Never Stop Learning: Bill Gates

Never Stop Learning: Bill Gates

Every now and then I like to pick up a copy of Time magazine and read every article from beginning to end, not just the articles that interest me most. That way you can be certain to learn something you didn't know previously. Learning is an essential ingredient of any successful business. As soon as you close your mind to the possibility of another reality, you are closing yourself off to other greater opportunities that lie waiting for you. In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.

The ability to be open to change and to continue to try and improve oneself and one's business is crucial to success, according to Gates. People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, there will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. If you ignore your surroundings and stop asking questions about how to improve, you will be destined to failure.

One should never stop asking questions; never stop learning. Whether you're an entrepreneur or a doctor or a software developer, it is only by increasing your understanding of the world around you that you will be able to have a significant impact. If you never stop learning, you will never stop seeing the possibilities.

Slowdown a catalyst for entrepreneurs in India

Kolkata: When Scott Adams, famed creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip, recently said that recession is often a perfect spawning ground for serious entrepreneurs, he may have been alluding to what he saw back home in the U.S. But India may also have gravitated to the same league, according to the venture capital flock.

So much so, the number of high-value business proposals have actually surged in India since slowdown began. Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) - the apex organization of venture capital and the private equity industry in India - estimates that if, in the pre-recession era, average seed funding size was around $1.5-2 million, it has now risen to $2.5-5 million, reports Economic Times.

Indications are that this may rise further as the economy bounces back by mid-2010. "In the last one year, the number of business proposals for angel or early stage funds has definitely come down, weeding out the non-serious entrepreneurs. And a serious business plans will invariably require much higher funding," says IVCA President Mahendra Swarup.

Industry estimates suggest that total VC funding deals in India have already touched $600 million in the January-September period, as compared to an average of $500 million deals which used to take place annually before the slowdown. This is despite the fact that the number of cumulative deals has come down to 150 this year till September compared to the usual 250-260 a year, says Swarup.

For instance, IFCI Venture Capital Funds has already evaluated more than 150 proposals for seed funding this year. It has already closed nine deals and hopes to close four more this quarter. "With the downturn in capital markets in 2008 and the first half of 2009, there was a definite shift, with promoters leaning more towards PE deals than IPOs and QIPs. Things may have changed in the past 6-8 months with public market valuations rising dramatically. But in the start-up stage, more often than not, promoters still prefer seed capital," says IFCI Venture Capital MD BN Nayak.

The new business proposals are across sectors with thrust on sectors like IT, ITeS, internet, new media, FMCG contract manufacturing, packaged food, logistics, infrastructure, utilities and education.
As Nayak puts it, "The Indian VC industry is different from the U.S., where venture capitalists back mostly technology product start-ups for super-normal returns. In India, there are numerous opportunities across industries that can grow 100-200 percent year-on-year and provide 4-5 times returns on investments."

Intel Capital MD (India, Japan, Australasia and South-east Asia) Sudheer K Kuppam said the pace of activity had gone up since July. "There is an enhanced deal flow in the last couple of months. There is also a lot of interest to get 3-4 companies in our portfolio listed next year," he says. Intel Capital, which in 2008 had invested $50-million in India in nine deals, has completed four deals this year with a few more in advanced stages.

Entrepreneurship sky rocketing in Indian B-schools

Bangalore: The Indian B-schools are witnessing a major shift towards entrepreneurship as more and more students forgo placements to give wings to their ideas. At Indian School of Business Hyderabad, 65 out of the 420 students signed up to forgo placements and enroll for the entrepreneurship program.

"In the last two years we had only 60 students volunteering for the entrepreneur development program. But this year, we had around 240 students showing interest for the program," says Krishna Tanuku, Executive Director of Wadhwani Centre at ISB. Tanuku adds, "Although recession is not responsible for triggering this trend, it has certainly accelerated it."

This is not the case with ISB alone. IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Lucknow are also seeing their incubation centers bustling with activities. IIM-A has already seen seven startup set ups this year. Tushar Walwadikar, final year student and Secretary of XLRI Placement Committee says, "Last year three students started their own ventures. But, this year we have more students showing interest in starting their own ventures." The trend is slowly gaining momentum. "The entrepreneurship development cell as well as the incubation facility has seen a good response this year," says Gayathri Krishnan, Secretary, External linkages (Media cell), XLRI.

Interestingly, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai provides its students with an option to return after two years for normal placements if their venture fails to kick off. Several students of this institute plan to setup an independent venture this year.

However, starting a venture is not the only path that many MBA graduates are taking. A lot of them are also opting to join their family businesses, due to the current economic scenario. Karan Oberoi, an MBA graduate from ICFAI Hyderabad, who has joined his family business says, "Everyone wants to gain some vital experience before joining their family business. However, given the current economic scenario, I didn't really have much of a choice."

