TiE Summit : Enterprising India

Today, fortunately, got the opportunity to attend the second and last day of TiE Summit in Mumbai.
I had long back told Dipen to get me a pass for the summit which E-Cells members could arrange. He had said he would try and later told me that I could attend if I became a volunteer. I was happy. But alas, due to exams,Airtel concurrent project and some miscommunication I could not go for volunteering. With regret Dipen informed that my name stood cancelled! I felt dejected at the missed opportunity because I really like to hear experts speak, and what better place than TiE! But as good luck would have it I was later informed that I could get a pass through my SIFE-Social Cell as E-Cell wanted to put up the samples of our Warli products…. I was happy!
And so on 5th March I and Meenal reached NCPA, Nariman Point where the summit was being held. We displayed our products made by the Warli tribe and pamphalets of bulk order. The ambience was superb. There was unlimited CCD coffee and cookies, Goli vada paav, chocolates,chips-tea,hockey-pockey ice-cream,etc. Entrepreneurs, businessmen,venture capitalists,angel investors,etc etc were moving around. Volunteers were busy being busy….Sessions were going on in three auditoriums and I was dying to go in. But we had work to do. It was really sunny and we had to be in the stall and tell visitors about what we do and take orders if any. It was a taxing job! Soon Meenal and I cleverly decided that 1 by 1 will go and see the sessions.
I saw three sessions and they were really good.
1. Technology Underpinning Enterprising India- Future technology trends. It was a panel discussion by Mr. Moorthy Uppaluri(General Manager, Microsoft),Bimal Shah(Senior Consultant,TCS), moderated by Pradeep Udhas (Founding partner, KPMG). They discussed cloud computing and how it is today a boon for SMEs in India. Cloud computing provides software as a service and has a global reach. It is like an elastic which can contract or expand as per requirement. Users would pay as they use and hence useful for SMEs who have capital constrains. Also cloud computing is scalable. On hind side there are issues of security and privacy but can be tackled.Mr. Uppaluri said that today any application is created so that it can run on all the three screens that dominate our lives computer, mobile phone and TV. High technology enables applications to run seamlessly over different platforms. Mr. Shah reinforced how technology is radically changing business landscape. He said companies can better serve customers by having automated CRM. He gave an example of a wellness company which had used cloud computing to record customer contact details, information like what music a particular customer prefers, which employee does he prefer to be attended by, what services he take, what drinks he like, emailing or messaging him after the services for feedback, etc. Technology has drastically brought companies and customers together and if leveraged properly can work wonders. It has opened up doors of global market and any IT company today has the potential and means to become google and microsoft of tomorrow!

2. Made-in-India Session with Co-Host – KV Kamath introducing 3 Enterprising Indians on “Inclusive Development”.
Anurag Gupta (A Little World)- he has conceptualized ZERO platform for branchless banking by bringing together bank like SBI and tried to bring financial inclusion to villages. He uses modern technology to operate micro-banks in rural and remote areas.He said in last 12 years how his organization has grown in numbers but still has has not been able to make profit in any single year. One of its major challenges has been raise funds as his operations require large amount of money to serve its purpose.
Sudesh Menon (WaterLife)-Mr Menon has taken up the initiative of providing clean and safe drinking water to villages and urban-slums. His revenue comes from villagers who are ready to pay some amount for safe water . The company undertakes maintenance of the water tank,unlike government who ask big companies to construct huge tanks but in few months they become defunct due to no maintenance and follow-up. Mr. Menon wants to reach to nook and corner of the country and provide clean water, eliminating various water-borne diseases and ailments. He works towards educating the villagers and creating awareness for clean water.
R. Elango (Kuthambakkam)- Mr. Elango, a simple man from village of Kuthambakkam, was a powerful speaker. He, a scientist, left his job for making his village a better place. He became the head of the panchayat and has relentlesly worked to make villages self-sustainable. His business is to create a role model- a role model village that other villages would like to emulate. He considers caste-system to be the biggest adversary in villages. He tackles it by making duplex kinda houses where one dalit family and one non dalit family lives side by side. This leads to tolerance and brotherhood. He has formed clusters of villages where some villages grow and provide food to others, other specializes in infrastucture constructin(roads,schools,etc) and some looks after textile,etc….Hence overall the villages prosper with co-ordination and co-operation. He wants this model to spread far across India. He ended by appealing to Indian youth to come and work for Indian villages . He also said youth should enter politics, atleast locla,ward level politics and bring some changes in that area. He said India can shine only if fellowmen in villages are happy.

3. India - Fast Forward, 2020 - Power Panel with KV Kamath (ICICI), Rajiv Bajaj (Bajaj Auto) moderated by Sridar Iyengar (Chair, TiE Enterprising India)- It was the last session of Tie and I must say Mr. Rajiv Bajaj made the end fantastic. He was clearly cynosure of all eyes with his witty remarks, insightful reasoning and learned and lucid explaination. He spoke on various interesting aspects. I woulds touch upon some-
-He said that in business like his (automobiles) products as such cannot be much different from competitors. Bikes and cars are inherently similar to each other. In such cases what is important is to create a perception in the mind of customer that this particular product is better.
-Then he said if perception is the fruit then differentiation is the root of any thriving business. To differentiate from competitors the company has to be drastically different-opposite of competition(more than 50% different). He said that if companies try to be like others then no one will buy their product. They will think Pulsar is trying to be like Apache , means Apache is better and hence they will go for that.
-he said there should be alignment between frontend(sales and marketing) and backend(quality,SCM,operations,etc). Frontend should be sharp and backend simple.
-brand would give direction to the company. It would show how and what should be the innovation. Eg. Pulsar is a sexy , fast and powerful bike and hence innovation is directed towards pick-up,power,etc while Discover is fuel efficient hence RnD has to be done in that direction.
-Like in yoga you take position,find your centre(stable posture) and then extend and stretch likewise is a company in the market. 1st take a position, find stability and then expand.
He was an instant hit and I think first time speaker and TiE as Mr. Iyengar till now they were bereft of his addressals and would like to have him more in such events.

All in all it was a day to cherish…I loved the jewels of knowledge I was able to get and hope to have many such opportunity. This I say is Mumbai advantage :)