Lala Lajpatrai Institute of Management

Assignment: Entrepreneurship management

Submitted to: prof. Nookala Submitted By: CHHATWAL HARJAS KAUR 2011036 MMS-II (SEM IV) YEAR 2011-2013

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ENTERPRENEURSHIP MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION:
All the stories in this book are of course successful stories. But to call it successful, each story takes you through its own adventure that one can never expect. In the end, success tag is just a satisfactory reward. None of them are content enough with their success. Destination is still far and dreams are growing higher and higher. Rashmi Bansal has chosen stories from all the professions and across several states of India. You can see stories starting from Restaurant owners, story writers, and Movie makers and to the stories of even IT folks. And the classification that is being done is very neat and meaningful. The stories are classified into three categories Jugaad, Junoon and Zubaan. Jugaad - It showcases the people who have no formal training in business. They learnt by observation, experimentation and application of mind. Because ultimately, business is not rocket science Entrepreneurs like Prem Ganapathy (Dosa Plaza) 10th pass, and was a dishwasher to make his ends meet but now a proud owner of 26 outlets across India; Kunwer Sachdev (Sukam Inverter) a statistics graduate who tried his hands as a cable operator and accidently stumbled upon the idea of inverter and never looked back; Ganesh Ram (Veta) who revolutionized the English speaking courses ; Sunita Ramnathkar (Fem Care Pharma) a humble housewife who experimented in kitchen with a blender ;N Mahadevan (Oriental Cuisines) on his journey from professor to building a food empire across countries ; Hanmant Gaikwad (Bharat Vikas Group)
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whose mother worked as a teacher and took up sewing jobs to make him engineer but he now owns a facilities management firm with Rashtrapati Bhavan as a proud client; Ranjiv Ramchandani (Tantra T Shirts) who studied microbiology, experimented with career by joining advertising and finally clicked by selling T shirts at Kurla Station; Suresh Kamath (Laser Soft Infosystems) who believes in Love for people you work with, live with, for what you do, you say and has joined social responsibilities with sound business and Raghu Khanna (Cashurdrive) who clicked the idea of selling on cars, the locomotives as advertisement carriers. Junoon The entrepreneurs, who dared to think ahead of their time, think different. Something which is different, ahead of its time. These ventures are about making that dream, a living reality. R Sriram (Crossword) Books so many that you name it and they have it; Saurabh Vyas & Gaurav Rathore (Political EDGE) Researching for politicians, they really need it! ; Satyajit Singh (Shakti Sudha Industries) commercializing makhana??; Sunil Bhu (Flanders Dairy) it really is a cheesy affair; Chetan Maini (Reva Electric Car Company) They are licensing their technology to GM; Mahima Mehra (Haathi Chaap) did anyone thought of making paper from Elephant or Camel Dung? ; Samar Gupta (Trikaya Agriculture) who can think to grow anything in India. Zubaan has the stories of creative people who were in need of a platform to express them. When that talent is unique, the platform must be created. And in doing so, the artist too becomes an entrepreneur. All the four stories in this category are extremely good. I read the story of Kalyan Varma first because he is our local Bengaluru boy , having a dream job with Yahoo, Kalyan decides to quit and pursue his wildlife photography dream. I follow his work all the time and he is certainly a great talent and a successful
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entrepreneur. The other stories in this section are Abhijit Bansod the founder of Studio ABD, a product design company. He wondered why desi designers are inspired by the west and he went on to pioneer the uniquely Indian Heritage and Raga collections at Titan, and now runs his own product design company. Paresh Mokashi wanted to be an actor, but found his niche as a playwright and director on the Marathi stage. A chance reading of Dadasaheb Phalkes biography led him to a new adventure a widely acclaimed feature film which was Indias official entry at the Oscars in 2009. The fourth story under this section is of Krishna Reddy of Prince Dance Group. Assembling a group of daily wage laborers, this troupe won the hotly competed Indias got talent show, enthralling the audience with its unique brand of mythology inspired choreography.

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Q.1

What are the significant features of the book

titled connect the dots?

When you see the cover of the book, the first thing youll notice is that the title of the book has been written upside down. The book has a diverse and interesting mix of entrepreneurs. The age was certainly not a bar for choosing entrepreneurs (for the fact that book covers people as old as 56 years old and as young as 25 years old) as long as they could fit into one of the three categories viz. Jugaad, Junoon and Zubaan of the book. Each story takes you through its own adventure that one can never expect. In the end, success tag is just a satisfactory reward. None of them are content enough with their success. Destination is still far and dreams are growing higher and higher. This inspires many people, and will certainly bring more number of entrepreneurs into the big ocean of opportunities and possibilities.

