“Bottom of the pyramid” is a misonomer

Well, if the headline made you think and assume the tone of the article to be otherwise, it has served its purpose. Coming to the focus of the article, would like to put forth my views on why “Bottom of the pyramid” should be top on the priority list not just for businesses of all hues and sizes irrespective of where they are based and operate.

Marketing of the yore is truly dead

It is something that traditional marketers may not like to hear. The way marketing currently works and is delivered will have to take a U turn to be even relevant. All that and more insights emerged in a PRHUB interaction with Arun Sinha, winner of AMA Marketer of the Year in 2005 and currently the Head of Global Marketing at Pitney Bowes Inc., USA, a Fortune 500 firm.

Looking for a proven way to build a credible brand? The answer lies within

Over the past few years the Indian economy has seen a visible and substantial shift towards the services sector with its growth outstripping the manufacturing sector by leaps and bounds. In any services business irrespective of its nature and its target audience, the critical factor to success lies in the commitment and quality of people inside. The reason why most services companies today are looking to build a strong corporate brand. It is the same reason that explains the growing finesse and level of corporate messaging in recruitment advertising. Unlike building a brand from a consumer perspective building a brand which includes talent attraction and retention as a key objective needs to have a lot more emphasis on credibility of the brand-building process and the vehicles used. In the ensuing few paragraphs will briefly attempt to provide an answer for the same.

Integrated communications is the way to go – agreed; But hang on, the similarity just ends there

As an industry insider and like most professionals am happy with the prominence accorded to integrated communications as a concept and it being touted as the next big thing. However, of late that happiness is giving way to wariness of the lopsided manner in which many in the industry are projecting or communicating it to be. Before I try to focus on what truly is 360’ etc. let me get one thing straight:

Entrepreneurship as a career option comes into its own

While the financial success and leadership position of Narayana Murthy and many others of his ilk from the technology industry is widely talked about there is one more far-reaching impact they have had which is not that equally hyped. Pre-their success, entreprenuership in the business context was primarily a family bastion and the reserve of springs and offsprings of existing businessmen and traders. The professionals and professional managers were conditioned to believe that their wont is to do a job and do it well and being the ultimate master of their own destiny is not an option at all.

All entrepreneurship is truly global in some sense

Running a beach resort in the Caribbean – is your entrepreneurship local or global? Well, my premise and strong conviction is that at some level and in some sense all entrepreneurship however local is truly global. Sounds surprising, here is why I believe so strongly:

Challenges facing an entrepreneur

Picking up from where I left in the last article, there are three more key challenges facing an entrepreneur today.

Patience to wait for the right time/opportunity
One of the learnings shared by seasoned and successful entrepreneurs is that start-ups cannot afford to pass on any opportunity, no matter how small. One needs to see business much like a game of PacMan, you can bag big fish only by learning to swallow small ones. The biggest advantage of starting small is that it allows you to find out what the industry and market is all about and make mistakes when one can still afford it.

How about getting out of the box???

Often while running a business one of the biggest frustrations faced by those who head and run it is that they seem to often hit an air pocket with no solution in sight. It could be an issue that is internal like team dynamics, external like unreasonable customers, delayed payments, errant suppliers and confusing market conditions. Or it could be even the bullying behavior of a bigger competitor who is ruthlessly trying to put you down or cut off your supplies. Often in these situations, the frustration is seemingly endless because whatever seemingly logical approach you try (i.e. one that has been attempted before) it seems the issue never goes away.

Key challenges before today’s entrepreneurs

While there has been a clear explosion of opportunities for an entrepreneur today, so have the challenges that they face. In this article, which would be split into two parts, would like to highlight some of those key challenges (by no means exhaustive) that await budding entrepreneurs.

Empty pockets? No hassles as long as you have an idea in it!

There are many, many popular myths about money from a venture point of view, which have been overblown. While to some extent they are true, in an entrepreneurship context, they have become fairly irrelevant over the past decade or so. In the license and industrial era everything was about financial capital – capital to put up plants, to pay license fees etc. etc.