Monthly Archives: January 2016

The Entrepreneurs Equation

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According to statistics, there are more than 50 Lakh businesses starting each year around the Globe. 3 out of 4 Businesses do not take off.

In a 10,000 people organisation, there is 1 CEO, 6-10 CXO’s and the top tier management is not more than 10% of the workforce.

This is tremendous pressure.

It becomes very important for the Entrepreneur and an aspiring employee to make their lives and career’s successful.

What is the Equation to be successful?

S = P + EI + 2A + D

Patience – Success comes only with being patient with yourself, people around and the situations. Each day is a struggle and it requires enormous energy to be patient. We as humans usually react to situations, but it does not help. Practicing to have a cool head is the only mantra / parameter to be successful.

Practice being patient with everything around you.

Emotional Intelligence has many parameters. According to statistics,90% of success comes through managing Emotions – Be it anger, frustration, low times or stressed times, you need to manage the emotion. It comes with practice and this practice needs to become a habit.

Over last few years, I am trying to manage my emotions. Have struggled but developed one habit – I write each time I am frustrated or irritated. This writing has helped me in handling myself better.

Aptitude is the approach. For every situation, there is a positive and negative reaction we can have. Building the ability to think positive is building good aptitude. When we build this attribute, the world we operate in changes.

Attitude is our ability to our ability to think. We have good feelings and also the negative feelings. Building our thinking ability to look at any situation/person positively makes us healthier and happier. When we are happier, we can think better; when we can think better, the outcomes are much more impactful.

Determination is the key. The willing fullness to put in all the efforts to execute/achieve is what makes the outcome. In sanskrit, there is a line – Determination (Sankalp) is more important than a thought/belief.

Success = Patience + Emotional Intelligence + Aptitude + Attitude + Determination

Managing Product Portfolio

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Start by reading this article based on what you do. You can be an Entrepreneur, a Team Member or Corporate Personnel.

Product Management is not today’s terminology. It has been in existence since the beginning of mankind. What happened is that the scale and magnitude of Product Management has changed since its inception.

Either you are having your own startup or Managing a team in a corporate setting, or you are a Team member wanting to excel; in today’s context it is very important to understand the big picture and operate in such a way that you create a differentiation for yourself.

With my experience and learning’s, I found Luis Gallardo‘s Six R’s is a very practical approach to Product Management in today’s context.

– Reason
– Revenue
– Rousers
– Reputation
– Relationship
– Resilience

Reason – As a Product Manager you need to understand the big picture of the Product you are developing. Your end user, Vision, Mission and what problem you are solving.

Revenue – Without understanding the revenue model of your Product, you cannot do justice. And when you understand the revenue model, you not only get better at bringing your product to life, you also are better equipped to handle the down-times.

Rousers – A key acumen of Product Management. You as the Product Leader, must understand and align your team’s thinking abilities to match that of your organisation. When you do this, you inspire them to take action and build credibility and commitment to the Product.

Reputation – In other words Perception. We like it or not, we live in a perceptive world. For every thing we do we have a positive and negative perception coming at us. As a Product Manager, it is very important to understand and manage the reputation. You should be equipped to be receptive and manage Reputation to better deliver.

Relationship – Managing Relationships is the way of life – be it at home, work or society. The better you manage people around, the better is the quality of life. Look at all the successful people in the world, they prioritised people. Only then you win. There is nothing in this world which you can achieve alone. Accept the fact, downsize ego and look at how the results are. They will be addictive.

Resilience – The outcome of all the above 5 R’s. You will have success, you will have downtime’s and you will have devastating times. What makes you is the ability to learn during all these times, get accustomed to the situation and time. Utilise your success times to plan for the downtime’s. During downtime’s, prepare for the success.

All of us want to win, but only a few of us prepare to win.

Inclusive Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship is just not about idea and Execution, but also about inclusiveness.

We need to understand that there are other people around us. What ever we do, it is for them (yes, we will also benefit from the solution).

When I talk to entrepreneurs/startup enthusiasts and colleagues. Most of the time the common thing I get to hear is for whatever they wish to do, they have competition or someone else wants to take the credit. Who does not have? All of us compete to live our life.

When you have a startup/ an idea at work, look around and see who are the competitors and who are trying to solve similar problems. Talk to them and see if your idea can be “included” in theirs, or you can “include” their idea in yours. It is not simple, but it does not hurt to Ask.

Our Ideas are different from others. But, there will be a similarity somewhere. Try to identify the point and explore on it.

The next question which arises is – If there is no competition, how will we get better at what we do? I do agree, but in today’s world, being together gives scope for solving in a larger scale.

I am not advocating that you should not have your own idea and take it forward, all what I am saying is when idea’s collaborate, it solves bigger problems and also both the parties mutually benefit.