Stories start from Restaurant owners, story writers, and Movie makers and to the stories of even IT folks. And the classification that is being done is very neat and meaningful. The stories are classified into three categories Jugaad, Junoon and Zubaan. Jugaad has the stories of entrepreneurs who have no formal training in business. They learnt by observation, experimentation and application of mind. Because ultimately, business is not rocket science.
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 Junoon has stories of seven entrepreneurs who are driven by a particular idea, or passion. Something which is different, ahead of its time. These ventures are about making that dream, a living reality. Zubaan has the stories of creative people who were in need of a platform to express them. When that talent is unique, the platform must be created. And in doing so, the artist too becomes an entrepreneur. The three fundamentals on which Rashmi Bansal has written an extremely inspiring book on 25 entrepreneurs, who have been broken, battered, grilled, painted blue at times and God, o, God, they have subverted every pain and agony into a relished memory along with agog grit to turn things into fortunes. These people have rightly chosen a life of less pelf but tremendous placidity. Adoring them is inevitable but taking up the cue and changing our orthodox thinking is rare.

Rashmi Bansal has explained & motivated that any one even a layman can become a great businessman but with some ethics, and explained that many big businesses are standing up, because by the great works & by doing many sacrifices in their life, so successes cant come easily, hard work are the only shortcut. This book Breaks mthys and pessimism that only "lucky", "Already rich" and "crooked ways" bring prosperity.
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 All stories have a few adventurous moments where the entrepreneurs share some little known facts about the industry or something special they did to beat the system. The change makers mentioned in this book doesnt have an MBA degree to cash upon their success, but they have something bigger than this degree; BELIEF IN THEIR DREAM. Reading different stories of how people have come from nowhere to do something for mankind, Be it Prem Ganapathy of Dosa Plaza who rose from being a dishwasher to head a 150 odd employee company with 26 outlets in India and 3 in New Zealand or Kalyan Varma who left his high fly job in Yahoo to become a wildlife photographer or Suresh Kamath who started Laser Soft Info systems which is an IT company with a difference, each of the stories are amazingly inspirational. Caste and community is of no consideration.

Decisions are never right or wrong, it is the outcome which may be either positive or negative. Different Entrepreneurs share the small things that made all the difference, whether it was costing, marketing, value of visibility, dignity of labour or market need.

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 Apart from strong focus on the product, there is a need to understand the value of branding & publicity The stories of these mavericks are so thrilling and intriguing only because it shows their immense enthusiasm to learn something which is not their technical forte, but obvious passionate forte. What serves as icing on the cake for this book is the small, but the best section: ADVICE TO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS, wherein an iota of their valuable experience is given to young and needy wannabe employers and dream chasers. All the stories in this book are of course successful stories. But to call it successful, each story takes you through its own adventure that one can never expect. In the end, success tag is just a satisfactory reward. None of them are content enough with their success.

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Q.2

Analyze

the

significant

entrepreneurship

qualities w.r.t the book connect the dots?

A knack for knowing your industry: The most successful startup entrepreneurs take the time to study and become experts in their industry or profession. They attend industry events, read blogs and trade magazines, and their expertise gives them credibility and a huge leg up. This knowledge helps them connect the dots Ability to adapt ideas from others: As being creative is essential, but its not about reinventing the wheel. Successful business owners know how to adapt proven concepts and approaches from other industries and companies and make them their own. Prem ganapathy who came to Mumbai like millions of others, in search of a better future. Inspired by McDonalds, Prem Ganapathy has risen from humble dishwasher to owner of the fast food chain dosa plaza, with 26 outlets across India. Problem solver: Entrepreneurs cant afford to wait around for others to solve their problems. They have to figure out the solutions on their own. And that makes them better business owners for when the next problem arises. As Krishna Reddy assembled a group of daily wage laborers and formed Prince Dance Group. This troupe won the hotly competed Indias got talent show, enthralling the audience with its unique brand of mythology-inspired choreography.

