Transforming idea into a product

Posted on October 25, 2007

Transforming idea into a product
Mahul Brahma, TNN

It was a bit of ‘jealousy’ towards a classmate that made Phani N Raj a businessman. School time memory of a student who had personalised clothing and stationery continued to be etched strong in his mind till much later, making him leave his PricewaterhouseCoopers job and start the branding company eYantra. “He was from the US and his cap, pencil box, T-shirt, everything had his name on it. I yearned for such personalised stuff, but there was nothing in India then to meet my demand.”

This got him thinking until he arrived at an idea to set up virtual stores where buyers can choose personalised stuff and get them delivered at their doorsteps. Mr Raj is one of the very few with the entrepreneurial spirit who have managed to be lucky enough to convert an idea into business. But most people end up thinking and discussing their bright ideas, but stop short of converting them to prototypes. Experts say there is a set of easy steps that could help any one to nurture a thought and take it forward to see if the kernel of a viable business is contained in it.

Look for it

The first thing, of course, is to remain alert to the sights and experiences one comes across, because big ideas may be lurking in the most unlikely corners. For Shalabh Sahai, who co-founded the volunteering service MITRA, it all started at the college canteen over tea.

He had been trying to understand why there was a communication gap between individuals who wanted to volunteer for social service and the groups that were organising such efforts. “It became our favourite topic of discussion at the canteen,” he says. Thus arose an idea for setting up an online exchange for volunteers.

It also helps to jot down an idea to see if it stands the test of time. A great idea may not sound all that great, when considered a day later. An idea is just of a few words long. Only when you sit down and pen it you realise the real picture. It is crucial to go into the details.

You need to ask yourself the right questions — what is the compelling need it fulfils, who will benefit from it, is there demand for it and who will fund it? Preparing a business model answering these questions is vital, says Mr Sahai. The answers will tell you whether to pursue the idea or drop it.

Read the market

An idea from a rookie entrepreneur would be worthless if the product or service doesn’t have the prospect of demand in the market. Industry associations, websites, journals and professional agencies can all help, but an innovator needs to have well-defined ideas on whether a market exists. This is but the first step to gain confidence that an idea can work.

If the demand picture is hazy or non-existent, one should have the courage to drop the idea and move on to other things. Sometimes, ideas emerge from necessities. When you have too many projects to handle and too few people and you can’t be at the office 24×7.

Emails and phone calls may not be sufficient to handle the complexity of the work. Sahil Parikh, founder and president of Synage, came up with a solution for his office — Deskaway. A software program that helps execute projects online. “The concept was new in India, but I was sure if it is a hit in my office it will be in the market,” says Mr Parikh.

Ideas can be ahead of their time

Latent demand doesn’t immediately translate into a viable business opportunity and some ideas, attractive as they seem, might simply be ahead of their time. But there are people who have stuck to their business and made it a success in due course of time. An idea who time is yet to come need not necessarily fail, but the entrepreneur must be able to envision the trend of the future that might make it succeed.

“I thought of specialising in cyber law and starting cyberlawcollege.com, when even the concept of internet was new,” Bangalore-based consultant Naa Vijayashankar (Naavi) says. “An idea ahead of times is not accepted well,” but perseverance pays. “Now, I have become a specialist in cyber law by default. So, you need to wait for the right time to come and don’t lose faith in your idea. Believe that if not today, five years down the line, it will click,” he says.

When criminal lawyer KS Kohli wanted to start a seven-day cabin crew training for airlines, everyone thought he was crazy as all other institutes offered full-year courses. But, he knew that Indian skies were going to be opened up for competition and there would be a surge in the need for flight crew. He stuck to the idea and built a successful operation, branded Frankfinn.

Customise to market needs

The aim should be to gain a general sense of the type of customer your product or service will serve. Identify your clients well enough so that you can modify your product as per their need. If the business is designed to serve the domestic market, it should have that flavour. “People work differently in different countries. So, it is very important to give Indian touch to your product,” says Mr Parikh.

eYantra’s Mr Raj says that he moved over from personalised stuff to corporate brand recall after the internet bust and it worked. MITRA’s Mr Sahai agrees: “We start as novices so we should never be too rigid. We need to learn and adjust our ideas to changes and be open to modifications.”

It is also important to hear people out. Because sometimes your business idea may come from the person you least expect it from, just casually, even over beer. M Sanjay Kanth, CEO, founder, ESS Solutions, was originally in the medical transcription business. But, the industry was losing its sheen. He knew the president of a title company based out of Baltimore. That person told Mr Kanth that there was refinance boom in the US which has resulted into a huge backlog in terms of production.

