by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Opinions, Startup Basics
By Frank Islam,
India is blessed to be the third-largest start-up economy in the world. Unfortunately, there is a curse that comes with that blessing. That is, as indicated in a 2016 report issued by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics, 90 per cent of Indian start-ups fail within five years.
The question is what can be done to reduce the number of failures? What are the secrets to success for India’s budding entrepreneurs and its business start-ups? There are many. But, based upon research findings and my own experience as an entrepreneur, I would like to highlight a critical few.
The IBM/Oxford report cited the lack of innovation as the primary reason for failing start-ups. A 2017 report by KMPG India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) cited innovation, along with scalability and digitisation, as one of the three pillars for building a sustainable business.
So, what does an entrepreneur do to innovate? Here is the surprising answer that Vivek Wadhwa, a noted American IT researcher, academic, writer and entrepreneur, gave in an article in the Washington Post on April 30: “In a video-conference hosted by Indian start-up website Inc42, I gave Indian entrepreneurs some advice that startled them. I said that instead of trying new things, they should copy and steal all the ideas they can from China, Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.”
Wadhwa goes on to explain that the reason that Silicon Valley is the international leader and hotbed for information technology is that there is considerable “knowledge sharing” as engineers move from company to company. He observes that tech giants such as Facebook and Apple borrow and build on the ideas of others.
The KPMG/CII report makes a similar point on innovation, stating: “Not all innovation is radical or breakthrough. Innovation can also be incremental, yet small materially significant changes to the current operating model or products or services.”
I would extend that even further to recommend that the focus for entrepreneurial innovation should be encompassing — considering potential improvements in the areas known as the 7 P’s of services marketing: Product, Pricing, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Evidence.
In addition, based upon my experience as an entrepreneur who took an information technology firm, the QSS Group, that I purchased in 1994 for $45,000 and one employee — me — to sales of over $300 million and 3,000 employees when I sold it to Perot Systems in 2007, I would offer the following advice that I gave in the keynote address to the participants at US-India Start-Up Forum sponsored by American Bazaar in Mumbai, in February 2017:
* Believe in yourself and your business. Pursue your end goal with drive, determination and a passion to succeed.
* Find and focus on your niche market. Figure out early on who will be your target customer segments and key customers within those segments and build your business model around them.
* Deliver quality products and services that exceed customer expectations. Merely satisfying your customer is not good enough. They need to receive the unanticipated in order to become loyal. This is as true for the neighborhood kirana stores as for Apple and Google.
* Surround yourself with talented people. Pay them well. Listen to them. Learn from them. And work closely with them. Remember, business is a team sport and not an individual one.
* Have no fear of failure. India is a market where investors have little tolerance for failure. But fear can be crippling. Put your faith in your plan and yourself and carry on.
While the strategies and tactics will differ given the nature of the business, I believe that addressing those five factors, along with the need for ongoing innovation, are cross-cutting and can be used by an entrepreneur to provide the framework for becoming successful in any start-up line of business.
There is no single formula for success, however, and the future is promised to no-one. Therefore, I will close with this final thought.
In a commencement address at Stanford University, Steven Jobs advised the graduates: “Your time is limited; so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
For budding entrepreneurs and owners of start-ups, I would modify Jobs’ advice and say: “Your time is limited; so don’t waste it trying to emulate someone else’s business. Don’t be a mere ‘me too’ business. Don’t be a clone. Find your inner entrepreneur. Chart your own path. Create a mission, vision and set of values that are unique to your enterprise. In other words, make it your journey. By doing so, you will define those secrets to success that will enable you to grow your small business of today into the big business of tomorrow.”
(Frank F. Islam is a well-known entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Startup Basics, Technology
By Bhavana Akella,
Bengaluru : At a time when India is listed as being home to among the most depressed citizens of the world, Bengaluru has been witnessing a steady change in its start-up space, with a number of firms coming up to address the issues around mental health using technology.
According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) study in 2014, India is among the leading countries whose citizens are battling depression and anxiety.
Even with an alarming situation in which over 50 million (WHO study, 2015) Indians are fighting depression each day, there are only about 0.3 psychiatrists and 0.07 psychologists for every 100,000 people in the country, as per WHO statistics.
It is against this background that start-ups are taking to artificial intelligence (AI) and modern technological means to keep a keen eye on the mental health of Indians.
“Shattering the stigma attached to mental health in the country” was one of the reasons that prompted entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal to start Mind.fit, a segment dedicated to mental wellness through his wellness start-up Cure.fit.
