THE ENTREPRENEUR MINDSET

Many people who are interested in making money, consider being a manager or an engg. to be of great value. Most, scarcely consider being an entrepreneur. This is primarily due to the reason that they consider it to be risky. So, is having a job safe enough and is being an entrepreneur really that risky?

The recession that hit us recently reveals a clear picture of the status of security of job holders. How did it affect the entrepreneurs? They cut off a few jobs, are having a vacation and they will be back in a flash whereas the job holders are scattering everywhere to earn their daily bread. My point of view is that being an entrepreneur is the safest thing provided one knows the mechanism of making money and has the right entrepreneur mindset.

So what is this entrepreneur mindset?

The very basic thing an entrepreneur should know is how to make money work for him and not to work for money. An average individual earns, spends, earns and then spends again. As his income increases, so does his expenditure. At the end of the day, he fumes over the tax collectors, the increasing prices of everything and his low pay. The yardstick of measurement of one's richness is what his income is. So does this mean a person who has more income is richer?
Yes he is but can he sustain being rich? Not necessarily. If one has a tendency of spending whatever one earns, how is he going to bear the expenses of his son's wedding, expenses after retirement and other situations like the recession we had?

An entrepreneur on the other hand, earns, invests, makes a considerable asset column and always has his income column greater than that of his expenditure. An average person earns Rs35000, spends it to get a bike, takes a loan and spends his next income to settle the loan.
An entrepreneur earns Rs35000, invests it, keeps investing the money till he gets considerable profit of about Rs2,00,000 out of it. This way he is not sort of money at anytime and generates money out of money.

IPL-2

Its sport, glamour, girls all packed into one. I write this post while waiting frustratingly for the match between mumbai and jaipur to start. Rain can be such a spoilsport. All my dreams of watching the little master demolish the magician seems to have washed away in rain. But overall i like the IPL this time. I dare say, more than the previous version.

Firstly, the change in venue seems to be a blessing in disguise for IPL. It adds to the uncertainty. I know the cricketers must be missing playing in front of their home
crowds and we wont get to listen 80,000 people chant "korbo lorbo jeetbo" in Eden Gardens.The pitches offer something for the new ball bowlers. Suddenly technique and timing have become the buzz words. Dravid and Sachin's innings only confirm this point. It is also interesting to watch the domestic players adapt to foreign conditions.

The boundry ropes haven't been brought in. Atleast not by a great margin. Any change in the game that disturbs the even contest between the bat and the ball cannot be good for the game. For bussines may be. It's like writing an algorithm, no matter what one cannot afford to compromise on efficiency. The little master is playing from the start of the tournament. Yes it does make a difference. He is worth a 100 SRKs and million Zintas. To watch him in form is a treat to the eyes. The participation of rockstars like freddie and K.P means that we have more match winners who can single handedly win games.

Last but not the least, the cheerleaders. Vijay Mallya has White Mischief Girls for this season. As Sidhu says, grace will last but beauty will blast. So what better combination than to watch the girls dancing to a classical Dravid cover drive.

I have a suggestion to Mr.Modi. May be the IPL should be held in different country each time. Would love to see freddie flintoff and K.P play in front of their home crowds. Warne spin his magic in Adelaide oval while spectators enjoy beer served by Australian babes. The possibilities are endless. Oh damn, the match has been called off. What a dissapointment. We will have to wait for their next encounter.

