to office to learn
o 240 of us are on a journey, fun along the way.
o Most of what we do is controlled from outside (market forces and changes); But we give our best shot to whatever we can control
o We experience the joy in negotiating/shaping the world
– Main goal is of enjoying
– Every moment is an exciting moment
o Current vision 2010 – Touch billion lives daily as a publicly traded communication services company by December 2010
– Touching lives meaningfully
– Not unsolicited content
– Publicly IPO

“My Journey” – Starts his wonderful journey

Childhood and Education

– Childhood in Srinagar and Jammu
– At class 11. Was thinking of who am I and why am I here? Started what is the purpose of life
– Did not perform well in board exams
– Got admissions in
o BITS Pilani – MSc in Museum studies – wondered what will I do there?
o Lucknow college of Architecture – short on age
– Graduation I joined in Agra? I am not able to recall which stream..see!!
– One day I bumped into a boy, in many places in a couple of days while going across shopping. I discovered that he is doing something called CA
– I thought that is a wonderful Idea and shared with parents. I convinced parents.
– Parents moved out of Agra. I continued to be there
– At 21 while I was studying, got chicken pox…came home, parents were in Gwalior.
– Mother convinced to look at some interesting advertisement in newspaper..
– MCA happened from MITS, Gwalior, the third institution to introduce MCA in the country after DU and JNU.

Into the corporate world and Entrepreneurship
– Went to CMC for summers, and joined them after MCA.
– First assignment was at RITES – Train reservation system, very impressive, many from the US, UK were wondering how India managed it?
– I fell in love with my boss, and married her within six months!!
– I thought, now I can start my own company, with someone at home who can support

– Started my own company, software development
– I did not know how to sell, I thought people will buy, targeted big companies.
– Finally thought will sell to small companies; went around got some projects

– Delivery guys were my friends from CMC, all moonlighting for myself
– I used to capture all requirements, and started delivering.
– I started making three times my salary 3K (10K in those days)

Stockbroking and UPWARD CURVE plunges

– One of the clients is stock broker. I got intrigued by the way he makes money
– I made 5 rupees per share, in a couple of hours I made 500 rupees
– I thought Wow! this is a great way to make money. Fast and Quick.
– I then opted to become a sub-broker, convinced the broker. He accepted me
– I got to know, a lot about the scrips, market behaviour etc.
– In 6 months made 33 lakh rupees.. in 1993

– I thought of starting a company.. planned
– Harshad Mehta scam happened
– I kept myself thinking that it is a correction
– In no time everything was wiped off…
– I had a contessa, best car in those days (better than my house owner)

– I had to sell every thing… borrow from father (from his PF)
– Everyone in family was worried. They asked me to get back to a job.

Seimens’ interview
– Seimens ad came up. Went to the exam with a friend..
– Were late, the manager reluctantly accepted us.
– Copied through the test from my friend. Go thru!!
– There was GD. I could not speak a word, a south Indian girl dominated it.
– A gentleman walks in. Looked like the big boss. He asked me to summarize. As my luck would have it. I was the only one short listed!!

– I was told the last round is Technical interview. When they spotted about my stock market dabblings, due to Harshad Mehta episode, everything ended being technical analysis of stock market!! I could answer reasonably well.
– Got selected…

Packed off to Germany
– I was sent to Germany, surprising! On landing, I was told that the project was cancelled and I have to get back to India.
– The German boss, CHRIS, called me for dinner. To my surprise something else unraveled.
– He told me that, I have been asked to prove myself and I can select a two member team and you are there in it. CHRIS is a great boss who goes all out..
– What are you really good at, he asked me? I told that I work hard and I will deliver.
– We have to find a job, and the boss started internal sales within SIEMENS.
– He chanced upon Performance management Analysis order from one of the departments
– Finally we became a performance management guru team, multiple orders came within SIEMENS
– Our name spread, and we started to get orders from everywhere
– My boss was spotted as a potential CEO, and he was sent for a business school
– My boss said I will send you to a friend who needs people like you..

Found myself in England
– In the new place. I was hired for writing emails on SS7, as I was very good in English (Germany had very few people of my language capability)
– One gentleman from England came visiting, he saw me working..
– He went back and called me saying that looking for SS7 specialists
– WELSH boss, in ENGLAND siemens pulled me..SS7 Guru arrives..
– Finally they wanted Something more than SS7 as there were not many projects
– Why do not you do pre-sales he asked.

Who the hell knows, What is BPR?
– I would work hard and do very well in the sales..
– Manchester trip happend– Business process re-engineering needs? No one knew about it? A Potential order for BPR.
– Went to a shop to buy books on BPR.
– We went and pitched saying, We know the business of telecom from down up… hence we are a better company. We got orders…
– When I got back, the boss said “You won the order.. you Deliver”
– I thought Siemens is a great company and I will find someone to do it within
– I spotted a team in Siemens germany. They landed. My drive from Heathrow to Manchester revealed that they are no good.
– My boss told me “Fire them…”. I just dropped them at airport..

