If you don’t dare to make mistakes now, when will you – My Journey with Piyush Sharma

Piyush Sharma, Dean (internationalization), Hong kong polytechnic university on IWSB campus

Prof. Piyush Sharma, Dean (internationalization) from Hong Kong Polytechnic university was on the IWSB campus to deliver and interact as part of My Journey series of June. This initiated the Pg 11-13 batch too as it was their first My Journey interaction. The new batch was still trickling in and the pg12 was eager to take off this year.

Piyush who has had his university education in Engineering at Delhi College of Engineering, continued his MBA from IIM Bangalore after a few years of working in the corporate world. He went on to do his Ph.D. in marketing from Nanyang University a good 15 years later. In this interactive session he was not only sharing his journey but also was challenging the students to push themselves. Most of his interaction was through questions he himself raised or the ones raised by participants.

Why join acads, even when there was not much money?

Reasons could be –
– like to teach
– make name as a good facilitator and mentor
– Quest for knowledge
– Stable life

Then thought came about PhD.
o Which discipline
o After PhD what, where?

My education broadly can be summarised as –
– 1987 : BE, DCE
– 1993 : IIM Bangalore
– 2006 : Phd, Nanyang, Spore

What did I do before your PhD?

– 1987-89 BHEL, Jhansi
– 89-91 Consulting, Bureau of public enterprises, Delhi
o Economy opened up
o Mandal commission agitation
o Tinanmen square
o Government was thinking of selling off public enterprises
Then went to IIMB, followed by –
– 1993-2002
o Marketing at ITC, Dabur, Becton Dickinson, Hometrade
§ Move from one company to another, mostly for money. That doubles at every jump!!
– 2006-Nov
o Hong Kong Polytechnic, Hong Kong

What do you expect from your job and career? piyush asked
– Money
– Job satisfaction
– Discovering self
o Discovered that I can work under stress too
– Good work environment
o Physical
o Psychological
– Designation and status
– Challenges

What am I passionate about? Questions to be asked :
– What do I love
– What is my personality
– What gets me going

A few are successful and not every one. What are chief ingredients to succeed

– Attitude
o Forming an outlook that is positive
o Solution finder than problem creator
o Self correcting attitude
o Humility to acknowledge that I need to improve
– Risk Taking
o To get into places
– Vision
– Ability to learn
– Ability to analyse
– Timing
o Recognizing right time to do MBA
o Should know when to strike it to make big impact
– Think like a manager
o If I were the manager in the org, how will I go about.
o Balancing between how to act quickly and
o If it is my company, what would I do
o To be able to be in the zone 24/7
– Take more informed decision
o Do good research
– Be a good people person
o Understand people
o Motivating people
– Be aware of the value that you are adding;
o Do not lose sight of what is happening beyond or behind

[OCB – Organizations Citizenship Behaviour : Understand
of Knowing about the organization, how it is impacting and how it is growing]

– Being able to learn on the job
o You are living in a world that is fast changing
o [Black Swann – book…]
o It always existed, but not many have seen it
o You cannot plan for a few incidents, but have to cope with
o There are people who have wider perspective and are able to see what every one talks about
o Make and see that you can adopt a few of things that you learn from
o Try and innovate and come out with your own ideas

– Have your voice
o Try and do things to raise your visibility in the organization
o When you are working in a team, take initiatives
o Eg When I was in ITC, based in odisha
§ Need to develop network with people with similar situations
§ Turn over tax was an Issue, which I thought should be taken up at the highest level
· Distribution via Bihar than directly in Odisha
· Presentation to be made to the CM
· Later they withdrew the tax
o It is about risk taking too
o Be open to learning

What motivated to do PhD?

– Passion, family in education could be one of the influencers
– I always took training modules in which ever company I have served in
· I was the best trainer in the company even when I was a sales guy
· Selling, talking to people is a passion,

How did you realize that money is not your motivation time?

– I could not see my son for the first four years of his existence
– So being with family was an important parameter

Changing companies? why?

– In the beginning it was mostly for money
– As I grew, things changed and I learnt more

Learning regarding human beings

– I worked through India and outside too
– Do not judge by the cover
– People look very different but give them a chance
– Let them share what they want to
– Do not pre-judge people

Structured vs Start up
– If you enjoy being in creative mode, dirtying hands then you will thrive
– Make mistakes now if you want to, since opportunities cost is low now

Cross-Cultural
– Organizations shape the behaviour of people within, though People shape organizational behaviour too
– Cultural intelligence
o Different levels
o People are different – do not judge through your lense
o You have to have passion – learnt tamil when I was posted in Chennai

Understanding with my boss is a process, it is not an event. You have to be very cautious and figure out what and how.

Two of the take homes from the session are –
· Passion is fundamental
· If you do not make mistakes now, when will you!!

sreeni@iwsb.in

The Journey of Mr. Smeer Walia, co-founder of ‘The Smart Cube’, as captured by Monika Sharma(IWSB pg12).

Mr. Sameer Walia, co-founder of ‘The Smart Cube’

This was a great opportunity for all of us to have a face-to-face interaction with a person of such a stature in my journey series. Mr. Sameer Walia co-founded “The Smart Cube” (TSC) in 2003 and has built the organization from a scratch over the last 4 years. He currently takes care of the India operations and is focused on developing a strong capability for the firm.