I have one example – India Post. Can anyone beat their network? For instance, India Posts cover 25,000 Pin Codes in the Country and even the largest Courier service only reaches to 10,000.

Amazon, FlipKart and SnapDeal are doing their Pilot with India Posts to enhance their reach.

This is what I am referring to in inclusiveness. When you include, you win.

Are you a true Interpreter?

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Interpretation is a crucial aspect. Understanding the situation is more important and the Interpretation coming from that understanding determines the success or failure of the conversation.

Recently, I attended a talk. During the talk, the speaker was speaking on the benefits of Asking and how many times do you ask. She provided many examples and asked the audience for their experiences in asking. One participant was very clear that there is no absolute result in asking and he does not believe asking is an important in solving any problems. When the presenter asked if he can substantiate what he said, he said “I believe so.”

What happens when we go with our belief’s is that we get struck to our experiences. There more than 6 Billion people on this plant and quite surely, one or the other would have experienced what we are going through right now and the kind of problem we wish to solve. Depending on the experience the person has, he/she would provide an insight to what the ‘probable’ result would be; but they are not sure.

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, Interpretation is a story or description that is different in some way from another person’s story or description.

When starting a conversation with anyone – be it family, boss, colleague or in a meeting, what usually happens is that we go with certain thoughts/assumptions on the topic to be discussed and when the conversation starts, we tend to go by what we are thinking. However, this is not the way it needs to be handled. We need to listen, understand the other persons perspective and then take the conversation forward.

This is easier said than done. I have been trying to practice this over the last year and to be quite honest, it has been really tough. However, as I continued my practice, I am seeing the joy of the outcome of conversations.

To Interpret is easy, to understand is tough.

Becoming Successful

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Recently, I tweeted “if you want to become a Billionaire, help others become Millionaires”. Over the days I started thinking about it a little more seriously.

In true sense, it translates to “to become successful, help others become successful”.


Is this tough? Not all all. What we need to change is our thought process. In traditional thinking, why should I help anyone? First let me get there and then I will help them. True.


But a little more thinking into it will answer the question. Instead of focusing on ‘getting there’ and then helping others, why don’t we go there ‘together’? This very thought will change the complete picture.


Successful people are inclusive. When you include people around you, they will stand by you and help you get to your destination even if there are roadblocks.


The new time someone starting something, give them a helping hand and help them become successful; in return you have become successful.

Investor Equity

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Not all investors are interested in just making money through your venture. Few look for being part of the venture, few want decision making, few invest in kind, wish to make a difference etc.

Equity is what we expect in return for the investment we make.

When you go to gym for a workout, your equity is a healthy body and mind. When you spend time with family, your equity is happiness and piece of mind.

Before you start exploring opportunities for Investment, first you need to identify what kind of Investments are you looking for – Money, Time, Mentorship or Value addition.

The next step is to identify who are the people you wish to identify in each category. For each category of Investors, design and define your pitch so that the Objectives and Outcomes are clearly defined.

Key aspects which you need to consider:

  • Ensure you identify the key aspect in your potential investor and structure your conversation in that way.
  • Clearly articulate the Values what you would like your Investor brings to your team and your Incentive for their effort.
  • Emotions are very important and gaining access to emotional commitment is what you need to look for.
  • Keep your requirements flexible. They welcome them.

Once you have the approval for the required Investment, spearhead your venture.

Ask

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Ask is the one important factor and the first step towards success.

  • What would have happened if Newton never asked himself “Why did the apple fall down?”
  • What would have happened if Henry Ford asked his potential customers “What do you want?”
  • What would have happened if Richard Branson never asked himself why should he get into airline business?
  • What would happen if no politician ever goes and asks for Votes?
This is not different in Entrepreneurship.

All that we need to do is Ask. Not everyone is interested in Equity for Investment. Few Investors come to you because of their passion. Few investors adore your idea, but might not be able to invest money, but they are ready to mentor you, write a business plan, make a connection etc. Few other investors might just want their name to be associated with your Idea. The list goes on.

When was the last time you asked anyone for Investment in your idea other than Money? 

Monetary investment surely helps’s, but there are other investments which are more precious and help you build your idea.

Next time, ask for Investment from family/friends and strangers other than Money and see how it changes everything.

Health Apps in India

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Over the last few months, I have been working on curating information on Startup’s in HealthCare.

There are many applications/app’s which are being worked on to bring HealthCare to fingertips of consumers. With my observations on around 100 Startups in HealthCare IT, I started to categorise them into three sections.

Lifestyle Apps
These apps focus on monitoring your Steps, Calories burnt, Floors walked, Heart Beat Rate, Sleep Quality, Food in-take, Weight monitoring etc.

The benefits of these apps is that they show you what your lifestyle has been. Using lifestyle apps in India is completely based on self-motivation. Few organisations are motivating their workforce to use these apps and providing small benefits for reaching their goals.