India Calling –
– I thought I will find some consultant in India.
– I got three people from India… best brains…
– They could not get to understand even the language and pronounciation
– So I kept them in the back office, and did all front-ending; Went on delivering…
– Management Consulting Practice was set up in Seimens..
– My boss asked me to set up my own company to help Seimens. Which I did in Chandigarh to help with development.
– My boss was promoted to become Seimens global telecom head
– Management conculting business is so person intensive. I thought of parking the company..

New move – Internet Technologies
– A British ISP was set up providing free services
– I jumped in as a CTO. THE CEO was 26yr English man
– Profiling Engine. Target advertising
– I convinced that we will do it in India
– Consulting company of mine in India is converted into software development
– We developed the free service in England…
– We were go to live. It was 1999.
– ALTAVISTA made an announcement in press. Said free complete internet service. One interview was enough to collapse our 43 people company
– Let me start my own company. I was reasonably networked. E-Commerce portals
– Model was sales in UK develop in India; also started Body shopping – Staff augumenting service…
– 2001 – Dot com bust. Many of our customers failed, and our business collapsed

Wireless and Mobile services
– We thought wireless application company. Appln for PDA – parcel, London metropolitan service etc..
– Management consulting  e company -> wireless etc.
– 25 crore business happened
– I was in the process of progressing – 9/11 happened – US collapsed..
– All techies from US moved to EUROPE and UK
– I started losing all my customers to WIPRO, inexpensive labour
– Went to banks. I was pitching for funds. I was told – YOU ARE AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST SALE
– We will have to give you money and own your business? We cannot run it.
– WHY DO NOT YOU BUILD A PRODUCT? They asked
– FIRST time I realized that if you own an IPR then greater possibility of success!!
– We were wondering what to do?

Back to INDIA; OUR FIRST IPR
– One day walking on OXFORD street. I bumped into CHRIS, my first boss in Germany, It was a sheer confidence..
– He shared that he was running mobile messaging company. MTV service and said that we will work together.
– He went back and I got a call saying that all money invested in his company, he realized was of SERBIAN MAFIA and he has to close his company.
– I am looking for a product and CHRIS had it. CHRIS did not mind shifting to India.
– He came to INDIA to help us build MOBILE SERVER. A product was built finally, our IPR.
– I went to VCs for funds, they said that kindly show that it can be sold …
– In England it was costly to sell, people use it as a pilot, but none would buy
– We sold first in INDIA to MODI CARE…
– We went back for funding
– They said that you are very confusing…
– we consolidated every business under ValueFirst in2003
– NOW we have 25oo customers.. 3-4 crore messages every day.
– I had to convince family to get back…to INDIA
– Finally the family moved 2 years back!! Though my daughter is heading back to UK for her O level courses now…

THAT IS MY JOURNEY

Back to VALUEFIRST

– WHEN I First set VALUEFIRST. I want to do it with right values, there comes the name of the company too..
– FOUR CORE VALUES that drive VALUE FIRST are :
o LOVE EACH OTHER
– Unconditional acceptance of the other human being
– We do not restrict with the company
• Express the same happiness beyond – families, customers, public
• ALCHEMY – we will be able to convert everything into gold
o TRUTHFULNESS IN EACH ACTION
– Say what you think; Do what you say
– Thought, speech and action
• Most of the times there is no congruence …we are focused on the truthfulness in every way
• We never peep into any data
o FAITH IN ONESELF AND THE UNIVERSE
– You are extraordinary; Whatever you believe in – Will come true
– The Universe is designed to accomplish your will
• Will the highest of your dreams and see them coming true.
• Act with this faith..
• EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE REBIRTH…you will achieve
o EXCELLENCE in each effort
– Your each act must ensure excellence
– The results of your effort will be available with highest quality
• We measure effort and not result
• Karmanyevadhikareste…

Q&A

1. How is that you can make things happen, whatever you wished?

VB :

Have you read the book? CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD by Neale Donald Walsch

Three steps –
– Dream the dream
– Share your dream with as many people as you can
– Whatever you dreamt, you should feel it has happened..
o get rid of self doubts in any context

Example –
– MCA days – I always told myself and told openly that I will top and I continued to top…
– ” I succeeded in getting two kids to be born on two different continents on the same day just by willing it”!!! : Vishwadeep was narrating another real life experience about how he wanted both his wife and sister-jn-law who were pregnant, DDays apart by 25 days, to deliver on the same day. One day when he was walking with his wife in shopping plaza in London, got a call from India that his sister-in-law has delivered. He thought to himself that a few more hours to go and his wish may come true. They reached home and his wife shared that she is feeling uneasy and asked Vish to feed two kids. In a while, wife asked Vish to take her to the hospital and in a couple of hours they had the baby in their hands !! The POWER OF DREAMING and BELIEF !!
– Recently, waiting at the airport, I saw a pretty lady in the boarding Que. I was sitting and reading a book waiting for the crowd to board. But kept on telling myself that I will be sitting next to that pretty lady. I was the last one to board and it so happened that the seat next her was the only empty seat, and I occupied it !! (students had a hearty laugh at this story)