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 Willingness to think big: We all like to check the easy things off our to-do list and tend to put off the tough ones. But a willingness to dive into the big issues and go for the larger accomplishments is often a success separator. More importantly, said by Satyajit Singh when you start thinking big your creativity and productivity catch fire and the momentum keeps you pumped. Satyajit Singh was comfortably placed in life, distributing consumer durables. Yet, one fine day he shut down that business, to take on the challenge of commercializing makhana. In doing so, he has found a mission of life and brought benefits to thousands of marginalized farmers. Real networking prowess: Connecting to a few people on Facebook or LinkedIn is not networking. The most successful startup entrepreneurs know that real networking only happens face-to-face, and most often with people who are not their peers. To network successfully you have to connect with people who have more experience than you do. N.Mahadevan gave up the prestigious job of a professor in Madras University, to set up a Chinese restaurant. But his knowledge of cost-accounting was equally handy in the kitchen. Today, N.Mahadevan runs a food empire stretching across cuisines and continents. Confident negotiator: Negotiating skills are difficult to develop, and successful entrepreneurs tend to approach negotiating with confidence. Having confidence gives them an edge in bargaining power as the expectation from both sides is that they will deliver at a high level. Chetan Maini was crazy about electronics and cars as far as he can remember. Its this passion that led him to pursue the dream of
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producing an electric car. Reva is not only producing such vehicles but licensing its technology to the likes of general motors. Reva did not spend a single rupee in advertising but made great use of PR. Reva sold them the concept by negotiating price & figuring out the color. Aggressive goal setting: Great entrepreneurs continuously set goals and work toward them. When one goal is reached, they set another and repeat the process. Having clear goals and also a specific strategy to reach them helps everyone in a business stay focused and motivated. Samar Gupta was a city boy with no burning ambition in life. But when life threw up a challenge, he decided to face it head-on. Over the last decade trikaya agriculture has matured from a hobby in to a flourishing business, ever expanding the frontiers of what can be grown in India. Self starter: Entrepreneurs know that if something needs to be done, they should start it themselves. They set the parameters and make sure that projects follow that path. They are proactive, not waiting for someone to give them permission. Raghu Khanna is 24 years old and started a company right out of college. Cashudrive is based on a simple idea which required no capital, no office, and no fancy technology. His story shows that experience is over-rated there is no better time to start, than now. Disciplined: These individuals are focused on making their businesses work, and eliminate any hindrances or distractions to their goals. They have overarching strategies and outline the tactics to accomplish them. Successful
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entrepreneurs are disciplined enough to take steps every day toward the achievement of their objectives.

Confident: The entrepreneur does not ask questions about whether they can succeed or whether they are worthy of success. They are confident with the knowledge that they will make their businesses succeed. They exude that confidence in everything they do. Open Minded: Entrepreneurs realize that every event and situation is a business opportunity. Ideas are constantly being generated about workflows and efficiency, people skills and potential new businesses. They have the ability to look at everything around them and focus it toward their goals. Passion: Passion is the most important trait of the successful entrepreneur. They genuinely love their work. They are willing to put in those extra hours to make the business succeed because there is a joy their business gives which goes beyond the money. The successful entrepreneur will always be reading and researching ways to make the business better.

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Q.3 Name the two most inspiring entrepreneurs from connect the dots & support your views?
1. Street smart- Prem Ganapathy 2. Far from the madding crowd- Sunil Bhu

STREET SMART- PREM GANAPATHY Prem Ganapathy belong to Jugaad, these entrepreneurs have no formal training in business. They learnt by observation, experimentation and application of mind. Because ultimately, business is not rocket science. Prem Ganapathy was born in Nagalapuram, in tuticorin district, Tamilnadu. They were six brothers and one sister. His father had a farming business, but farming was not particularly profitable, but somehow they eked out a living. Prem belong to the nadar community and thus attended the local community school upto class 10th. SCN high school students may be aspiring for bigger things today. When Prem completed class 10 there was only one clear career path. Get out of school and get to work. Then Prem went to Chennai, where his father and brothers were already working- and got employed at the coffee shop owned by a cousin. He learned how to grind coffee beans. After a break to attend the annual pooja in his village, Prem took another job again in the coffee and rice trading business. Prem was 17 years old, curious to see the world. Without telling a soul, he set off for the city of dreams. The only person he knew in Mumbai- the Chap he came from Chennai with took him upto bandra station and then disappeared.
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Mumbai embraces every new migrant in her grubby sari palloo and so it was that Prem quickly got a job at the das bakery job in sion. After six months he went back to his village. On returning he found another job, this time with the bakery at satguru hotel in chembur. Prems luck turned when a new restaurant called prem sagar opened next door. Here, he was offered the job of a tea boy. Soon Prem started earning 100 per day. One of his customers at the bank, a tamilian gentleman, made an offer. He wanted to setup a tea shop in vashis sector. Prem entered in to a business as a 50:50 partner. The year was 1992 Prem went to his village for a vacation and came back to Mumbai with a mall loan from an uncle and a younger brother in law. With a capital of some twenty thousand, Prem Ganapathy set up a roadside stall of his own. His business was going good but the neighboring hosing society was making life difficult. But call it never say die or no option but to get up and keep walking. Soon enough prem found another spot and setup the south Indian stall. He did not know a thing about making either idlis or dosas. The batter he procured from the homes of South Indians living next door, he learned cooking by observation, trial and error. Prem Ganapathys dosa stall flourished from 1992 to 1997, outside the Bombay Mercantile cooperative bank. He was making 20000 per month as profit. He put a lot of emphasis on hygiene. His stall declared a board in bold blue and white lettering. The branding was clear and concise- right from the start. His stall was very popular plenty of car owners stopped by and yet the food was economically priced.