The absolute connection between living a healthy lifestyle and being healthy are yet to be established. In the US, for example, employers motivate their workforce to use Fitbit or Garmin step counter devices for themselves and their family. Based on the activity employees are given discount on their Insurance payments. In India, this might take time to come, but with the speed at which things are changing, I foresee this happening in the next 2-3 years.

Why use these services?
Using these services and tracking Food in-take, steps taken each day at least provides information on how your lifestyle has been. According to the walking site, a sedentary person walks about 3,000 steps a day. In the 1960’s, in Japan, they had a 10,000 steps counter. Why 10,000? Well, at least we know it is an activity which takes effort and walking definitely helps you be more healthier. Probably, this 10,000 steps came from the 10,000 Hour Rule.

Care Apps – Apps Providing Care
Look at apps like myLabYogi, DoctorC, CyberLiver, Achiralabs etc. These are focusing on providing care at home like Blood Collections, Monitoring Liver Health, Medical Diagnostics at Home etc.

Why use these services?
Predominantly, these services are for elders at home and others who are busy and cannot afford to go to a Diagnostic lab just to give the sample and collect reports. Also, instead of going to a Hospital/Clinic, today you can book an appointment with the Doctor and go at your specific time-slot which saves you time too.

Service Apps – e-Commerce, Booking appointments etc.
Practo, Zipnosis, Surgical are few of the best examples of Service oriented Apps. You can book doctor appointments, consult with other Doctors etc.

Why use these services?
There is a surge in requests for Doctor Appointments, collecting samples from home, second Doctor reference etc. Apps/Services in this category are beginning to streamline Health service requests. Even though these services are currently being used in select cities, they are fast penetrating into the complete country. Over a period of time, we see that if not all, most of the Doctor community will be online and services will start to get better. Since we do not have a central medical system (like the NHS in UK), these apps can bring about the change in reaching out to Doctors and how we start looking at improving care.

PS: I might change the categorisations if required and would go deeper into each categorisation over the next few weeks. If you are interested in getting a complete report on Companies working on various Health related applications, subscribe to my HealthCare Technology Report.

You don’t need Money to Startup

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Traditional approach to investments for Startup is Friends, Family, VC’s and Angel’s. But, when you are pondering on idea’s to startup, before you pool in money to either start or make it big, you will need lot of other services/resources for which you need not have cash.

You have an idea and you have validated it. Now, it is the time you start investing to make your dream come true. The biggest investment you make is time and the rest follows.

First, make a list of things which you would require. Let us say you are starting a website to offer online Piano lessons. The first expense is the Domain name and the Web site. The second expense is building the website. Next comes marketing and signing up for the first client.

Domain name and Web hosting space cost very less (~Rs.2,500) and you can self fund it or alternatively request someone to invest and you pay back when you have signup’s. Designing the web site and getting it live is the biggest expense. Try reaching to your friends and networks if someone can help you part time to design the website. You may offer something in return – Probably, 50% of the money from the first month revenue etc. The intention here is to have the web site designed and taken live.

What happened here is that even though you did not have money, you have got your website done. Technically, you don’t need money, but you need what money can buy for you.

Today’s world, there are lot of people who want to do something, but unable to take the next step for some reason or the other. Reach out to people and am very confident someone will step up to help you. In return, you can also provide a helping hand to someone who needs something which you can offer.

When starting up, stop focusing on money, and start focusing on what money can buy.

As a first step, I can help with Market Evaluation for your startup. Reach out to me at hnpv at harinathpv dot com if you need help. I will give my best.

Why should you Bootstrap?

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From the time we are born and till we complete schooling, parents bootstrap. When we get to college, we do not have Credit Cards (Funding), but we do odd jobs to support ourselves. When the biggest and the most important aspects of life are arising out of bootstrapping, then why not our Ideas? Why do we look for funding?

Bootstrapping is often misunderstood word. Bootstrapping is just not our own money. Bootstrapping also covers money we borrow from family and friends. This money is very crucial for us to do what we need to and we have timelines when we return the money. This money comes because people around us trust in what we are doing.

Even when we startup, going to family and friends first to raise some equity to build what we want is very important in many aspects.

First, we have the confidence we have our first customers.
Second, getting support from people we know gives us the confidence and required motivation that we are on the right path.
Third, we will also develop a social commitment and work towards making the idea successful because we need to return the money.

Bootstrapping is not only associated with the Money, but also associated with our credibility. What happens when you have a new idea and share that with your Manager? Your Manager evaluates and after he invests and buys into your idea, he takes it to the Senior Leadership. Your Senior Leadership trusts you because your immediate Manager also thinks that your idea is worth while. They allow you to work on your idea. It becomes your moral responsibility to not let your Leadership down because you might not get another chance.

So, next time you have an idea give it your best shot to BootStrap rather than looking for funding or passing it on to someone else in the team to do the execution.