An Entrepreneur’s Vocab – Part II : VISION

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find the way” – Abraham Lincoln

All things are created twice. Vision is the first creation. For a house it’s called the blueprint, for a day it’s called a goal and a plan, and for a life it’s called mission. And in such vision believed a man we know as Walt Disney.

Walt Elias Disney spent his childhood in unusual company. The disparity in ages between him and his three brothers meant that he had no companions on the farm where his family lived, one hundred miles north-east of Kansas City. So he took to slipping off to seek the company of the farm animals – Skinny – the piglet, Pete – the family terrier, Charley, the buggy horse, often contriving games of his own and playing by the rules, which even  the companions understood and responded. Little did Walt’s parents realize that the animals were the toys and friends that Walt never had, and the farm itself was the first of his magic kingdoms.

As an artist that he was, Walt’s initial job was at the Kansas City Slide Company, which made one-minute commercials to be shown in local movie theatres. It was Disney’s first    step into the world of cartoon animation, an art which at this time was primitive and the animation jerky and unrealistic. His brief stint here was successful, although his perfectionism often meant that his methods were often costly and time consuming, even though the end result was much more realistic and closer to the effect of illusion which Walt was seeking.

In his struggle to keep going, Walt decided that the one place where a man of destiny might see his dreams come true was Hollywood. Here his series ‘Alice in Cartoonland’ and ‘Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’ ware extremely popular with the audiences, but again his perfectionism was driving the studio out of business. It was these turn of events which prompted an angry Walt to say, “I’ll never work for anyone else again as long as I live”. And with this resolve he began envisioning that cartoon character which would forever change his life.

He began scribbling furiously – tearing off sheet after sheet, crumpling it, scribbling afresh. A sleepless night followed. Then the next day, Walt’s star was born: a mischievous and undaunted mouse, wearing red velvet pants with pearl buttons, with a friendly name – Mickey. Daily Mickey came to life. His head was a circle, which was easy to draw, and no matter which way he turned, his ears were circles too. A pear shaped body, tapering tail, pipestem legs set in oversized shoes and four gloved fingers in each hand, which were cheaper and easier to draw than five.

The visionary then decided to try his unprecedented yet desperate inspiration. “We’ll make Mickey Mouse with sound” he decided, so as to woo the ninety-five million a week audience that flooded the over one-thousand theatres wired for sound. Walt himself, fingers clamped on his nose, spoke for Mickey in a boyish falsetto (a role he undertook for the next eighteen years.).

Overnight Mickey Mouse became a world-wide sensation. Mickey’s success tapped a spring of creativity, and a host of new characters poured from the Disney Studios. Pluto, Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, Donald Duck, all of them modeled on Walt’s barnyard friends.

Unsophisticated and uncomplicated, Disney’s films all pointed to the gentle but inescapable moral. Courage and Virtue vanquished wickedness and fear; industry triumphed over sloth; false ambition produced only defeat.

 

Years later, when in 1965, sixteen miles southwest of Orlando, Florida, Walt Disney Productions purchased an undeveloped wilderness twice the size of Manhattan, ordinary observers saw only swamps and groves, Walt Disney could see a the beckoning future – an unparalleled vacation kingdom called Walt Disney World……an experimental community of tomorrow, where people could live without traffic or smog or slums. And when a reporter asked him when the project might be completed, Walt’s reply was simple, “Never, not as long as there is imagination left in the world!” All his life Walt Disney dreamt such dreams and successfully went on to achieve them. He was a whole industry in himself.

Vision not only helps us spot present opportunities where others might not see them, but it also points us toward the future that inspires us to ask, “Where do I want to be five years from now? Ten years from now?” To answer these questions it takes time – it even takes some dreaming.

 

This January Consortium’13 we present the event ‘Entrepreneur’. An event for any budding entrepreneur, any visionary, and anyone who takes challenges head-on. Creating a feasible blend of idea, capital and marketing will be your motto but at the same time not losing sight of your goal will be pivotal to survive the ruthless competition you will face. Register yourself for the event at http://www.consortiumvnit.com/events/entrepreneur.php and see your dreams come true just like they did for Walt Disney!