Incidentally, his brother M Sujay Kanth, who is now the COO of ESS, happened to be in US to explore business opportunities. They took up this opportunity. This was their first break. “Initially, we had no clue of what was going on and it was very hard to grasp. We took it as a challenge and Sujay got trained in their office for about 40 days after which we started the transition to my India office from 2004,” says Mr Kanth.

Sell the idea to investors

Money is often the biggest bridge that a first-time entrepreneur has to cross. It is important to sell the concept to potential investors. The startup should also detail a proper plan of how much money needs to be raised and how it would be spent. Projecting cash flow milestones will become easier if the homework to understand the demand had been done. There are also investment bankers who help you get venture capital against a ‘success fee’ i.e they will only charge you if you get funding.

But, there is another way in which entrepreneurs get going. They first start a small establishment, may be in a garage with a bit of furniture, and ramp up as the business builds itself. Frankfinn’s Mr Kohli started his business Frankfinn Medico Infoservices by borrowing Rs 40,000 from his friend. But, when the right time came, he used his own fund for starting cabin crew training business. Remember, the customer must eventually “pay” for your business. Everybody else is waiting to get paid. Loss-making as a business virtue perished with the dotcom bust.

Start now
All the risk you have taken by giving up your cosy job or turning down a big offer has finally paid back. Well, once things are in place just get started. Your idea is now a viable business proposition and has a funding. So, what are you waiting for? “It is very important when starting out is to be mentally prepared for a different journey filled with uncertainty and excitement. This entrepreneurial journey will teach you more about yourself than you would have ever known doing anything else,” says Mr Parikh.

‘It’s vital to connect with yourself’

Posted on October 25, 2007 Updated on June 6, 2015

‘It’s vital to connect with yourself’
Viren Naidu, TNN

Shailja Dutt, Founder and Managing Director, Stellar Search and Selection Pvt Ltd speaks about her love for dance and the eagerness to solve crosswords!

Mantra

I think it is vital to connect with “yourself” and find the time I call ‘ME TIME’ – my time away from work, home, responsibilities, chores and duties – to do the things I enjoy and those that energise me to go back to work and my kids completely recharged. Several professionals with very hectic schedules and tenuous work-life balance will probably share the same thought. Eventually, when you have worked hard to achieve your goals, you must play hard to enjoy!

Dance

I have always loved to dance. A couple of years ago, I thought it would be fun to learn to Tango, and ended up learning Salsa, Cha Cha, etc. I attended classes with my younger brother but unfortunately, now I do not get the time. Personally, I think both business and dance are about passion and being nimble on your toes!

Art

I have been singing since I was a child and have been often complimented on having a great voice. So, after having kids and after taking my business to the next level, I thought why not train my voice? My guruji would come home to give lessons and even though I haven’t performed professionally, my friends are always being regaled by impromptu my performances.

Puzzle

Solving the crossword has become a habit. Before, I go to sleep, I have to finish the daily crossword in the newspaper. I have been doing that for years now. But in Sudoku, I am actually finding my feet and my son is better than me.

Style

To me pursuing an interest is a priority as is work and family. I also learn Spanish and do Yoga a couple of times a week. Though my days are hectic, I have never missed a single important event in the life of my children or my family.

The big picture

Posted on October 25, 2007

The big picture
Jacob Cherian, TNN

At a popular party venue just outside Delhi, about 3,000 had been asked to gather one evening four years ago. They were the employees of Daksh, a business process outsourcing firm, and they were a little perplexed.

No speeches, no presentations and none of the usual gobbledygook unleashed in motivation camps. They were just being shown short clips from a range of Hollywood films: Pretty Woman, Titanic, Gone in 60 Seconds and Mighty Joe Young.

What the then-CEO, Sanjeev Aggarwal, was trying to do was to communicate with his large team what he wanted from them to build the organisation.

From Gone in 60 Seconds, he highlighted the need to set a target (steal 50 cars) and accomplish it within the allotted time (three days).

In Pretty Woman, the clip showed Julia Roberts’ character getting ill-treated by a store keeper, but later treated with respect by the manager of a hotel. By showing this, Daksh wanted its employees to treat everyone properly, irrespective of status.

A Titanic scene in which the music troupe keeps on playing even as the giant ship is sinking, demonstrated to the employees devotion to customer service comes first.