“Unfortunately, mental health is a much-neglected aspect in India. Given the rising cases of lifestyle diseases, we wanted to build a unique, customer-focused holistic health solution that inculcates mental wellness,” Bansal told IANS.
“There is a gradual increase in the number of people taking some steps towards coping with anxiety, hypertension, stress and other issues. This is a positive sign,” he admitted.
Mind.fit was conceptualised by renowned psychiatrist Shyam Bhat, who had also helped actor Deepika Padukone battle depression.
Offering DIY (do it yourself) sessions on their Cure.fit application and through the Mind.fit centre in Bengaluru and in other cities, which are to be launched by 2018, the start-up aims to bring the aspect of mental health “out into the open”.
“We have such a huge population and many millions affected by mental illnesses. Everyone living in urban India is at risk,” Bhat told IANS.
“The mission has been to bring mental health out into the open. We have no way to beat the problem with conventional means as we do not have enough psychiatrists,” he said.
“So the idea behind Mind.fit was to bring something for our minds, the same way we have gyms for our bodies,” the psychiatrist added.
According to Indian online doctor consultation platform, Lybrate, people aged between 25 and 45 were 50 percent more likely to have mental health issues than any other age group.
The numbers are even higher when it comes to the urban population. According to the National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-16, urban Indians are 2-3 times more likely to face stress-related mental issues.
Hence the start-ups believe that the issue has to be addressed through non-conventional means like technology.
“Everyone was using technology for the sake of marketing, but we wanted to use it for a social change — to address mental health issues,” said Jo Aggarwal, the founder of Wysa, an emotionally intelligent chatbot that acts as a “virtual coach” in improving people’s mental health.
Through the AI bot, which was launched for the public in January, the firm has been able to provide mental health support to over 90,000 users in around 30 countries.
The chatbot enables users to chat with it anonymously and seek medical help when required.
“People don’t want others to know that they are depressed and Wysa helps in offering support while maintaining anonymity,” Aggarwal added.
Bengaluru-based LeanOnMe is another such platform that is making use of a mobile application to let counselling be available to everyone.
“Technology is only an enabler in fighting social stigma,” said Jennyfer Rajan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LeanOnMe.
“In a world where people are afraid to seek medical help directly due to the fear of being labelled, technology helps people break that fear,” she added.
(Bhavana Akella can be contacted at bhavana.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Muslim World, Networking, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
Tehran : Iran’s minister of telecommunication and information technology said on Sunday that Apple’s ban on the Iranian apps will result in the developments of domestic technologies.
Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi described recent decision of Apple Inc to remove Iranian apps from its store in alleged compliance with US economic sanctions as a testimony to Iran’s right path and success to develop local start-ups, Tasnim news agency reported, Xinhua reported.
Azari-Jahromi said when an archenemy like the US places such embargoes on Iranian technologies, Iran should grow investment on domestic technologies.
What the US company did lately attested to Iran’s movement in the right direction, he said, adding that “the US never imposes sanctions on our weak points, but does on our strong points.”
On Friday, the Iranian minister said his country would legally sue a recent decision by Apple for removing Iranian apps from its app store.
Apple holds 11 percent share of the Iranian cellphone market, however, it has not observed the Iranian consumer rights, said Azari-Jahromi.
“We will legally sue (the issue of) removing of the apps,” he said.
Pursuant to the US sanctions, Apple has no official presence in Iran. Millions of Iranians use iPhones smuggled in from different countries and thousands of apps have been created for Iranians in Apple’s app store.
On Thursday, Apple removed Snapp, a ride-hailing app similar to Uber that is popular in Iran, from its app stores. That was followed by the removal in recent weeks of apps for food delivery, shopping and other services.
In a message to Iranian developers whose apps were affected by the ban, Apple said, “under the US sanctions regulations, the app store cannot host, distribute or do business with apps or developers connected to certain US embargoed countries.”
In January, Apple shut down a number of Iran-based IOS apps from the app store, including online e-commerce service Digikala.
“Since Apple takes a cut of all app store purchases, sales from Iranian apps generate revenue and are thus in violation of US law,” Apple said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
Lucknow, (IANS) In a bid to boost start ups, particularly in the information technology sector, the Uttar Pradesh government has waived off the stamp duty on land purchased for building offices or bulit-up offices, an official said on Friday.
This has been done under the IT and Start-Up Policy-2016 rolled out by the Akhikesh Yadav government.
However, the government has put a rider that these units getting exemptions must commence their operations within the next three years.
Similarly, the electricity duty for these units have been waived off for almost five years. It has also been decided to provide grants to these units to contribute to the employees’ provident fund.