2. HOW does this really happen –

VB :

– Atom building blocks of Universe
– Matter changed into energy
– Energy gets converted to matter…
– Whatever thought we have is energy..
– Energy has physical property..
– Energy will find its resonance…matching…
– Challenge is to communicate to the universe only one frequency… one thought..
– Universe follows…
– Share it as many, let it resonate.

3. How do you market your company?

VB : We follow multiple approaches…
– Online marketing and PR
– Online search engine optimizing…GOOGLE ads…[articles/blogs/appears on the screen]
– OFFLine marketing – Industry events
– Niche journals – Banking journals; Real Estate, Retail etc

4. Your experience in India Vs West?

VB :
– My SON was asked to write about three fruits in 300 words..
o He wrote Cheeku, Rosgulla, Gulamjamun
– Western markets are very mature
– SME segment in India no maturity and it is 90% of the economy
o Process are yet to take sophistication
– In West, they plan and Act, In India, we Act and Plan
o Germany : Airport was shifted without any hassles in a one shot operation, not impacting a single aircraft taking off on time.
– India is much bigger market, sheer size and scale, it is huge. We will be profitable. No economy (baring China) can match our scale.

5. What is next.. technologically?

– Black swan theory : (Taleb regards almost all major scientific discoveries, historical events, and artistic accomplishments as “black swans”—undirected and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, World War I, and the September 11, 2001 attacks, as examples of Black Swan events. Check wikipedia)
o Whatever you dream will happen in uncanny way…
o Everything gets driven by the UNKNOWN; Yes, planning will reduce the cycles of reinventing
– Technologically we are moving from TXT to VOICE
o SMS – call originating… call centre mapping
– Refer book BLINK? – decision comes from GUT
o Critical to find the right people…
o Look problems holistically…

6. What is the secret to your MOBILITY? Your ability to ADAPT ACROSS VARIOUS SECTORS and Countries?
– Fundamental trait is perseverance
– I never thought of shutting shop
– You need to continuously play… score a six
– Relearn and work hard
– Get the right people better than yourself

7. What is your Biggest failure?
– I never felt ever failed
– I feel like this door has shut..will do something else
– Enjoying the moment

8. As young entrepreneurs and business grads..what is your advise?
– Whatever you choose to do, do with utmost passion
– I do not feel the right Idea, People are more important
o Execution is more important and that happens because of people
– GOD lies in execution
o Many people have ideas….execution is paramount
o Execution will be through trial and error and thru people
o Will hire who will help me succeed
o Convince a story about how upside will happen…
o Investing in hiring in advance of the need…
– DREAM…SHARE…Have no doubt about it…
– Following your heart or mind
o In doing what your heart says.. will always help
o I am can dream better than others….

” Have the courage to want things. Life has its way of delivering them to you in the most unexpected ways”

Arindam Lahiri; Executive Director IWSB, in Sept. issue of IWSB Newsletter “SWAMANTHAN”.

It gives me great pleasure in welcoming the PG11 and PG12 batches at the new campus. This, incidentally, is also the first issue of the newslet-ter from the all-new campus of IWSB. I extend a special welcome to the PG12 batch, being the first batch to enter IWSB campus. I am sure this two-year journey at the campus will be a fondly cherished by one and all.

The pre-term is over and the first term for PG12 is almost over (another 3 weeks!). At the end of the first term, each one of you will be one-sixth of a management graduate. I am sure that you have already realized that the course and its journey is a unique experience. At the same time, I am also aware that most of you had to go through substantial change in terms of your approach and attitude towards life in general, academics in particular. Any change is inevitable as well as painful. However, once you get accustomed to the change, there is a bright new world waiting for you at the other end. I can vouch for this from my personal experience of two years in a B-school.

Coming back to the campus, the bones (or the structure) of the campus have been built. To give a shape to the campus in flesh and blood, the onus will be with you and the other initial batches that come into the campus. The opportunity to impact the way the campus functions is immense. Once you are in here, look at this in the most positive manner, so that you can get to spend the best two years‟ of your life here. The campus does not have a tradition currently – this is a challenge and at the same time, an opportunity. Be part of building the tradition so that a decade later you can proudly share with a lot of people, we did the first fresher‟s party, played the first game of chess in campus ….so on.

I want to reiterate that an institution is built by the students; faculty and staff are there to support you in this. It is my firm belief that entrepre-neurial leadership must first be learnt and practiced at the institution. Be innovative in finding solution to all challenges that you face!