little master

In Indian culture we start a new enterprise or work by receiving the blessings of lord ganesha. I dedicate this first post to a man who has come closest to be compared to Him. There have been many compliments given to him but the that comes to mind is from a spectator in Australia. the placard read:
"commit all crimes when Sachin is batting, they will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching him bat."
I could go on and on about this great man. But I would prefer to talk about his recent ton in Chennai. Amoung the many criticisms of this man there are two that are well supported with statistics. One is that he does not deliver in pressure situations and the other is that he has not done well in the fourth innings.
Most people have regrets after retirement about things they could have done better. Some take it upon themselves to learn from previous mistakes and come out with performances that makes the memories of the mistakes less painful. I am not saying that this innings of Sachin will make him forget the loss at the same venue some years back against pakistan. But it might hurt him less to remember this knock against England.
There have been three innings in the recent past that highlights my point above. The two knocks in the two finals in Australia ODI series and the knock in Chennai. The first two knocks came at crucial times when india were losing too many finals and the one in Chennai came when someone needed to stay and make sure that wickets do not fall. It seems Sachin is making it harder for his critics to find faults in him. I have to say too much is being said and written about this icon. He does not need to be told what is right or wrong. He just needs to be watched.
One of the few things that our generation has been lucky to watch is the fab four batting together and the little master taking guard match after match carrying a billion hopes. I am sure the next generation will envy us for watching the last time the little master step on to the field for the last time. That will be some day. It is hard to imagine the Indian team taking field without him. In the words of little master- "when the day comes we will see".

Procter And Gamble

     I’ll start this article by asking a few a questions. Which is the company that has spent the maximum amount in advertising in 2007? Which is the company which is the owner of both the highest selling detergents In India, Tide and Ariel, Tide being the largest selling detergent in the  world. I think you must have guessed it by now…..if not the answer is P&G(Procter and Gamble). Procter & Gamble Co. is a Fortune 500, American multinational corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, that manufactures a wide range of consumer goods. As of 2008, P&G is the 8th largest corporation in the world by market capitalization and 14th largest US company by profit. It is 10th in Fortune's Most Admired Companies list (as of 2007). P&G is credited with many business innovations including brand management, the soap opera, and the Connect + Develop initiative. The article is going to be about P&G, India.

In India Proctor & Gamble has two subsidiaries: P&G Hygiene and Health Care Ltd. and P&G Home Products Ltd. P&G Hygiene and Health Care Limited is one of India's fastest growing Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies with a turnover of more than Rs. 500 crores. It has in its portfolio famous brands like Vicks & Whisper. P&G Home Products Limited deals in Fabric Care segment and Hair Care segment. It has in its kitty global brands such as Ariel and Tide in the Fabric Care segment, and Head & Shoulders, Pantene, and Rejoice in the Hair Care segment.

Procter & Gamble's relationship with India started in 1951 when Vicks Product Inc. India, a branch of Vicks Product Inc. USA entered Indian market. In 1964, a public limited company, Richardson Hindustan Limited (RHL) was formed which obtained an Industrial License to undertake manufacture of Menthol and de mentholised peppermint oil and VICKS range of products such as Vicks VapoRub, Vicks Cough Drops and Vicks Inhaler. In May 1967, RHL introduced Clearsil, then America's number one pimple cream in Indian market. In 1979, RHL launches Vicks Action 500 and in 1984 it set up an Ayurvedic Research Laboratory to address the common ailments of the people such as cough and cold.

In October 1985, RHL became an affiliate of The Procter & Gamble Company, USA and its name was changed to Procter & Gamble India. In 1989, Procter & Gamble India launched Whisper - the breakthrough technology sanitary napkin. In 1991, P&G India launched Ariel detergent. In 1992, The Procter & Gamble Company, US increased its stake in Procter & Gamble India to 51% and then to 65%. In 1993, Procter & Gamble India divested the Detergents business to Procter & Gamble Home Products and started marketing Old Spice Brand of products. In 1999 Procter & Gamble India Limited changed the name of the Company to Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Limited.

P&G Home Products Limited was incorporated as 100% subsidiary of The Procter & Gamble Company, USA in 1993 and it launched launches Ariel Super Soaker. In the same year Procter & Gamble India divested the Detergents business to Procter & Gamble Home Products. In 1995, Procter & Gamble Home Products entered the Haircare Category with the launch of Pantene Pro-V shampoo. In 1997 Procter & Gamble Home Products launches Head & Shoulders shampoo. In 2000, Procter & Gamble Home Products introduced Tide Detergent Powder - the largest selling detergent in the world. In 2003, Procter & Gamble Home Products Limited launched Pampers - world's number one selling diaper brand.

Today, Proctor & Gamble is the second largest FMCG company in India after Hindustan Lever Limited.