While most B-schools are still grappling with the placement process, the pay packages that have so far been offered to MBA graduates are not good either. Unlike two years back, this year, MNC's hit by recession no longer throng to top tier B-schools for placements. In fact, the average salary in top tier B-schools came down by 25 percent this year. The situation has been similar in other top-line B-schools like FMS, JBIMS, XLRI, IIFT and SPJIMR which have seen a drastic decline in pay packages.

However, the fact that more and more MBA graduates are choosing to start their ventures will boost the Indian entrepreneurship eco-system further.

Indian Entrepreneur: Electricity through running trains?

INDIAN ENTREPRENEUR:

Bangalore: An Indian entrepreneur has proposed a project to Indian Railways which will allow it to generate electricity through air pressure from running trains. Santosh Pradhan, who runs a bunch of engineering and mechanical units, has almost two decades of experience in manufacturing engineering tools.

"When a train runs at a full speed of 110-120 km, it creates an air pressure in opposite direction and no one has ever thought to utilize this huge air pressure which is freely and easily available," Pradhan told PTI. As per his technology, a small impeller is fixed at the front portion of railway locomotive and similarly on top of each coach of a train. "When the train is running, it will produce huge quantity of compressed air due to high velocity of the wind and by accumulating this compressed air in big fabricated tanks on either side of the track, we can run turbines or air turbine motors which can produce a considerable amount of electricity," he explained.

Pradhan has registered 20 patents with the government of India about his technology so that he remains the sole person to further develop this technology. He has now approached the higher railways authorities to seek permission for prototype and a subsequent demonstration of this technology which he says is 'eco-friendly and cost effective'.

Pradhan said about 14,300 trains were running on 63,028 route KMs in the country and about 20.89MW electricity can be generated per km with the use of air power technology. Thus approximately 14,81,134MW of power can be generated by using the entire railway track, according to his statistics and calculations. Pradhan says that the Indian Railways was spending 17 percent revenue on the fuel head which is roughly Rs. 15,000 crore (Rs. 150 billion) per annum. He also claims that the technology can save 2,586 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission in the country.

However, it all depends on the Indian Railways to allow additional fabrication of parallel wind pipes over the over head electric lines to pass on high velocity wind to reach tanks on either of side of track, Pradhan added.

Indian entrepreneur first to sell solar power

Bangalore: Inderpreet S Wadhwa has mostly been associated with start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. He also co-founded and sold a software education company in Silicon Valley a few years back. And though he's still associated with the word 'silicon,' it does not relate to information technology. Instead, he's now the Founder and CEO of Azure Power, a solar photovoltaic company that he founded two years ago in India.

On December 1, Azure commissioned the first phase (one Mw) of its two Mw solar PV plant in Awan, Amritsar, and has begun to sell solar power to the Punjab State Electricity Board. That makes him the first entrepreneur to sell solar power commercially in India, reports Rediff.

"I returned to India after 15 years to make a difference, besides making money," says Wadhwa. "Many small and big companies have entered the fray but none of them have commissioned any projects yet."

Commercial and sentimental reasons dictated his choice of Punjab. "I was born in Amritsar, so I wanted to give something back to this place," he said. Besides, the Punjab government is offering a peak rate (peak hours are billed at higher rates) for sale of power from solar projects at Rs. 8.93 per Kwh (kilowatt-hour) from 2011-12, higher than the Rs. 3 to 4 per kwH it pays for conventional energy.

This doesn't quite cover costs (Rs. 12-20 per kwh) but because the power purchase agreement with Punjab is valid for 25 years, Wadhwa reckons he'll make money at some point, since the costs of solar power generation are expected to decline at seven to nine percent per year by 2020. Hence, Azure Power gets the benefit of reduced costs over time and it also does not have to look out for buyers during this period.

After planning to generate 18 Mw power through solar PV power plants, the state government has started to allocate other such projects. Being environment-friendly and pollution-free, the Punjab government has stated that these projects should be eligible for carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism.

Wadhwa claims that his power plant is cost-effective - the 1 Mw plant costs Rs. 17-19 crore (Rs. 170-190 million). Compared to this, public sector Bharat Petroleum Corporation is building a one Mw PV power plant in Mohali for Rs. 25 crore (Rs. 250 million).

Wadhwa argues that his costs will fall further once the prices of silicon and PV modules fall. Azure Power received initial venture capital funding from Helion Ventures and Foundation Capital. Wadhwa is also talking to other state governments like Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka to set up solar plants.

All these states offer different peaking rates and assure purchase of solar power for a given period of time in a bid to encourage renewable energy projects and reduce carbon emissions. By September 2010, Wadhwa plans to set up another plant in Punjab to take the capacity to four Mw. He also plans to set up an eight Mw plant in Gujarat by the end of financial year 2009-10. To finance these plants, he has two more investors lined up.