I wish all of you Happy Janmashtami (belated) and Happy Eid!

Latika Khaneja, Director, Collage Sports Management at IWSB Campus in “My Journey” series.

Latika Khaneja, Director, Collage Sports Management, was at the IWSB campus with the young entrepreneur leaders who have big dreams in their eyes and were all ears to Latika when she came to share her journey with the youngsters. She visited the campus to discuss a case on “Collage Sports Management.”

Latika has been considered to be one of the powerful women in the Indian corporate sector and is quoted to say that her strength is “marketing and PR skills and the ability to close a deal”. She has been the sole manager of cricketing sensation Sehwag ever since he made his debut twelve years ago. Together they are still blazing in the endorsement space.

Initial remarks

Just as she entered, Latika said “Course in entrepreneurship should take care of the uncertainty. I am really glad to see so many girls here. At IIM we were only 10 out of 200, though it had its own dynamics. I hope to see more and more girls heading into business..”

“In sports management, you need to have interest. It is a personalized business, and mostly at a very private level. A marked coming down from working for a multinational. One way, a job always helps in minimizing costs in learning.”

How did Latika enter into Sports management business?

Husband is a sports fanatic. In order to practice cricket he started a cricket team. So he decided to collect some professional boys to play with. It became the collage team. It was a decade ago. As it turned out the boys were too professional with the game. So we turned into managing them. We had in that team youngsters like Asish Nehra, Nikhil chopra, Virendra Sehwag and many more who were working hard to get noticed. My husband was so kicked about Virendra Sehwag, that he wanted to see him do well..

In early days of Sehwag, when Sehwag was about to make his debut in test cricket, some one offered to get endorsement for his bat sticker for Rs. 2 Lakhs. But Sehwag got out cheaply and the guy who offered the deal vanished from the scene. Sehwag was feeling sad, that he could have made some money had he signed the deal..

To be secure, most of the cricketers join some PSU like Air India, SAIL etc where you do not have to go and work. You can continue playing but you are paid salaries. Companies pay Rs. 12Lakhs or so as salary, but they will take all endorsement monies, if the player hits rich..

My husband and I sat with Sehwag as we believed in his talent and suggested that let us try getting endorsers. In those days Sachin was signed at 100Crore…

I was working for DCM then. I contacted many companies for endorsements for Sehwag. The companies in turn asked for the proof that I was really authorized to represent Sehwag! So we need contracts in India only to represent the player !!

Viru did well in the mean time. Then Dinesh Mongia happened. Still remember the date of 16 june 2001. Ashis Nehra, Sanjay Bangar, Bindra, Rathore, Gambhir…. a few more happened meanwhile.

Ravinder Jadeja and Ishant made it reasonably big while equally promising Cheteswar pujara, Iqbal abdulla, Mayank are invisible. Then a whole lot of people ..sangwan, ,….

A lot of things happened since those days of 2005-06. My contract with many of the players is getting over in 2012..

New players have different expectations. With IPL coming, dynamics of the business completely changed. That is where I am in now.

Where you lucky enough to pick the most successful ones?

It is not fair to say I picked up. We go and pitch….. There are so many players playing well. So you tend to follow. Though I pitched to many in shooting, only Abhinav Bhindra came along, Anjali Bhagwat did not, so was athlete Anju Bobby George.

Challenges –

a. A lot of companies slam cases in the court for some reason or other
b. Most of the times it is risky, you put a lot of effort but the person may not succeed in his sport…
c. When they succeed, most of the times the expectations are so high, you will not make any money..

When you go and pitch for a domestic player. How do you really go about it? How do you decide?

There are 3 or 4 aspects…

It is the time of investment. We do a lot of press and PR. In PR, when you go after the press, the less they come to you. But when you do not want them, they will chase you..

When magazines want to interview a big star like Sehwag, and if he is busy, we suggest an upcoming player like Ishant sharma, saying that he is talented and you are going to see a lot of him in the near future. As luck would have it, then he goes to Australia and takes Ricky Ponting’s wicket twice… then he hits big. Now everyone wants Ishant !!

Some sign young players upfront for three years – Adidas, Nike, Puma. If a couple of them hit big, it is a lottery. They sponsor shoes, bats, racket, kit…… small investment and advertisement can influence huge sale. The initial deals may be in the range of 5-10 lakhs !!

With advent of IPL many things have changed. The players get huge opportunities. Why should somebody sign on the dotted line for five lakhs and ten?

Scalability?

It is a big conundrum. We also look at arts. We tried to build Amjad Ali Khan, other sports like shooting – Bindra, Rathore…

In cricket or a popular sport, only four or five are sought after by the advertiser. He is looking at the connect on the street. How many people offer such a possibility? Amjad ali khans, inspite of being talented and looking good, they were able to attract only endorsement deals for Sherwanis etc..