He started his words with the ultimate secret of success, which we all know ,but we never implement it in our life that is “FAITH”.  Consultancy is a desk based business in which we need computers and proper phone line but while starting this venture there was nothing with him, except his Faith on himself. Before actually starting up with his venture, Mr. Walia and his business partner outsource their business from Evalueserve and became their client.  And one fine day they decided to set up their own venture. He quit his job on sept 23,2003. And after a lot of planning he started up with his own office. He believed “whatever you do, do well”. He gave an example of that, In his office 40% of his investment was gone in a single generator, because he wanted to create an environment which would lead to increase in productivity. And the result was that, the people from city bank, world banks and London business school joined them, there was of course more analytical rigor. Their planning shifted from staring of the first year to its end, at first they planned that it is not necessary that they will succeed in first year, so failure is not a problem, but eventually they made a go for it, make or break situation and they succeeded. One more different key to their success was they didn’t have investors they own all their investment and they never run out of cash

But it was not about success only. They suffered several setbacks too.

First setback for them was, when 18 analysts out of 50-60 in numbers left them to Hyderabad to set up their own ventures. It was a huge loss for them, both emotionally and financially. Second setback was when they kicked out Sky which was an important client for them, having a turnover of $ 2.8 million, whatsoever were the issues behind it he didn’t share with us but again their business suffered. Next set back was Ceiling of their office in which, they invested Rs 2.5 crore and it was a salvage value. They went to Supreme Court for this. Their cash reserves went down to zero but they get the relief for 9 months.

Then he proceed his speech by showing his confidence that now they are strong enough to fight with any kind of problems as they have learnt a lot in this period. Of course they walked two steps forward and one step backward during those unfortunate periods but, this is a part of business, therefore you should take setbacks very calmly, and things will go on. You need challenges in life of success., It’s all about how you take it. This must not be wrong to say “There is a will, there is a Way”.

His opinion on entrepreneurship was:

It’s not about being an entrepreneur, one should be entrepreneurial. Which means being resourceful. sNo, “NO” should be there. He shared his experience with us, that while he was traveling to the Koraput his train was caught in cyclone and they stuck there for many hours. Then they saw a train which was moving in opposite direction. They caught that train and of course they didn’t reach their destination, but at least they moved from there and then took some other way of reaching there. So he always remains resourceful, so he was extremely entrepreneurial. He said even as a student we can be extremely entrepreneurial. We could be resourceful always. If we are lazy, we can’t help our self so we should be hardworking and last thing Entrepreneurship comes with huge personal sacrifices.

He also gave us ingredients of success.

There is no Magic Mantra. It’s all about luck. He also believed, there is nothing like permanent bad luck. Both good and bad luck lasts at sometime. Hard work and perseverance changes your bad luck. He gave examples of Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Rajnikant that they didn’t succeeded in one day. Akshay had 17 successive flops, but it was his bad luck, by his 18th film he was back again. It’s not about bad luck but It’s about how you face it.

About taking risk, He said:

In binary situation, it’s easy to say but difficult to live that moment, when u go to minus actually. Taking risk is core thing.

About making Decision and living consequences, he gave his views as:

Decision making is a natural procedure. While he take decisions he know it that  out of 10 ,2 of them are going to be wrong .Once you made a decision good or bad you should live with that. This kind of attitude makes life happier. It is worse to taking back your decision. People shy from a conflicting situation, but they have to take tough decisions.

Then he told about humbleness, as If we treat all as equal. If we are humble we can do many things in life. The more humanity we have, more grounded we are, more grasp we will be having in our business. These are small things which will go a long, long way. We should have ability to connect dots together. Environment should be perceived, economic and social. Analytically it’s called Trend analysis.

He gave his views on ability to with stand adversity.

He said he didn’t think success requires high IQ, It’s about high EQ, and Emotional Quotient should be high. If it is not increasing, 5-10 yrs from now, we will less likely to succeed.

He spoke about personal sacrifices also.

Personal sacrifices, includes health but biggest scarifies is time. Even we have to sacrifices time for our family too. We have to sleep less and less sleep will lead to certain consequences.  Our body is unchangeable, so we should take care of it properly, it’s very important. He said, we should be very detail focused. God lies in details, a lot people do yoyo, Up and down. Consistency matters a lot and it brings in people’s trust.

Dark side of Entrepreneur.

Speaking in his language, first of all it’s not about Money. Money is a driver, the joy and satisfaction that lead to drive. Money part is not as glamorous as it looks from outside.  There are lots of heartburns, tears. It sounds glamorous from outside. It takes away your comfort, it’s very lonely ride as an entrepreneur. It’s stressful, no back outs. It can make you a tough person. You have to take hard decisions, even if you don’t want to, as business demands it. Your antenna should always up, you can’t trust anyone. Your life will be completely changed.

This interesting session was concluded with a query session in which Mr. Walia cleared all the doubts and curiosity of the students, by enriching them with various insights of professional as well as personal life.

(The article is part of  ‘My Journey Series’  at IWSB)

“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”

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..

————————————————————————————

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.