IWSB featured in “The theory and practice of rearing businessmen”, Economic Times, INDIA EMERGING, FEB 11,2011, Page 15

Colleges are discovering a great opportunity in educating entrepreneurs and incubating companies. Radhika P Nair and Peerzada Abrar find out more.

Economic Times, Feb 11, 2011, Page 15: Straight from the gut - Satya; IWSB in Theory and Practice of rearing Businessmen

WHEN it comes to educating future entrepreneurs, “catch them young” seems to be the reigning philosophy. While many of the top management and technology institutes in the country, like the IIMs and IITs, have set up incubation centres and introduced electives that cover aspects of entrepreneurship, tier-II and tier-III colleges are the ones who have turned to entrepreneurship education in a big way.

In fact, there is a move to inculcate entrepreneurship even in school children. The National Entrepreneurship Network (NeN), a non-profit organisation that helps develop entrepreneurship education system at academic institutions all over the country, conducts an annual Entrepreneurship Week, or Eweek, across colleges in the country. This year, they brought it to schools as well and got school students to try the “50 exercise”.

Originated at Stanford, this game involves teams of students coming up with an idea, forming a company on paper and investing a maximum of 50 (not real currency) in the company. At the end of the half-day exercise, they see what they have earned and learned.

Ahmedabad’s Satyameva Jayate International School (SJIS) teaches entrepreneurship to even six year-olds. Hina Shah, the founder and director of SJIS, said they use specially designed modules to teach the children.

However, can entrepreneurship actually be taught in a classroom? And, have these entrepreneurship courses produced entrepreneurs?

FOCUS ON PRACTICAL TRAINING
Bangalore-based MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) is one of the many institutes that have started focusing on entrepreneurship as a viable option for its students. “We give importance to practical aspects of enterprise as courses tend to focus only on theory,” said K Rajanikanth, principal, MSRIT.

The institute has an entrepreneurship development cell, which provides training to interested students on a voluntary basis. The institute also has an incubation centre, which provides the entire infrastructure for the incubatee for two years. Rajanikanth said they are also planning to set up a seed fund soon.

One of the successful start-ups to come out of the MSRIT incubator is Gumbi Software, an education solutions provider, set up by Harsha Mahabala, a 2006 Computer Science student of MSRIT. Mahabala always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but he was planning to study business administration before setting up his own venture. “Without the support and mentoring I received at my college, it would have taken much longer to start up on my own,” said Mahabala. Today, Gumbi Software is a 13.5-crore company.

CREATING ENTREPRENEURS
While Mahabala always knew he would become an entrepreneur, for Jia Jain it was chance and not choice that made him start a chain of fine-dining vegetarian restaurants, called 1947, in Bangalore. After passing out of Jain University’s MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship in 2005, Jain set up his first outlet in 2006. He said there was a constant focus on entrepreneurship at the Institute. This led him to think of entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to a corporate job.

He now has five restaurants and is eyeing a turnover of 8 crore this financial year. The Institute’s Centre for Entrepreneurship provides office space and infrastructure, mentoring and also administers a seed fund. The Centre has incubated 23 companies so far.

ENTREPRENEURS PARK
The entrepreneurial culture in non-metro locations is also pushing various institutes to build the eco-system. Coimbatore-based PSG College of Technology has set up an entrepreneurial park in association with the Department of Science & Technology and financial institutions to promote technology-based enterprise.

It has successfully graduated around 89 companies in the last 11 years out of which 60 are still in business. “The institute was a launch pad for me to not only develop the technology but take it to the market as well,” said G Rammohan, who did his masters in material science and business administration from PSG.

Rammohan, who incubated his firm Vestige Technologies at PSG in 2007, provides biometric and electronic tagging technology solutions for tracking assets, jewellery and manpower. The 20-employee firm, which has bagged many contracts from government agencies and the private sector, has reached a revenue of over 1 crore.

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET
This focus on creating entrepreneurs is far from new. The Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) was set up in Ahmedabad in 1983, with sponsorship from financial Institutions such as IDBI Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and IFCI. The sole aim was to create new entrepreneurs and providing additional training for businessmen who are already running businesses.

“Entrepreneurship can be successfully taught like any other discipline,” said Dinesh Awasthi, director of EDI. He said EDI’s curriculum focuses on imparting knowledge, skill development and building on inherent aptitude. Awasthi said a little over 69% of EDI’s students are successfully managing their own businesses.

According to Awasthi, EDI has created “an ethical entrepreneurial mindset, coupled with entrepreneurial competencies”. For providing further support to students, IDBI, in collaboration with SIDBI, is offering collateral-free loans up to 1 crore, especially for EDI students.