In the initial years of marketing Abhinav Bindra, his papers were thrown into dustbin the moment I left the room. The day he wins gold at Olympics, everybody wants him…

The other challenges for scalability –

Cost of servicing: When you give Sehwag or Gautam, they are interested, a couple of duds, they will never look back..

Burn out factor: How long will you keep running after the guys for the same individual or for a new one..

IPL:

Now IPL came – In 2007, I was the most important person in Sehwag’s life as he was getting 10 times more than what he was making from playing for India…

With IPL everything changed. Very few renewed the contract when expired. Let us look at Ashish Nehra. He was not comfortable in endorsing, as he had to appear in front of the camera. But he got so much money in IPL, that he did not even want to endorse as it comes with so many obligations… With such a lot of money why should he? Really.

Industry: Agency and structure…and its dynamics..

Most agencies are boutique. In the early days, there were four companies and each managed one of the big four : Sachin (Marc…), Sehwag (Collage…), Rahul (21st century) and Ganguly (percept). Only way then was to get hold of one big star from cricket and everything went around them.. Percept was the only big company

Deals signed were in Favour of the big company offering lower percentage to the player. Who will stay? Ganguly wanted to move out..

Globo sport happened with Sania hitting big. Yuvraj singh got some one out of Percept… to manage him. “Why should I pay 10-20%, if I can manage at five or less…” Now Dhoni…

So if you hire an MBA, probably there is a chance that he will start his own management company for celeb?!! So better have an ex-cricketer as in-between to take care of the current cricketers. They gel each other, and he also does not have high capability to branch out!

What is your next move.. since the IPL has started?

The boutique agencies will have problem with geographical dispersion as IPL is spread far and wide. I pitched for four cities Delhi, Jaipur, Mohali, Kolkata..

IPL was completely packaged…. It was close and shut affair… no transparency. All the stakeholders were completely involved… All teams cannot be auction for around the same 350 crores? Can they? You could see openness in player auction, not in the team auction….there was nothing

Same thing was about Common Wealth games… 2-5% is the margin, we were told..

I was told, “We wanted to hire the company in Melbourne… SWAM (now they pay to them at 23%)… so many are obviously involved… Met Kalmadi. He offered Pune youth games’ Who will come to endorse at 40 Crore? When they can get reasonable mileage in 2-3 crore?

If I want a cricketer to endorse, I want Sachin and Dhoni. IPL is a highly viewed tournament. Manish Pandey, Ravinder Jadeja…All have seen them playing a couple of big innings. In IPL they are getting good salaries and they do not want to get 5-10 lakhs that will bring so much of liabilities… appearing for endorsements..

I thought I will work with an IPL team. KKR happened. But SRK said he will meet only at night… these meetings used to go on, but not much emerged. It was like a job. Jai Mehta told me, “Why are you wasting time, SRK wants people around him to listen to him. Nothing more.” I moved out.

Working style between marketers and players…

There is no transparency in IPL. Nothing is open. Sehwag was a Pepsi player.. COKE paid Delhi Daredevils. Coke pasted him all over the country… Sehwag cannot move from DD, Pepsi dropped him…

In golf, the manager will plan the entire calendar. In cricket BCCI does it. Only the free time is taken care of by us….

Advent of Indian Economy, brand management…

More brands, more opportunities of branding. Do we really sit and watch advertisements on television. The ad just happens and you are glued…

Bollywood creates glamour and others are glued, hence bollywood sells

How do we really grab attention is the key.. Today, Sania Nehwal by her performance may be salable, the affiliation with fashion may help a person like Rohit Baal (linen club), Atul Kasbekar (outlander) to sell…

Initial Challenges

Depending more on the success of the people we have signed. Firm has revenue, positive cash flow. Has certain success to talk about. It is a risky business. It entirely depends on their success…

If you are not a Ranji player you cannot be a commentator.

Before you could sell one, he may fail… how do you handle the uncertainities?

If anything happens to a player, physically, the contract is over…

In any area some of them get an aura. Shah Rukh in movies, Similarly in Cricket, star is made over a period of time. Sehwag – fast and exciting, grounded and easy to talk to. So are Sachin and Dhoni. That is the minimum. Only by performance you become star. You need to build on your performance…

Situation in India Vs Abroad

A sports manager manages everything, training, travel, tournament playing, legal contract. Say they have 10 golfers. The regulatory, travel etc is taken care of due to scale. All earnings from all the stars are counted as earnings of the company..

In India, it is individual relationship oriented….. It is an iffy model. It is difficult go beyond a point….

Only barrier to entry is knowing a big star. You are fine until you have the backing of the star all the way. Number of agents is not a barrier..

Many stars want exclusivity. That is the reason most want personalized…

Did you have to go through breach or betrayal? How do you build the brand.?

Many…many…

When you work for the stars, and they excel, then your brand may gain reputation due to the services you provide. You may not really work on creating a brand for yourself…. Over the time it may or may not create a brand.