WOMEN ON TOP

“It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you came from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.” ~Oprah Winfrey

“I’ve always been a big believer in equality. No one has ever been able to tell me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl”  – Anne Hathaway

In the male dominant world, which we have always lived, women have from time to time never failed to surprise the world. Great names of women have been splattered across the pages of history in almost every field today. In the yesteryear when jobs curtailed to their dependence on a male head, women worked under them, but today even that trend seems to be changing. Independence is the word most apt. Women seek independence and in their quest they believe in recognizing no authority above and one branch where this seems possible is in the line of entrepreneurship.

Over the years several enterprising women have lost out due to the lack of liberty. The liberty to take things in their hands, the freedom to choose a profession is what draws women towards the entrepreneurship.

And not only the concept of independence but also the want for money, the ambition of achieving new heights, reaching new realms and most of all making a name for themselves.

So what drives these women; apart from the name and the fame? A recent survey conducted by womensweb.in divulges some striking facts about women entrepreneurs in India.

The city which wins, with the most enterprising women, was Bangalore. And the sector was IT closely followed by apparel and the accessory related sector.

 

 

So who are these women? According to the survey the main chunk was from the age group of 25-30 and started out with at-least a post-graduation.

 

 

The majority of women-owned businesses are micro-enterprises or small/mid-sized businesses, with 73% reporting a revenue of under Rs.10,00,000 (Rs. Ten lakh or One million) in the last financial year.

Corresponding to this, the majority had under 5 employees (71%)

 

 

What drove women to start businesses? The opportunity to work more creatively and the perceived benefit of being one’s own boss were the top reasons chosen. While work-life balance was also chosen (by 36%) that was not the biggest reason for women turning entrepreneurs, as is commonly perceived.

 

60% of women entrepreneurs started their business with a capital of under Rs.1,00,000, and personal funds and savings were used to start the business in a majority of cases. However, 30% of those surveyed stated that they had used more 1 source of funding.

 

 

So with stories never ceasing to inspire, we see women, not only in India but in the world have realized that their purpose was not to remain dormant, but they could very well seize control. These are the stories of women, who have found their road, and are moving to their goals. These are the women who will remembered one day, as the some of the pioneers of the world

So to  bring out these qualities from within you comes CONSORTIUM 2013.

 

 

An Entrepreneur’s Vocab – Part I : INNOVATION

 

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought”

Around 2003-04, people across India started noticing a huge white billboard with a human head emerging from the bottom. As this was gradually replaced by a full face (no celebrity, just a common face) with a bold ‘Hi’, with no indication of the brand or the company, they were intrigued. By the time the message ‘We are Hutch and we are in India’ came up, they were completely hooked.

 

In fact, no other marketing initiative would have captured so much imagination among the Indian consumers than the Hutch advertising campaigns, in spite of a no-nonsense and uncluttered approach – something which is very uncharacteristic of the Indian advertising industry.

Strong visuals, a friendly custom-designed typeface, some excellent work by photographers and creative agencies, all contributed to some memorable campaigns.

In spite of a virtual fan following, the firm never became complacent. Hutch’s next series of adverts featuring ‘the pug and the boy’ with a surprisingly simple, yet effective tagline – ‘Wherever you go, our network follows’ will be remembered not only for making the whole of India sing “You and I, in this beautiful world..” composed exclusively for the advert but also for making the pug one of the most sought-after pets in the country.

 

However, in 2007, Vodafone acquired 67% stake in Hutchisson, re-branding Hutch telecom into Vodafone, and probably the biggest challenge they faced was to sustain the personal connect that Hutch was successful in establishing with its customers. And boy, didn’t the company handle the transition exceptionally well?! It reaslised that the Hutch Pug represented the network in itself and communicated the change to Vodafone beautifully without losing the charm present in the earlier Hutch Ads.