 

 

 

   

"Don't be evil" - Larry Page & Sergey Brin

"We have a mantra. Don't be evil - which is to do the best things we know for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So, I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing."
- Larry Page

Two Stanford University Ph.D. students laid the foundation of the most powerful search engine known as Google in 1996. It all started as a research project. This project was nicknamed as "BackRub". Lawrence Edward Larry Page's work on this project began in January 1996. He was soon joined by his close friend Sergey Mikhailovich Brin who was also a Stanford Ph.D. student. The Google Search Engine is based on PageRank. Page and Brin believed that such a search engine would produce better results. The previous search engines ranked results on the basis of how many times a search item appeared on a page. Now Google is not only a search engine company, but it is also a vast advertising network. The word Google originated from 'Googol'. Googol is a numerical value.
1 googol = 10¹⁰⁰.
Page and Brin later founded Google, Inc. in 1998.

Larry Page is one of those great people who love invention. He had a great interest in technology and business from a very early age. During his college days, he created an inkjet printer using 'Lego' bricks and was also a member of the solar car team.

Sergey Brin once said about Page in an interview - "We're both kind of obnoxious". Initially they both used to disagree on most subjects. But as they spent time together, they became very good friends. Developing data mining systems had always been Brin's primary focus whereas Page was interested in extending the concept of inferring the importance of a research paper from it's citations in other papers.

Page and Brin were the co-president of Google until 2001 when Eric Schmidt was hired as Chairman and CEO of Google. Page had an equity of $16.6 Billion as per the 2007 edition of Forbes. As a result, he and Brin were placed at rank 26 and 32 respectively on Forbes's list of the richest persons in the world. He was also ranked 1 on the list of 50 most important people on the web in 2007 by PC World along with Brin.

Brin and Page are the executive producers of the 2009 film, Broken Arrows. They both were named "Persons of the Week" by ABC World News Tonight in 2004.

In 2003, both of them received an honorary MBA from IE Business School for embodying the entrepreneurial spirit and lending momentum to the creation of new businesses. They also received the Marconi Foundation Prize, the 'Highest Award in Engineering' in 2004. Page and Brin are active investors in alternative energy companies, such as Tesla Motors, which developed the Tesla Roadster. They are named as 'Young Global Leaders' for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. Brin and Page are also trying to solve the world's energy and climate problems at www.google.org.

"As we go forward, I hope we're going to continue to use technology to make really big differences in how people live and work."
- Sergey Brin

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are really Young Global Leaders. They have taken the search engine technology to greater heights. And they are always using their innovative minds and trying their best to help grow technology in any way possible for the betterment of the world.

'You've got to find what you love,' Steve Jobs

Technology has been the buzz word for a long time and is going to remain forever. Apple has been at the core of break-through technological developments and Steve Jobs has taken the company to unimaginable heights.

Steve has a very aggressive and demanding personality. He has been an audacious explorer of new technologies. He started from scratch and created an empire. He has been a trend setter for the industry and has been foreseeing the future. He has brought in the GUI on our desktops, the different fonts, and many others technologies. Apple's recent marvelous innovations under his leadership are imac, ipod and iphone. Apple's products are cool and technologically more advanced than any of their competitors'.

In 1983, Steve Jobs brought in John Sculley who was working at Pepsi-Cola at that time, to become Apple's CEO. The famous question put forward by Jobs to Sculley was "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water to children, or do you want a chance to change the world?". And Sculley replied by joining Apple. Sculley has initiated and accomplished several ad campaigns which helped in increasing Pepsi's market share in a small span of time.

Steve Jobs was listed as Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Businessman of 2007.


Steve also established Pixar Animation Studios. It has created eight of the most successful and immensely popular animated films of all time: Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Pixar Studios has won 20 Academy Awards and its films have grossed more than $4 billion at the worldwide box office to date. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disney's board of directors.

He is a great leader who makes you aspire for unimaginable heights and also shows you the way to accomplish them. I would like to wrap up with the following words which had appeared on the back page of the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog decades ago,
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.