MAKING, NOT RUNNING VENTURES
Career Launcher, an education service provider, has set up the Indus World School of Business (IWSB) in Noida in 2008 to bridge the gap in enterpreneurship education. While the Institute offers campus placements, the focus is on entrepreneurship and the institute has about a dozen start-ups incubating at its labs.

Ankita Gupta is one of the many IWSB students who are already running ventures. She is part of a project selling affordable sanitary napkins to women in more than 20 villages in Uttarakhand. Gupta has collaborated with a local innovator, who has developed a machine that can produce 2,000 sanitary napkins in a day.

Vipresh Sharma graduated from IWSB in 2010 and started an organic product venture, Bhagwati Herbal Agro Solutions. The venture earns around 25 lakh per annum in revenue. “Other B-schools mainly talk about how to run an organisation, but here I learnt how an organisation can be developed,” said Sharma, who is the first member in his family of farmers who has studied beyond class seventh.

ROLE OF THEORY
While experts, lecturers and students agree that practical training is important, most say that classroom-based theory also has its place in entrepreneurship education. Rohit Prasad, who heads the Centre For Entrepreneurship at Management Development Institute (MDI), is of the opinion that some basic aspects can be taught in the classroom.

“Subjects such as accounting, managing human resources and legal points to consider while setting up a company can be taught in the classroom,” said Prasad. “Classroom courses give the basic knowledge on how to create an enterprise. Practical training adds to the theory,” said Mahabala.

NOT ONLY ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS
Almost all experts concede that such education might not create entrepreneurs immediately. “It takes time for an Institute to start creating entrepreneurs,” said MDI’s Prasad. “It is wrong to expect that start-ups will quickly be created by colleges that have a focus on entrepreneurship in their curricular and extra-curricular programmes,” said Laura Parkin, CEO of NeN.

“The skills imparted in an entrepreneurship programme is useful in a regular corporate job as well,” said Rishikesha T Krishnan, professor of corporate strategy and policy at IIM Bangalore. He added that the institute, which currently has an elective in entrepreneurship, is planning to make entrepreneurial thinking a compulsory module in its flagship MBA programme.

“Entrepreneurship education still has a long way to go. We have not yet started creating a large number of good entrepreneurs,” said C Amarnath, professor-incharge of IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE). However, “those who want to become entrepreneurs will get there with or without specialised education,” he said.

With focused classroom programmes, interesting practical experience and the right support system, entrepreneurship education can give students a clearer picture of how to become successful entrepreneurs.

‘Summer Internship – A waste of time?’ by Prof. Arindam Lahiri, Executive Director, Indus World School of Business



Does summer internship really contribute substantially to the learning process of a business management graduate?

There are arguments on both sides and both views can be logical. Before we delve into this, let us take a look at the process of management education. During the first year of the usual 2-year MBA programme, a student is exposed to the various functions of an organization. This prepares the student for the foundations of management theory. However, management education in hardly academic in nature – it has a strong focus on applying the same in real life situation and this transition is difficult.

My own view is that the summer internship provides you with the best opportunity to attempt at making this transition. And most students fail while making this transition, as this is the first time that most of them are attempting such a transition. Yes, even for the students having pre-programme work experience – since it is the first time that they will attempt to put management theory (which most of them are not aware of, except for undergraduate management students) into practice.

It is this failure that raises a question mark over the entire practice of summer internship. And most students do not fail only once at this summer internship. They fail a number of times subsequently in their first job. This also raises another issue about a large percentage of management graduates leaving their first job within the first 12 months – we will not get into this here.

Learning through failure is an important pedagogical tool. A summer internship allows student to get frustrated and underscores the challenge of application of management theories in practice. Such an exposure, if absorbed internally in a constructive manner, can be one of the most important learning for the student. The student, with the help from his faculty members, must analyze the challenges of application and failure points. Understanding the constraints and parameters within which various theoretical constructs are applied is important. And without repeated practice, this is difficult to achieve.

However, once word of caution at this point, one must be careful about internships where the student is completely left on his own and not challenged to deliver. In such a case, opportunities to fail, is minimal. Though the internship experience may be comfortable, the learning may be incomplete.

Using the opportunity of summer internship to understand how organizations work, especially how people in the organizations behave, is a must learn for all management students. It also helps the students to establish some useful networking relations. At the same time, it allows the student to gain self-confidence by comparing his own efforts with other existing employees in the organization. It helps a student identify his strength and weakness for effective working in the organization.

A summer internship may add more value to people who have worked for less than 2 years with an organization. The challenge in most cases, result from expectation mismatch of the student and the organization. The core objective is that the need for summer internship is of the student and not necessarily a need of the organization. The onus is on the student to make the most out of this opportunity.

A summer internship has been a life-changing experience for a large number of students (and these students are not necessarily the students with pre-placement offers from organizations). It impacts the choice of organization, functions and the pace of career growth of an individual.

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” 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”

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..