 

But Vodafone, probably hit the bull’s eye with its conceptualisation of ‘The ZooZoos’. Never before in the history of advertisements on television, have a set of white creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads captivated the Indian audience more than the ZooZoos. The 2,50,000 fans for the ZooZoos on Facebook, Twitter and Orkut stand a testimony to this.

 

An insight into these adverts by the two companies – Hutch and Vodafone, brings out the role ‘Innovation’ plays in any firm’s rise to the top. It makes us realise that ‘Innovation’ follows a process. It begins with identifying a need and is followed  by careful  research, experimentation, and the involvement of the right people to pursue the idea from birth to maturity. The act of innovating can generate many emotions. It can bring agony,sweat,tears and exhaustion. But, yes, it can also bring great  thrills, satisfaction and joy.

This 18^th – 20^th  January at Consortium’13, we present  BizMantra – an all-round event testing your marketing and sales development skills at the heart of which lies – ‘Innovation’. Be creative, make the complicated awesomely simple, form an efficient market plan and make the pursuit of origination your priority. Register yourself at http://www.consortiumvnit.com/events/bizmantra.php and see yourself innovating your way to success!

 

An Entrepreneur’s Vocab.

One day, an old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour, begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: ‘Blind – Please help’.

No-one was giving him any money.

A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money.

The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man, surprised at his sudden change of luck, asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

“It says,” said the stranger, ” ‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’ ”

Innovation! Innovation always need not pertain to a great, big idea that will sweep the world with an unbelievable change. Innovation can be as simple as what the advertising writer above
just did.

When asked why people invent, Mark Twain replied, “To give birth to an idea – to discover a great thought – an intellectual nugget, right under the dust of a field that many a brain-plow had gone over before. To be the first – that is the idea.”

And yes, you guessed it right, in each of the events that we at Consortium’13 have lined up for you, Innovation will definitely prove to be a game-changer.

Innovation, Vision, and Quality the indispensable trio for any entrepreneur will be the key factors differentiating the best from the next.

Keep watching this space for a sneak-peek into some of these competitions and what it will take to hold the torch of triumph…

Popcorn theory!

Robin Williams says and I quote- “No matter what people tell you, words and  ideas can change the world”

We have heard it over and over again by different people in different styles, yet for majority of us the ‘pop’ of the popcorn theory hasn’t occurred yet. The popcorn theory states that when a new idea or thought is incepted into a human mind, it takes its own sweet time to process and assess it before it allows the conscious mind to accept and realize it. Hence, despite being educated of a particular fact together, only a few of us implement it immediately while others pop up later! It is a proven fact that the same idea that occurred to you at any point of time has hit a minimum of a hundred people too at some point of time. The difference lies in who, of the hundreds, catches it, realizes it and with ideals unfettered from meaningless shackles of the conventional society, chases his idea and from a dream, makes it a reality. This is one reason that many a times we come to know about things and realize oh! That was what I thought of some time ago.  The difference is that person had the courage to think out of the box and apply it too!

We just need to have the courage to stand up for our ideas, because not all of us are Big Bs who have people applauding our pettiest idea with a “what an idea sirjee!” It has to face the torment of mass criticism if it has to be successful at the end.

So, gear up for one such fest, the VNIT CONSORTIUM coming this January that’ll provide you an all new horizon of revolutionary ideas! Be.the.change.

ASCENT – The B-Plan Competition

 

Just like any budding entrepreneur, the novices need to be guided on the intricate nuances of B-Plan formulation, while the succesfull B-Plans need incubation.

But what do you mean by mentoring and incubation?

For the innovative and implementable B-Plans to survive and flourish, especially during the start-up period when they are most vulnerable, it is essential that they be provided with hands-on management assistance and orchestral exposure to critical business support services in a nurturing, interactive and supportive environment.

Mentors use their experience and expertise to guide the novice entrepreneurs, provide them with strategic and operational inputs and give them a direction for product development, thereby shortening their learning curve and helping them to find implementable solutions much faster.

