Why I Can't be an Entrepreneur

Too much work, if I have to put it succintly. Matlab, there are no defined work hours. The buck stops with you, so everyone looks up to you for advice, guidance and operational decisions. How do I know? I have worked with promoters in the education sector.

Also, chasing payments is one part of their role- or any role- that I dislike. Of course, many of those I worked with had the reverse problem-they wouldn't pay vendors on time, until they were  chased for months.

I would rather be at peace knowing that I can leave it all if I feel like it, and let the CEOs or promoters carry the burden the rest of the time. 

Work-life balance is a thing, yaar.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

 Made in JIS is a competition that enables students in teams to propose innovative ideas that can be turned into commercial products, after planning and mentoring through an incubator. We had a competitive evaluation through our faculty, Debmitra Ghosh, who coordinated the event, and a distinguished panel of judges. Ms. Jaspreet Kaur, Director, JIS group is the chief supporter and patron of this event.

We were at the inauguration of the finale, termed the Celeb edition, recently. Some pics- 

Jury members, VC, and Ms. Jaspreet Kaur, along with us Pro VCs. Above.

One of the jury members, being felicitated. Above.

Unique Skills

 Ok, managerial skills include organising, leading, communicating, starting up and so on. Some people I know who do this well, from my experience

Anshita Abhishek Shetty, whose birthday it is today, organised two parties with good attendance, for me when I asked her to. It's not an easy task, though she made it look easy.

T.K. Chatterjee, a colleague at IMT Nagpur, led the placement team successfully when I was Director. Before him, Harsh Halve was also successful at it. Both motivated a team of people too.

Narayani Ramachandran, a colleague at NMIMS Bangalore, had a way with students, pushing them to do things beyond their usual capabilities. 

Pritam Singh, my boss at IIM Lucknow long ago, had a way of recruiting faculty, convincing companies to do training programs, and so on. 

Startups- Shatakshi Tripathi started Confused Genius- a digital marketing company, and sold it too, successfully navigating the COVID years through remote working employees. Natasha Kothari, a friend I met recently, does this at Studio Ungap, which she started roughly 5 years ago, as a Digital Marketing outfit in Mumbai. Divya Singh also did this with a firm called Cyclitics, still running successfully at Gurgaon. And a couple of them, like Swati Sinha and Aditi Atre, sell stuff like handloom sarees, art etc. Aditi Gupta does the same abroad, through Abhivyakti.

Budget Blues

 Every time a budget was being presented, salaried employees used to crowd around the radio/TV to check if income tax rates were being reduced. Maybe corporates for the same reason- corporate tax on income, in their case. 

Today, the middle class is probably much better off than 20 years ago. So maybe the I.T. rates are less of a concern. But maybe they still look for other sops, particularly for senior citizens. Interest rates being low, their savings are not going to earn much, and surviving with greater medical expenses may be a challenge for some.

Farmers have nothing much to worry about, at least from the budget. Their demands are taken care of through other channels. Small businesses or potential entrepreneurs may look for entrepreneurship-boosting initiatives. 

Post Script: Taxing the Provident Fund interest seems like a bad idea to me. By this logic, rich farmers ought to be taxed before any more tax is levied on the same segment- the salaried service class.

The Art of Getting Offended

Of all the skills needed to survive today (2020), the one of paramount importance is knowing how to get offended. You don't always have to lead a riot, though that can grab headlines in national media for a few hours to a few days. But you must do it right, and therefore, there is a market for Skill-building courses involving this skill. Entrepreneurship, e-commerce and food delivery are passe.

There is no need to impress upon you why this skill is important. If you don't get offended these days, you are a nobody. You may think you are something great like a Social Media Influencer with thousands of followers, but if you don't get offended regularly, you will lose all those followers. The only other way to get loyal followers is to get into scandals regularly. But getting offended is easier. Let me explain.

You can get offended by almost anything. That's a huge advantage. If the name of a new film is not to your liking, you can get offended. If the film shows your profession in a bad light (even if fictionally), you can still get offended. If the director does not apologise for the imaginary slights, you can get offended. Even if he does, you can get offended by his insincerity in apologising. You get the point?

If someone tells a joke involving gender, ethnicity, nationality, eating habits, accent, what-have-you, you can get offended. Humorists and cartoonists (the ones that are out of jail) will have a tough time because of you too- an added plus for getting offended.

If you are offended by this blog post, it would have served a purpose-of educating you as to the importance of the whole thing.

Create Something That Americans Want to Copy

Guy Kawasaki (a favourite author of mine) said this in reply to a question from an Indian interviewing him on TV in India recently. He also said the following-

On Fake news- It is whatever news you disagree with-only sometime later do you really know if its fake.