On that one evening, Aggarwal succeeded in communicating his vision across his company, without having to resort to motivational posters around the office. The unique experience also stayed in the minds of the employees, helping them constantly remember the lessons.

Very often, a startup puts together a team and people are attracted to it because of the excitement of being part of a startup, a bigger paycheck or even a stake. They hear what the target of the company is, but they are not sure what it stands for. While a vision is set for the company, the values need to be put into place as well.
A business leader needs to articulate the corporate vision clearly so that the organisation’s progress towards its goals can be effectively monitored and employees are empowered to take decisions on the move. “Someone once said that leadership is not about leading from the front. It’s like herding cats; you have to herd them from the back. If you are at the back then the ones in front have to know where they are heading. The paradigm where leaders assign tasks is gone. Sharing the vision helps people make decisions on the fly. They can take decisions in the appropriate direction without feeling lost about it,” says Alok Mittal, managing director of Canaan Partners.

Some like Laura Parkin, executive director of National Entrepreneurship Network, believes that a team wouldn’t even be formed without sharing the vision. “The only reason anyone would join a startup is if they see the same vision as the entrepreneur,” she says.

There are entrepreneurs who hesitate to share their vision with the rest of their startup team, worrying they may share too much and lose the idea to someone else. Some may simply be unable to articulate the long-term goals for the company. “Many entrepreneurs are poor communicators. Though they see the light, they are unable to share it,” says Mr Aggarwal, who is now the managing director of Helion Ventures.

For the tongue-tied entrepreneur, help is now available from industrial psychologists, corporate trainers and motivational speakers who can help her/him voice it. One such person is Uma Arora, the founder of Idam Learning. Quoting from her experience, she cited the case of a startup firm that had been growing slow and losing people.

“After examining this company closely we realised that they all (team members) hadn’t arrived at a set of values and that their visions were purely in numeric form. They goal was to gain a certain market share, but we didn’t see any vision of what the quality of the company was. There is very often an excessive focus on numbers and not on what kind of company it should be,” she says.

“What I find among today’s entrepreneurs, and there are exceptions of course, is that when we dig deep enough, we see that their vision is simply to raise the valuation and sell it off,” she points out, continuing, “If this is the case then you have to learn to speak two languages. One for your confidantes and core team, and the other for your employees.”

For the entrepreneur with the big picture dreams, the vision and values can be etched in stone. For retail chain Subhiksha, it has remained “Be the largest player in the market we operate in and give the consumer the lowest cost.”

Subhiksha is now 920 stores-strong. “Instead of sharing the vision, co-own the vision,” says R Subramanian the founder of Subhiksha. Their vision and values was set back in 1996 when the six member core team set sail.

“If you get the core team into the formulation process, then it becomes our idea and not my idea. Here the team sets the goals, the values and works backwards from there,” says Mr Aggarwal. In 2000, Daksh asked the members of the 25-member core team to make presentations on what it the values of the organisation should be. At the end of the day the funnelled it down and handed it to the human resource department to make it into posters and cards to be distributed.

Sometimes the vision and values change and entrepreneurs must be ready to face it. They can be purists and decide to stay true to their original plan. Or they could evolve with the market for higher gains. “Our initial mission statement was ‘build exceptional customer relationships by leveraging India’s high quality, cost effective intellectual capital.’ In 2000, we thought that India would be the place from where we would deploy our services. We eventually discovered we could deploy our services from Mexico and Philippines as well. So we had to modify our mission statement,” says Mr Aggarwal.

In the case of a large organisation, hitting upon the right vision could be a day-long process that involves numerous people, a clubhouse, a buffet lunch and PowerPoint presentations. For a lone entrepreneur or small team, this could happen at the coffee shop on a paper napkin. “There are a lot of personal styles involved in communicating a vision. But first of all you (the entrepreneur) have to be clear in your head. Clarity and brevity is essential. If the entrepreneur were to write down their vision, if it is longer than even a 150 words, then it is too long,” says Ms Parkin, NEN.

The vision is a mix of numerical targets, values and big picture plan. These automatically set up a monitoring system. ‘’How you do’ and ‘what you do’ is a derivative of ‘where you want to go’,” says Mr Subramanian. Ms Parkin says: “We ask people to envision what their success looks like, and then work towards that.”

Aggarwal and Subramanian had the courage to think out of the box and disseminate their vision innovatively and effectively. As a result, the companies they founded have grown beyond their peers and broke their own targets. Great companies don’t just get the big picture right, but also hang it on the wall for everyone to see.