In this video, ERIC RIES – the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and the author recognized for pioneering the LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT, in his unique way explains how, with proper mentoring and incubation it is much easier for entrepreneurs to become successful now than it was even a decade ago. Take a look!

 

A major event in this year’s edition of Consortium is – ‘ASCENT-the B-Plan competition’. This event is mainly targeted at participants who are veterans with their own ideas and B-Plans which have not yet been incubated.

Apart from the conventional B-Plan presentation, this year we are introducing an idea dissemination session – ‘Ideate!’, mainly targeted at those participants who are relatively inexperienced at developing a full-fledged B-Plan, yet possess the zeal to become an entrepreneur.

Register yourself for the event at http://www.consortiumvnit.com/ and find your ideas in safe hands!

Because everything is STILL within your reach!

Whom do you call an Entrepreneur? Oxford dictionary defines an entrepreneur as – “A person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit”. But is that all?

Is entrepreneurship only about setting up a new business for monetary gains? We don’t think so…….for we believe that entrepreneurship is not a profession. It is in fact a vision, a passion and most importantly a personification of the never dying human spirit.

It is because entrepreneurship is not just about us. It’s about each and every person who might, in even the minutest possible way, be benefitted. It is about searching for opportunities in the most turbulent times. It is about believing in CHANGE.

So this January, at CONSORTIUM’13 – VNIT’s annual entrepreneurship and management symposium, make YOUR push towards making that difference!

Where do new ideas come from?

Often our insights over new ideas emerge as a result of peaceful voluntary loneliness, like watching the sun set alone in the balcony with a cup of coffee. But, have we ever given an ounce of thought to where ideas actually come from?

Here is a short clip to tingle your senses and give you a realistic insight on the conception, inception and roots of ideas…

TECHNO-MANN

Henry Ford. Bill Gates. Dhirubhai Ambani. Steve Jobs. JRD Tata. Mark Zuckerberg………what do all these personas have in common? Vision? Yes….Zeal? Yes….Technical Expertise? Definitely Yes. But what is strikingly common amongst all of them is that they have the managerial acumen to transform any situation in their favour. If you excel technically in your respective fields, then you have a solid footing. Now it is time to excel managerially!

This January unleash the leader in you at the CONSORTIUM’13 event – ‘TECHNO-MANN’. Weave your path to success, come up with a detailed and methodical plan, solidly backed by your technical knowledge and prove to the world that you are indeed an adroit technocrat.

FINANCE’

Finance is the study of how investors allocate their assets over time under conditions of certainty and uncertainty

Be it LIC ensuring they will stay with you “zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi” or Max New York Life Insurance being “your partner for life”; all of them remind you that “Mutual funds are subject to market risk. Please read the offer documents carefully before investing.”

When it comes to the world of investing, three words come to mind: overwhelming, intimidating, and scary because there’s never just a single question. To name a few-

• How can people protect themselves against unforeseen personal events, as well as those in the external economy?
• How can family assets best be transferred across generations (inheritance)?
• How does tax policy (tax subsidies and/or penalties) affect personal financial decisions?
• How does credit affect an individual’s financial standing?
• How can one plan for a secure financial future in an environment of economic instability?

And investments include various sphere within itself too. Financial position, Tax planning, Investment and accumulation of goals, Retirement planning, Estate planning so on and so forth.

That is why the world of investing can be cold and hard. But if you do thorough research and keep your head on straight, your chances of long-term success are good and for that you do not necessarily need to be a qualified financial expert! You just need to have the knack because even if ICICI says  “hum hai na”  or IIFCO TOKIO ensures to provide you with  “the life you desire”  it is you who takes the risk!

This January we bring to you FINANCE’ to tickle the economist inside you! Pair up, strategize and secure an affluent tomorrow in a live simulation of a life with responsibilities. So tune into FINANCE’ as ‘a goal without a plan is just a wish…’