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By 1997, Prem had managed to save a couple of lakhs. Prem put down 50000 as deposit and 5000 per month as rental. Thus was born Prem Ganapathys Prem Sagar Dosa Plaza and here begins the journey of a brand. Prem even built a website for his open air eatery, customers were demanding more variety. Prem Ganapathy started experimenting; he created all new concoctions with Chinese fillings inside the dosa. Inspired by McDonalds, Prem Ganapathy has risen from humble dishwasher to owner of the fast food chain with 26 outlets across India. Prem Ganapathy wanted to grow. Todays bamk balance, he was willing to sacrifice. The idea was to invest and create a chain of shops. Vision and mission is necessary but chance encounters often plays an important role in life. Then he decided to setup a dosa stall in food court. Prem was sold on the idea. Despite stiff opposition from his brothers he decided to go ahead. It was a big investment. A bank loan may have been possible but prem did not believe his file was that strong. On the very first day sales touched 44000, and the first months turnover was 6 lakhs. The profit margins- a healthy 15-20%. At this point Aman advised Prem to do more branding so Prem referred to an advertising agency called think why not, and the dosa dude had no trouble at all stepping in to the role of a client. The agency then swung in to action and created a logo, mascot, menu card, pops, posters etc. Advertising is great but there is nothing as powerful as free publicity. There secret was to give a quality food to their customers by mismatching the contents and whatever was present in their menu card Prem assured that food will be available to the customers. The biggest secret was to train the staff to combine

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the stuff together and give it a cool name like Salad roast Dosa or Mexi roll dosa. Creative but not too exotic. People should know what they are getting. The other important aspect of running stall is to be consistent; the food should taste the same. At dosa plaza the all important sauces and chutneys were prepared at a centralized kitchen. Then Prem learnt about franchisee that the biggest fast food chains in the world operated on a franchisee basis. Essentially the franchise needs to handle the cash counter and make the upfront investment, plus bear the running expenses; dosa plaza earns 6-8% royalty on sales. Which is a cool way to grow on someone elses capital? The second big leap for dosa plaza was systems. The company invested in software connected to a central server to keep track of billing, inventory and operation and all this was possible because of professionalization. In 2004 Prem became a partner of Easwaran to look after business and they had a background in computers and handled the software side of things. At the same time dosa plaza started setting up different departments. Purchase, marketing and costing became crucial. A training manager was deputed to visit outlets on a rotation basis and make sure that the costing was strictly controlled. Success dose not depends only upon the manager but employees also. They are needed to provide training on a regular basis as there were not educated, the employees too have learnt and grown. Prem Ganapathy made sure that caste and community is of no consideration. There are north Indians, south Indians, people from east of India.

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To market the franchises, the company tied up with Franchise India holding Ltd on a 67:33 basis. The company only counts the royalty from franchises as it income- not actual sales. According to Prem Ganapathy problems keep coming you just know how to overcome them and make a win situation. Branding & promotion is necessary for the product but you should apply at the right point of time to compete with others and achieve the top position. Meanwhile he has to shut down the one centre outlet as it was bearing losses but there were other offerings south Indian snacks at food courts, more choice for customers, more competition, and more problems to face, frontiers to conquer. But he doesnt afraid of it, he has the positive attitude to grow. He says keep learning, keep walking, and keep growing. Never let yourself down instead get up and try to achieve things. To achieve success in a business you should have good knowledge about the product, need to practice a lot, and good behavior with the customers, good service and make customers convince. Keep motivating your employees to achieve the desired results.

