Leadership
Small & Medium Business (SMB): The Next Frontier: Playing the Long Tail – Talk By Raman Roy at the NASSCOM CEO Forum
Once again, it was Mr Vishnu Dusad who introduced Raman Roy to the participants. A man who really needs no introduction! the Quatrro Chief has many firsts to his name. And certainly not the least among them being a visionary, who is credited to have created half a million jobs for the BPO sector. His bio was so impressive that we were absolutely enthralled, as it was being read out. Raman Roy was even compared to F C Kohli, the father of the Indian IT industry in more ways than one. Mr Roy accepted the praise very gracefully and even remarked on a lighter vein, that he can now look into the mirror with a renewed sense of self respect. He was also rather apologetic and looked quite sheepish, for losing his way and being late. Brilliant raconteur that he is, he went on to share his views, his thought process and what he had learnt over the years at Spectramind, and now at Quatrro.
Waiting for Raman(Roy) Effect – Part 1
This section would never have been blogged, had the Quatrro Chief, Mr Raman Roy not lost his way. As someone jocularly said, the boss is never late – he is only delayed. This time, it was Mr Arvind Thakur our gracious host from NIIT, who welcomed us to his sprawling campus in Noida. Breakfast, an equally sumptuous spread, awaited us, as we trudged our way on a cold wintry and foggy morning. After gorging to our heart’s content, we settled down in the impressive boardroom. By then, the news had already trickled down that Raman Roy would be a bit late. Delayed, if you will allow!
EMERGing Out at NILF 2010
NASSCOM’s flagship event, the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum is around the corner. How can emerging companies make the most of this exciting three day event? Read on for some ideas on how you could plan your visit.
Growing the SME Space
SMEs are defined in various ways in India, typically via amounts of capital invested. The RBI has defined Micro Enterprises as those with less than 10 to 25 lakhs (depending on whether the business is engaged in Services or in Manufacturing) in capital employed, Small Enterprises as those with not more than 2 to 5 Crore and Medium Enterprises as those with not more than 5 to 10 Crore in capital employed. Other countries use the number of employees and total revenue also as parameters for classification. Worldwide, it is estimated that 99.3% of all enterprises are small or medium in size.
Everyday SME Challenges, Tried and Tested Solutions’ – NASSCOM EMERGE Friday’s 2.0 (25th session – Chennai)
Everyday SME Challenges, Tried and Tested Solutions’ a panel discussion by four business leaders (Serial Entrepreneurs), most of them having co-founded and promoted two or more businesses, who have walked your path earlier.
Panel Discussion on Entrepreneurship Challenges
Moderator: Mr. G. Shankaran Nair, President – Corporate Strategy, Servion
- Panelists:
- Mr. Ashok Ramaswamy, Managing Partner, Sandpath Capital
L U V the W Recovery – Talk by Mr. Arjun Malhotra – Chairman, Headstrong
After a round of king-sized breakfast hosted by Karan Bajwa of Microsoft at their Infinity Tower Building in Gurgaon, it was time for yet another riveting session for the CXO community in Gurgaon. In the past, we’ve seen the likes of Pramod Bhasin, Krishnakumar Natarajan, Kiran Karnik address on various topics of strategic interest to a roomful of CEOs, completely mesmerized by the quality of delivery. Naturally, the expectations were set very high. Mr Pavan Vaish, who runs IBM Daksh and the Chair for NRC Gurgaon, delivered the welcome address and introduced yet another illustrious speaker – Mr Arjun Malhotra of Headstrong and spoke highly of the latter’s achievements in setting up immensely successful entrepreneurial ventures, going right back to the 80’s and the emergence of HCL. Mr Vaish also touched upon briefly, the crux of the discussion for the day – Year 2009, being largely characterized by downturn, but would growth eventually return in 2010? If so, how does one strike a vital balance between caution and spotting an opportunity. The ambience was created and the stage set for Mr Arjun Malhotra’s address to NRC Gurgaon.
People around the startup
In the last column People First, I talked about the need to have the “right” people in your startup. But there’s another important set of people the startup should surround itself with namely, a board of directors (BOD) and a set of advisors/mentors. While no man is an island it is even more true that no startup can be built in isolation. The importance of building and leveraging relationships cannot be over-stated. The importance of sounding out business strategies, feedback on technology direction, dealing with employee issues (hiring, retaining, company culture), sales & marketing, customers introductions and management, partnerships and so on with people who’re experienced in these areas can be critical. Governance, financial discipline and reporting systems are important soft infrastructure issues that also need to be put in place to ensure that the company is professionally run and built for scale.
The GOAL and the way of achieving it!!
The GOAL and the way of achieving it…….
First of all let me take this opportunity to express my happiness over S7 Software being selected as the leader of NASSCOM Emerge 50 2009, we are all very excited and feeling déjà vu but had a great party too to celebrate the same. Want to thank NASSCOM and all involved for making this such a great success. Thank You!!
First National Council Meeting of the EMERGE Forum
The first meeting of the National Council under the EMERGE Forum was held in New Delhi on August 29th 2009. At the meeting, members deliberated on the objectives that would be adopted by the group. Some of the ideas that emerged:
Top 5 Reasons to Attend the Cloud Computing Conclave in New Delhi on 28th August 2009
These are interesting times we live in, not only challenged by uncertainty but also enthused by immense opportunities. As we continue to plan for future, we have to work out a strategy, including technology, capable of bringing about a change to the very way we do business. With emerging markets and newer verticals coming to the fore, usage of technology would also undergo a radical shift, as we usher in the “pay as you use” model. We believe, progressively, Cloud Computing and its ilk would gain prominence amongst the user circles. When we conceptualised EMERGEOUT 2009 for New Delhi, we kept in mind the dynamic environment and how the emerging companies in particular, may be affected. Riding successfully on the two earlier editions, which were more generic in nature, we are ready once again to explore new horizons but with a more niche focus.