On the origin of Facebook- Facebook started because Mark wanted a date, and not because he thought the world needed a new method of communication.

On Entrepreneurs Selling Out- They want to make money, and improvement to people's lives is a by-product.

On Big Data- Big data does not have all the answers-it can also be all lies.

Successful Investing- Most investors don't know which idea will succeed. In retrospect, they claim that this idea was backed by a good team, blah, blah, blah.. For one (investment in) Google that succeeded, many failed.

Unusual Business Ideas

In India, we are different. We walk different, we talk different, we spit (yuck) different.

Thus, there is a case for different business ideas.

1. Acid factory for acid-throwers. This is not a game. Serious maiming of face happens in cases of spurned love, or just for settling old enmity. Brisk sales guaranteed.

2. Betting syndicates for any event. Not restricted to games, or racing. What time the boss will come to office, could be bet on. Bosses that defy Murphy's laws (If you are late, he will be early, and vice versa) . Or, there could be bets on who will have a wardrobe malfunction in the next celebrity gathering/award function, etc.

3. Mall development. We believe malls are necessary for improving the GDP, which is not really improving, by the way. But we must keep trying. Never give up. Even if nobody shops in them. Empty ones can always run a B school. Or a nursing college.

4. School for Mobile phone calling etiquette. The students will have only one course to pass- How not to Annoy the Receiver of Calls. If they can learn this one thing, your job is done. But who would enroll? A question to Ponder.

5. Media anchoring school. This will have high decibel shouting matches in class, with no one able to hear the other. Direct placement offers from Times Now will follow- not now, later.

I am Starting an Airline, How About You?

Budding entrepreneurs, I am letting out a secret. This is the business to be in today, in case you are not in it.

Start an airline. I am starting one in a couple of days. Apparently, it takes very little to start one. There are venture capitalists to fund you, fuel companies to give you credit, and others to bail you out. And passengers who book flights in the fond hope that they'll take off. And employees who will work in the fond hope of getting paid.

You can blame everyone and everything but yourself when anything goes wrong. Like the fuel prices, the global slowdown, the Al Qaeda, 9/11, 26/11, anything/11, and their ancestors.

And if the airline fails to take off, you can get into a socially relevant field, say microfinance? If nothing else, you can always sell out, because the urge to own an airline is stronger than the urge to create your own spitting image in humankind, so there is always a buyer.

Institute Day

We actually have a day (when IMT Nagpur started in 2004) designated for awarding scholarships to students in recognition for their academic achievements in year one of their PGDM (MBA). It is like a mini-convocation, and it was on July 26th, yesterday. There were a hall-full of well-dressed students (is that an oxymoron?), and a chief guest who is an incurable Nagpur-lover. He has stayed back, and intends to stay on in the city.

Mr. Srikant Sampath is an active entrepreneur, who has set up two companies, in two different areas of enterprise- real estate and HR. It was interesting to hear him talk of success in different forms, for students at various levels of the CGPA curve. This matches my ideas that a person should not be judged by his grades alone. Grades reflect a current judgement of academic ability and motivation, but those "backward" in this measurement may excel at some other things- extra-curriculars, that may lead to a career, for example. As you can see, I might have been a full-time writer had I not been a prof.

Currently reading a biography of my favorite Bond- Roger Moore. Hitler came pretty close to finishing him off, by bombing London when he was a boy, it seems.

Idlis and Orchids

Read a book called Idlis, Orchids and Willpower, written by Mr. Vithal Kamat who started the eco-friendly Orchid Hotel close to Mumbai airport. He is also from the family that runs Samrat and a couple of other restaurants in Mumbai. What I found interesting is that it is a service business (because I teach Services marketing), and a non-IT service business (because we have seen a lot written about them. Also, he has won several global awards for the environment-friendly ideas he has used in The Orchid.

In doing all this, he has drawn inspiration from a very traditional father and a home-maker mother. Also, he does not mince words about his siblings, and how family squabbles erupted at some points. Interesting style of writing too, not very sophisticated but appears to be straight from the heart. Interesting read for someone interested in biographies of entrepreneurs.

Coincidences

I happened to meet a student I had taught in 1991 while I worked at XIM. He came to the IMT Nagpur campus for recruiting our students. I do run into people from the past most unexpectedly. Another coincidence happened at a relative's place. I was trying to explain to a visitor about what IMT is and what I do there. To my surprise, he turned out to be a vendor of some services to our institute. A couple of days later, he was in my office discussing business.

An important visitor, the global head of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) visited the campus today. He lives in Silicon Valley, USA, and shared lots of experiences with students. He said from personal experience that India is now much more entrepreneur-friendly than it was in the days of Infosys starting up. We are hoping to do some joint events with TiE in future, through a student group called Kushagra, formed specifically by people who want to become entrepreneurs at some point.