KKR… SRK was the only value driver… All cost are fixed.

Retaining a player?

We need to bind the player into lasting contracts… cricketers are reluctant to sign. They do not want to go to the court, unlike a shooter who may have all the time and money !

How do you value a player?

It is not a sensex. It is a negotiation.

Guarantee?

If it is the value, you give it.. ..If someone plays for three years without injury and without being dropped, then you will get value… a six month of not being there, renewing may not happen..

Value?

Say if a player is signed for 210 crores, over 3 years..

70 crores a year, So 14 companies at 5 crores each….
You have to get 15 at 5 or 12 at 6 to make your margins
It also depends on the bouquet of people you have signed, as costs can be easily spread..
My commission was say 20%… If I do not gain 210 crores, say I get only 200 crores, I will shell out 10Crores from my 20% margin to build the relationship..

In developed economy an agency handles many sports….

Other sports and endorsers?

When you think of Hero Honda, Pepsi, Coke etc.. all of them have built a brand around cricket… they are closely connected..

Hockey – castrol put so much but did not renew it. KPS Gill did not even call Castrol guys inside his office when they came visiting… Castrol pulled out. Imagine you are investing and people do not see the value you bring in. Where is the money in other sport? If we have money, there will be people…

Challenges as a women entrepreneur
Family support needs to be good, if you feel it is worthwhile to do what you want to do. For women, being a mother is the most wonderful thing and major thing. If you have support system for bringing up the children, great! Or create it and jump into realizing your dream.

How relevant is education to entrepreneurship
Education is the greatest investment. IIM did help. I have instant connect with so many in the corporate world, as most of them have similar backgrounds. A few of them are even my friends. Education gives ability to present, understand, how to reach out. It provides thinking, analytical and presentation skills..

Do we have a possibility to work with you?
Very little! We are a very lean company. It is not a volume business. It is only that many deals who will sign….

It is all about creating imagination… We work on him or her to find the right opportunities.. It is about striking when iron is hot.. You have to be sure that whatever you are committing, will happen… It is a very personalized thing..

Why have you not signed golfers?

They are international brands…they travel widely. Who will sign a golfer? Only those who sell that sort of equipment that he is used to all over the world, say callaway.. He is better off signing with an international talent management like IMG to market across the world for such a brand

It is all about the universe I can address.. fewer followers… fewer players…

Motor sport… JK Tyre and Maruti follow.. and they can tell more than we know…I cannot market Karthikayan better than JK Tyre doing directly with him..

Batsmen and Bowler… endorsements?
Bowlers are injured easily, they lose tempo… compared to batsman.
Every bollywood star lives for an advertisement… huge sum for very little work…

Tiger wood fiasco and Accenture? Can there be contracts binding the players to payback on such mis-conducts?

When they are rising and shining, you make money. So when they fall why will they pay.

Vishwanathan Anand has been an enigma, endorsement wise. He endorses only one brand though for more than a decade he has been a world champion?

In the endorsement business it has nothing to do with world champion or respectable human being. It is all about showbiz. If you have connect with the common man on the street and he can relate to you. You have endorsements and money.. Tiger woods was highly salable in British open even after all the hungama..

Girish Batra; (Chairman and Managing Director, NetAmbit) in Discussion with Entrepreneurial Leaders at IWSB Campus.

Girish Batra, Founder; Chairman and Managing Director, NetAmbit ;
Girish, an IIMA grad started NetAmbit in 2002. Now it is a 4000 People Company. Girish was at IWSB campus as part of “My Journey” series to share lessons and learning from his entrepreneurial journey so far. The interactive session with aspiring entrepreneurial leaders was full of questions, questions and more questions from the youngsters. They got a message, “Be eager to welcome new situations, challenges and experiences, to learn and discover what more you can be”

Distribution companies in any vertical are usually larger than the manufacturers, like Wal-Mart is bigger than Unilever. Worldwide there are a few large companies that follow similar business model even in financial space, eg. Brown and Brown (UK).

Indian financial market is of the size of thirty thousand crore. The market is growing at the rate of 30% annually. While penetration levels are just 4%, still the market is 30 thousand crore market. The potential and opportunities are huge. There have been many ‘manufacturers’ of financial instruments, hawked through a few distribution systems (agents, banks). But consumers needed independent credible and trustworthy consultants and advisors who can compare multiple products available and advise them. That is where NetAmbit moved in.

NetAmbit sees itself as equivalent of a food bazaar of financial markets – sells life insurance, general insurance, mutual funds, corporate FDs, Loans, Credit Cards etc. Eighty percent of market in India lives in smaller towns – tier 3 and 4. Seventy six percent of NetAmbit sales come tier 2 and 3 cities. Now NetAmbit has offices with over 6000 workstations and 4000 field agents.

FORBES June 18, story named NetAmbit as the king of ‘non-affinity’ market for their rigorous process driven approach to customer acquisition.

