Thursday, July 19, 2012

Creating VALUE

This article appeared in TISA July 2012 Issue.

This article was also published in the September 2012 issue of Rubber India.

In simple terms value means importance or relative worth.
Creating an all encompassing view of the business processes and monitoring for bottlenecks is the first step towards value creation.
It is a continuous process.




Thursday, July 12, 2012

Read "Going Soft is the New Normal" without the Kindle Device

My new Book - Going Soft is the New Normal is available on Kindle (Amazon).

If you do not have the Kindle Device to read it, please go to the following link and download a free app to read it on your hand-held device - iPhones and iPads, Androids, BB, Windows Phone 7 etc.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sa_menu_karl3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771




Monday, July 9, 2012

Going Soft is the New Normal - My first book

I have self published my first book aimed at Entrepreneurs.
The book is available as Kindle Edition and published by Kindle Digital Publishing.
The book talks about the critical soft skills and areas essential for entrepreneurs to work upon for business excellence. It contains a collection of my select articles.
The book is aimed at a larger, diverse audience through Kindle and Amazon.

Going Soft is the New Normal (Kindle Edition) Available at Amazon 

Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Walk in the Clouds

Everyone is talking about Cloud Computing
By the time you read this, monsoon would have arrived in most parts of the country. The rain clouds would be hovering all over the sky. A different kind of cloud is slowly gathering shape around us which will not bring water but opportunity for individuals and businesses to become more performance centric by outsourcing their most crucial support function – Information Technology and related sub-functions. 
Cloud Computing is now the talk of the town. Companies are in a race to provide intelligent cloud – based solutions.
One of the things common with most SMEs is paucity of time to think and evaluate innovation or current trends for suitability of adoption in the business. And if the innovation is not related to core business then people simply shut themselves from its possible impact. This status quo only gets challenged when suddenly the innovation becomes the “norm”. 
By the time you read this, monsoon would have arrived in most parts of the country. The rain clouds would be hovering all over the sky. A different kind of cloud is slowly gathering shape around us which will not bring water but opportunity for individuals and businesses to become more performance centric by outsourcing their most crucial support function – Information Technology and related sub-functions. Cloud Computing is now the talk of the town. Companies are in a race to provide intelligent cloud – based solutions. It is a wide open market and still at a relatively nascent stage with huge potential for growth. Though it hasn't reached its “tipping point” the time is not too far. The technology has also opened up channels and avenues for technologically skilled entrepreneurs to serve this growing market.

Published in SME WORLD Jul 2012 Issue. Click here to read

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Bringing Social Change through Entrepreneurship

We routinely hear, read and write about entrepreneurs who have come up with remarkable innovation with respect to products, technology, service delivery etc, creating a “paradigm shift” and many of whom have made remarkable progress in a short time, achieved VC funding and might soon get listed or have become an attractive proposition for high value acquisition.

One fine morning about a month ago, we received an email from a gentleman I knew through prior interaction on organic farming. He observed that SME WORLD might be interested in a very revolutionary example of entrepreneurship from one of the remotest corners of our country. Of course the email grabbed our entire attention! He referred to a case from an unheard place -Wakru. Wakru??? We wondered! We had to immediately “Google” it. We were pleasantly surprised with our search result.
 
Wakru is a quaint place in the easternmost part of India – Arunachal Pradesh. The state is surrounded by the magnificent Himalayas. The state has abundant forests, greenery and a host of flora and fauna. With high altitude, cold climate and extremely good rainfall, agricultural is one of the main stay of the state. The main residents are the original tribals who practice shifting cultivation
 
Imagine if a person like this writer who was born and has roots in the North East with family and relatives staying there does not know of Wakru, what are the chances of average people across this vast country to even bother about it. This thought prompted us to write about this remarkable case of entrepreneurship which truly creates social change for a ameliorating the future of a huge section of people otherwise living on the sidelines and are often disregarded. How many stellar entrepreneurial initiatives are able to achieve what Basamlu Krisikro is accomplishing each day for the community around her?
 
Wakru in Arunachal Pradesh is one of the remote corners of this vast country bearing witness to the amazing power of entrepreneurship and change for a better tomorrow. Basamlu Krisikro is a lady of the Mizu Mishmi tribe of AP who is slowly but steadily driving an extremely socially conscious and responsible entrepreneurial voyage by transforming the local farming preference from damaging opium to ecologically and healthy option of organic tea. Basamlu is a true symbol of change driven by education, foresight and sensitivity about the environment to make a real difference amongst her tribe people and society at large.
 
Published in SME WORLD Jul 2012 Issue - Click Here