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FAR AWAY FROM THE MADDING CROWD- SUNIL BHU

Sunil Bhu belong to Junoon category. The entrepreneurs, who dared to think ahead of their time, think different. Something which is different, ahead of its time. These ventures are about making that dream, a living reality. Sunil Bhu was a thoroughbred dilliwala although his parents are originally from U.P. he grew up in south extension and went to St. Columbas school where the education was good, but he was not a bright student. After class 12, Sunil went on to Pusa- the well known institute of hotel management in Delhi. He took his decision on own nobody insisted him. His mother managed to open a restaurant called kamalika and it was a popular place, Sunil used to help her a bit after school time. But there was no great ambition to get in to the fast lane. Sunil skipped the internship which was very important part of his course, so he does not even have a graduation certificate. Someday he felt like working with animals- living on a farm, milking cows. After reading the book far from the madding crowds by Thomas Hardy in school he suddenly changed his mind and got an idea of doing something related to cheese. Back in 1985, cheese was quite scarce- no one knew much about it in India, but that did not deter Sunil. So he started working in friends farm in Belgium to just get an experience. But things did not quite click. He tried his luck at another farm nearby. The owner of the farm asked him to come and pull out the weeds, began in Diksmuide- thousands of miles away from life. Then the farmer Marc was starting out in cheese making at that time, he travelled with him to Holland and France to see the techniques of making cheese.

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Making a cheese is really a family business, a closely guarded secret passed on from one generation to the next. Marc managed to open doors quickly and Sunil was ready to start it with implementing various methods to make cheese, so it was a very good learning experience. Life is really about being in the right place, with right person, at the right time. After two years in Flanders, Sunil returned to India. Starting a business in your own country was like being a boss but in another country you are always at number two position. He started making cheese in India just to prove to the family that he had learnt something in the two years spent in Belgium. His mother gave him a small piece of land and a cow which was kept in the backyard of Sunils house. His friends used to laugh on him, but Sunil never bothered about them, every day Sunil milked that cow and make one ball of cheese. But soon Sunil realized that conditions in India are different from Europe, it was far easier to make cheese in Diksmuide than in Delhi because Indian milk is different, Climate is different & taste buds are different. But he never left the hope he kept on trying and doing experiments. Meanwhile he again went to Belgium for short span of time. His friend knew the owner of steak house; a famous gourmet food store in Delhi, Sunil offered them his cheese and the owner asked him to make a hundred balls like this. That was the birth of Flanders- a small homemade ball of cheese bearing a logo of Sunils first cow. Soon he started making five balls a day and each ball was sold for ninety-odd rupees, but it was hard manual labor. Sunils farm was way away from success, in 1989 he was in northern Italy eating pizzeria, he asked the owner where does this cheese come from? the Italian answered from a dairy close by. He went to that dairy next day and found that the dairy was as big as Belgium one. There he met the owner of the dairy and Sunil
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spent three months at the factory and learnt how mozzarella cheese was made- in a commercial way. Sunil bought some small machines and started off production of Mozzarella cheese. But in 1988 his farther passed away so the restaurant was shut down. In 1994 at that stage Sunil was handling 500-600 litres of milk a day, turning them in to 70-80 balls of cheese. There were 20-odd cows on the farm and the turnover touched 25 lakhs. This is probably the point at which Sunil started seeing himself as a businessman. Working on a farm is very good but there are certain drawbacks recognize your limitations; focus on what you love, what youre good at. Today flanders churns out between 500-600 kg of top class cheese every day. The process of making cheese involves physics, chemistry- all the stuff Sunil never paid attention to in school. Machines break down and u fixes it thats physics and every milk sample is checked in laboratory thats chemistry. The business is self-sustaining- with no loans and liabilities, there is a growth factor. When some challenge come to you path accept it and dont make hasty decisions just go step by step. He was not at all a bright student but with positive thoughts you can make your own path. Sunis cheese business was growing with a brand, it has crossed the revenue of 5 crore. Growth was happening but in the modest and organized way, the point however is that the way in which sunil works would more or less remains the same. Work brings its rewards but at a fundamental level and beyond work there is a lifestyle. But be passionate and dedicated and money will follow you.

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