Where did the Journey begin?

Girish wanted to be an entrepreneur, because he wanted to be secure and successful. Only after going to IIMA, he realized entrepreneurship gives opportunity to contribute to the society. He wanted to build a business that will sustain on its own. “Make yourself such a way that you are redundant…,” which charged Girish.

Girish went on to work for Escorts and Godrej for six years, with a yearning to be an entrepreneur. He was in Bangalore, when parents suggested him to take the next step in his life, getting married. Since, Girish harboured ambition to be an entrepreneur, he always thought of marrying a girl who will be working in a govt or PSU, as she can provide the stability whenever he jumps into his entrepreneurial journey. He did jump in, by moving to Delhi from Bangalore. To the surprise of many a family member, he quit his job twenty days before his wedding!! His family and wife have been very supportive. “Family support is the most important to be successful as an entrepreneur,” Girish avers.

Girish, started with one Lakh as his only investment. “Dotcom was crazy in those days. Unfortunately, the valuation was all about clicks and page views, without the existence of brick and mortar, or revenues to back up.” Girish thought of it as a great opportunity, “We thought of providing offline model to hook on to the online models…” So NetAmbit was seen as Offline services for Online businesses!! NetAmbit is all that surrounds the Net!!

“Since I did start with 1 lakh, only way was to earn our bread and butter… the journey began.”

Dotcom economy busted, we had to reorient… We moved into telecom, started looking for distributing telephone connections to SMEs. This business was short-lived, before NetAmbit oriented towards financial markets.

Today, Bessemer’s best performing investment is NetAmbit. Best capital efficiency in their Indian portfolio…

Q. Were you not fearful about failures when you started…

Failures… Lots of them!

One may fear going to the town if it is raining like today, as you may fear traffic jam… what they hell, get out and experience… why fear?

Every morning I have a long list of issues… but I enjoy trying to solve them…I will talk more about failures later.

Students sharing their day with Girish

Q. How does a Consumer behave?

– Consumer wants more at one place, with a lot of advice and help thrown in. So a bazaar type of operations is a better placed one.
– Net-based? 6.5 crore people use internet in India, only buying rail tickets has gained acceptance, everything else is low; that is where the future is, that is at least 15 years away. HDFC does only 10L on the net out of 300 Crore sales of insurance product in a month
– In any industry, various methods of doing business co-exists, but models would differ in cost efficiency, interaction with customer. India is a land of opportunities. 6000 cities of this country is ready for products. If Tata sky/Dish tv is sold today, tomorrow insurance, loans etc will definitely be. Look at SKS micro finance / Grameen bank how they have moved into explore successfully new models at the bottom of the pyramid.

Most of personal loans are sold, not bought – very few walk into a bank and ask for it…

Net Ambit goes to mass market. We do not go to High Networth Individuals (HNI). We need to evolve a model that will have vast potential. We are exploring. Any model that is scalable and cost efficient will make a killing in the future. Opportunities are immense, growth possibilities and challenges are internal to any corporate. If at all there has been a failure, it is because of internal issues – growing faster, not being open, less adaptable, mostly related to the person(s) who are heralding the business… there are immense examples of these in the recent past.

Q. Who were your competitors and what was the market like when you started?
When we started, only competitor was BAJAJ FINANCE…

Q. What is the critical factor in early days of operations?
Cost consciousness is the most important… Need to be very careful in the early days of any business. In fact, it is important at any given point of time. I have known an international bank that prided itself in their early days in India of giving Cappuccino to every guest who visited their branches. Unfortunately, they had to close down their entire operations for reasons of viability!!

Girish interacting with students

Q. How did you manage to get early customers and retain them?
You need to look out for the next customer. There is no formula. Look for the needs of people and figure out.

FORBES article on NETAMBIT… called the kings of non-affinity – June 18, 2010 article. Mckinsey was impressed by our success on this front.

Q. Affinity and Non-affinity marketing?
Affinity – Selling to those who have affinity towards you. Once a customer is acquired, you will move to affinity team that takes care of the customer. It is a relationship building. Once you create the bond and trust, affinity increases. He will keep coming back and also bring a few more of his friends.

Non-affinity is to bring more and more first timers…We have been very successful in this space with our constant follow ups. We are highly systems driven. Every interaction is captured. Data handling and mining is very strong. This is the secret of success of any company. How well you follow through every enquiry. To what extent you go to satisfy the queries and facilitate the customer make the informed decision.

Q. How does your Non-Affinity marketing work?
Visit our office to see how we do. Seek time and visit us. We will be glad to get you guys spend a day at our office(s)

Q. As you scale up, what are the challenges you faced in building people and organization?

Name of the game is keeping people together…

When you build teams, it is very important to hire the right people. Take time in hiring. Reduce the probability of hiring a person who is not a proper fit, culturally.

