Till now I have attended quite a few talks by some very renowned and em
inent speakers of leading firms in India. Most of the times it was an opportunity offered because of me having a privilege of being in IIMB. Some of them had set up these speakers had setup their own firms. Unfortunately most of them spoke about the current market scenario in their sector, problems faced by them etc. No one gave a generic view on how an aspiring entrepreneur should go about with his dream of setting up a firm by his/her own. At least some discussion on the problems faced by such start ups in a more generic format would have been of some use to the student community (at least that is what I feel).
It came to me as a pleasant surprise when in the ‘Managing Organizations’ class today the professor had invited one of the co founders of a firm to talk about his entrepreneurship experience. Fortunately this time the speaker spoke about some of the generic problems a start up firm faces in its early years. A brief profile of the speaker would constitute that Mr. Naren Dubey is a chemical engineering pass out from BITS Pilani to pursue his MBA in Wharton Business School and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He has worked into domains like Tissue Engineering, image processing of biopolymers. He has also been the VP for Moserbaer and prior to his entrepreneurship debut was the Director of Applied Material India. He along with his friends from Wharton founded Scancafe, a firm which provides the scanning and restoring facility for the old hardback photographs into digital form, making it possible to share the photographs among family and friends.
inent speakers of leading firms in India. Most of the times it was an opportunity offered because of me having a privilege of being in IIMB. Some of them had set up these speakers had setup their own firms. Unfortunately most of them spoke about the current market scenario in their sector, problems faced by them etc. No one gave a generic view on how an aspiring entrepreneur should go about with his dream of setting up a firm by his/her own. At least some discussion on the problems faced by such start ups in a more generic format would have been of some use to the student community (at least that is what I feel).It came to me as a pleasant surprise when in the ‘Managing Organizations’ class today the professor had invited one of the co founders of a firm to talk about his entrepreneurship experience. Fortunately this time the speaker spoke about some of the generic problems a start up firm faces in its early years. A brief profile of the speaker would constitute that Mr. Naren Dubey is a chemical engineering pass out from BITS Pilani to pursue his MBA in Wharton Business School and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He has worked into domains like Tissue Engineering, image processing of biopolymers. He has also been the VP for Moserbaer and prior to his entrepreneurship debut was the Director of Applied Material India. He along with his friends from Wharton founded Scancafe, a firm which provides the scanning and restoring facility for the old hardback photographs into digital form, making it possible to share the photographs among family and friends.
Here are some of the points he spoke of and which I can scribble in my notebook.
He said setting a firm of your own is like “Building the perfect Beast, It is demanding and rewarding”. What I could make out of it is a firm of your own needs lots of attention for it is your passion and also the bread and butter for you. The firm is referred to as a beast because of its size, the people involved in the activities to make the firm running efficiently. For me, a firm is a mixture of Frankenstein’s monster and Alladin’s genie. It needs loads of resources to feed the monster but it also rewards you back like a fairy tale genie does.
He spoke about the importance of people in a start up. In fact he said that a start up is all about people and how to work harmonically with them. He said that being one of the cofounders of a start up one needs to have an open mind. He said that a person who has the ability to pull up a firm from $0 to $4 million might not necessarily be the right person to make it a $40 million company from a $4 million one. And at times even if she is a very dear buddy of yours you might have to do away with her for the firm’s good. The same is applicable to each and every cofounder. While speaking about differences in decision making he said that one should honor that a person with same IQ level as yours and similar passion like you have for your firm can not make a blunder and hence you should believe her. He said that in a startup it is of extreme importance that people who take decisions believe in each other.
About the vision one should have while starting a firm he said:
· “Always have a vision at any point of time”
· “Everyone should believe in the vision”
· “Vision is not static”
The first point to me means that without a vision it is very difficult to judge which way to go since you don’t even know where you want to go. Until there is a specific vision as to what the company wants to achieve decisions like how to achieve it, at what pace should it be achieved and using what processes/skills/systems makes no sense. The seconds point again is very important. If the vision is not clear it might again lead you to a trap of uncertainties and confusion. The third point states that for a big well established company it is important to have a well defined vision which sticks to the company but for a small start up a vision might keep changing as the growth occurs. And it is of utmost importance that a start up keeps pace with the changes otherwise it might perish.
· “Always have a vision at any point of time”
· “Everyone should believe in the vision”
· “Vision is not static”
The first point to me means that without a vision it is very difficult to judge which way to go since you don’t even know where you want to go. Until there is a specific vision as to what the company wants to achieve decisions like how to achieve it, at what pace should it be achieved and using what processes/skills/systems makes no sense. The seconds point again is very important. If the vision is not clear it might again lead you to a trap of uncertainties and confusion. The third point states that for a big well established company it is important to have a well defined vision which sticks to the company but for a small start up a vision might keep changing as the growth occurs. And it is of utmost importance that a start up keeps pace with the changes otherwise it might perish.
Regarding the growth of a firm he said that people pursue their dream to transform into reality but nobody want to live that dream 24X7. One cannot always think and work about the firm she has created. The basic idea is to set up such an efficient firm that you can sip coffee in the morning without worrying if everything is working fine. He said the mantra is to “Learn to make yourself obsolete” One needs to realize that however passionate someone might be about anything, she won’t like it doing all the time. At some point or the other she needs to handle over some responsibilities to the other person. Skepticism still prevails even if the person is highly experienced and qualified in managing a firm. And hence the best way is to learn to steadily be obsolete or indifferent towards the functioning of the firm.
A quote from Shiv Khera’s book ‘You can win’ says “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”. Naren quoted it a little differently by saying you can achieve differentiation of your products by nurturing the ability to do different things differently. And this is very true for a multiunit multi product providing companies. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) provides Close Up tooth paste, Axe deodorant and Lux soap at the same time to different customers. They do great by differentiating their products from dozens of other tooth pastes or deodorants or soaps present in the market to pick from.
While speaking about venturing into the market he said that you should always know what value proposition you are offering and to which market. What is true in US market might not be true for an Indian market. He also spoke about the barriers to entry and said that you should always ask the questions “Why aren’t others doing it?” The answers to this question will give you insight on what strategy to follow, what are the risks involved, which market segment to focus and a whole lot of other important things.
I enjoyed the small talk during which he provided us with loads of enriching and enlightening knowledge. I hope some of which I mentioned above be enjoyable, if not useful to the readers.
Photo Courtesy: http://www.scancafe.com/aboutus.php
Photo Courtesy: http://www.scancafe.com/aboutus.php
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