Azure Power's uniqueness lies in the fact that the company designs, finances, owns and operates solar power plants. The solar PV modules are imported from countries like China and Wadhwa's team assembles the important modules as "completely knocked down kits." "Had the quality been better and cost of modules manufactured in India been lower, we would have considered buying the solar PV modules from India itself," rues Wadhwa.

He explains that the solar PV modules imported from China and the U.S. can generate more power per cell and hence occupy less land. "This helps us reduce the cost of setting up plants," says Wadhwa. The favourable policy of the MNRE and the government's National Solar Mission, he hopes, will only further his cause.

Satyam employees fooled to work on fake projects

Hyderabad: Satyam ex-chairman Ramalinga Raju's fraud game did not spare even its employees. While it inflated revenue through fake invoices, the company created teams to work on the fake projects. The employees working on these 'projects' were made to believe there were clients waiting for these products to be delivered.

According to the finds of the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), the employees were also regularly sent emails about the product and project progress as if they were all coming from the clients abroad. But the emails were fake and were used only to keep the employees engaged, reports DNA.

The fraudulent chairman along with the finance in-charges and the core team created at least seven projects, showing that clients were waiting for these products to be delivered. There was regular exchange of mails from the management to the employees to give an impression of the keen interest of management in execution of these projects.

The investigation also found the invoices do not match with the ledgers of banks with which Satyam had transacted in the U.S. "However, the ledgers maintained by Satyam were dishonestly and fraudulently forged pertaining to these seven customers to incorporate the collections pertaining to all the 63 invoices," the CBI said in its latest chargesheet.

What has caught the investigators by surprise is the way the emails to employees for monitoring the progress of the fake projects were generated. The CBI found that they were all generated from Hyderabad. "Detailed analysis of the emails revealed that the internet protocol addresses from which the emails were sent at the relevant time and date were all from within Hyderabad itself, which clearly shows that such emails have never emanated from these seven foreign customers. Further, it was also established that these emails were relayed by the Rediffmail server which has got a paid service facility called Domain Services, which facilitates its clients to create email IDs at their own domain names.

In this case, it was found that the payments for the said services were made through Bank of Baroda Visa credit card which belongs to D Venkatapathy Raju (one of the accused)," the chargesheet said. These email IDs were freely used by the core team working on fabricating the accounts to give sanctity to the fake projects. "For the purpose of executing the projects, which were never delivered to the customers, the accused have wasted thousands of man hours of the associates of Satyam there by incurring a wasteful expenditure to the tune of Rs65.88 crore towards the salaries of the associates and other overheads," the CBI said.

By siliconindia news bureau
Tuesday,08 December 2009, 13:47 hrs

Manish Patel: A Peon turns award-winning copywriter

Mumbai: Over the years you might have heard of many fairy tale stories, when a boy from a poor background reaches the pinnacle of success through his sheer will power and hard work. We bring you one such story of Manish Patel who got the job of an office boy with a Mumbai-based ad agency and is today an award-winning script writer.
According to a press release launched by Publicis Ambience, The 27-year-old had joined the company at the age of 18 as an office boy, anxious to support his household. "I was like a dying man desperate for oxygen. I was looking for something in admin but that's not how it worked out," Patel says. Two weeks on the job, however, and Patel says even his circumstances couldn't force him to work at a position below what he had expected. "I was ready to quit when someone from Admin happened to go on leave and I took his place for two months," he says. His employers noted his enthusiasm and commitment and were forced to reconsider his post.

Seven months later, Patel found himself in a job that took care of the office library. Here, he got curious about a breed of people who would touch up faces, go out for smokes and think together. "I want to learn this magic," he says, and approached the creative director, who lent him a helping hand along his way.

After three years of hard work and patiently working on feedback from various supportive creative heads, Patel was convinced that he was cut out for creative work and even freelanced with small time clients, outside of work, during his tenure as the library-in-charge. "I was like an unused chair, gathering dust in a corner for 15 years. Then someone takes a piece of cloth, dusts it, and it smiles. Like that, I felt my brain smiled. I got the freedom to think," Patel said.

Two year ago, Patel bagged Silver Radio Lion award at Cannes for his script that promotes a recruitment consultant firm. But what is truly fascinating is not about the award itself, but about Patel's journey to the Silver Radio Lion. "It took me seven years to write those lines", says Patel.

Commenting on Patel's win, Aniruddha Banerjee, President and COO of Publicis Ambience said: "This is indeed a real life fairy-tale. We are very proud of Patel and his achievements. It goes to show how highly Publicis values its talents and that we give opportunities to promising people who are willing to prove themselves. Manish is an excellent example of this."

Reflecting upon his journey, Patel adds that: "The metropolis does not wait for those who lags behind. When you see other people moving as fast, you have no choice but to pick yourself up, or they take you with them."

By siliconindia news bureau
Saturday,12 December 2009, 09:05 hrs