1. We look for entrepreneurial, high on energy, ethical, humble, risk takers…at higher level. Humility is a keenly sought after value.
2. Trust once your hire, for their abilities and support their decision-making. Back up their failures or rough patch.
3. Look for people with high ‘Internal locus of control’ at any level

Q. Challenges around scaling up – Which cities, where and when, how do you decide ?

1. We look for Market size of the city,
2. If we decide, we do a Hub and spoke model..
3. Decentralize the decision-making and operations, yet keep a close watch to mentor

Q. Initial selection of products and diversification; future plans and challenges

Initially life insurance was just opening up

Future is very promising….market doubling every three years, growing @ 30%
We foresee 7000 people in 2011, going public in 2012, 1000Cr in next 4-5 years… 250crores in 2011.

Challenges are all internal. It is all about how you keep the culture intact and value systems. How do you bind diversity with one single culture. Appreciating the value system and facilitating them to buy in and relate. It is people driven, how you keep them motivated. How fast you hire, efficiently and train them. Whom to hire and when to hire… It may go to 40000 people, I will not be surprised. We need to constantly train on new products and innovation… train and retain is the challenge…. As market leaders, poaching is always lurking around..

How do you handle the hierarchy formation is the key. Ours is almost flat and a very open organization. We need to make sure that bureaucratic thinking does not come seep in.

Girish sharing at IWSB

Q Speaking about Selling

In India, most of the times we fail in how we sell; Sales experience at the front level is very important.

FMCG companies have mastered it. They send every new recruit as a junior sales officer. I got Rs 150 bugs a day – stayed in Rs.50/- a day hotel, though I could have afforded an expensive one. They make sure you understand the market. Even now, I go and meet two customers every month. That is part of our way of doing things..

In sales, people monitor output only unfortunately.. Very few are bothered about input – how much of effort has gone in the acquisition. That is very important. Document each interaction. Break it down and monitor – Number of calls, responses,

We look for a HR person, who has business understanding. He or she needs to understand sales and marketing front end, to identify the people who will do well in our culture and organization.

Q. How do you approach a client? Since you were the first to enter this market, you might have had to invest in educating the customer..

First we understand a client. If he is not well-informed about the market, we start with only one product

Our non-affinity is all about direct marketing. We reach out to over 80 Lakh new customers every month. FORBES called us king of non-affinity. Our processes are very strong therefore our conversions are very high. It is the process culture.

Q. Name of the game in India is distribution. It is the king. Own these channels…
Owning distribution channels is the key to success. Manufacturer’s distribution will always have great cost inefficiency. Neutral distribution channels with customer friendly services will always be cost efficient and can do many things that will hook the customer. You can see what happens in a Food Bazar…

Q. Strategy Vs Execution –

Started inside out – first Delhi then Meerut. But also look at outside in. So it is both ways. You design on paper and start executing. Then you realize how the assumptions have been not to the mark. Make corrections and keep exploring and learning.

Q. How do you cope with failure? How do you continue to be excited?

Do not hesitate to fail. Never be scared of failures, experiment. Take it as a learning opportunity, and do not make the same mistake. Critically analyze failures. Do not lose by operational inefficiency. Do not worry about experimenting new ideas. Challenges are everywhere…

If you are doing new things, you will fail. You should welcome this exploration. If you have stopped failing, what does it mean? It simply means that you are not doing anything new.

Remaining positive is the biggest thing in life. Dhoni is a good example of this orientation. Tendulkar and Kambli, difference between the two has been all about ‘learning from failures.

Q. How often your decisions were data driven and how much was intuition?
When it is futuristic, many a times it is intuition. You have not had experiences or precedence.. Operational decisions are data driven.. People and futuristic is usually intuition. Yes intuition plays a very important role.

We need to add in such a pace that we should be able to service the customer. Their genuine claims are serviced promptly. We will grow as much as we can serve the customers very efficiently. No pointing in growing faster than what we can service.

Q. Building trust among investors?
They trust your business. They look for history, plan, model… Yet, PEOPLE is the most important. They bet on it.

Q. How do you build NetAmbit as a brand?
How does the small town person believe in NetAmbit? They are buying big brands now from NetAmbit, so that is where we are. As Net Ambit becomes stronger, people will start trusting NetAMbit. That is the way the world market has been growing.. Experiences will help one build the brand…

Lot of creating awareness, educating the buyers..

Q. You have not ventured into Equity distribution, why?
Since the market has not been large, small markets do not go for it… we will move very soon..

Q. What is success?
Successful! When a person is happy about self and your peer group starts respecting you, then you can tell to yourself that it is comfortable..

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For the eager bunch of learners at IWSB it was a great experience, they surely have gained immensely from the Interaction. IWSB humbly convey’s its gratitude to Girish for the insightful visit to the campus. IWSB also looks forward to more visits from Girish and wish to learn more and more in the process.