Reinventing the Wheel for India

By Rajeev Mantri

The transportation sector in India is witnessing rapid growth as India urbanizes and the economy continues to expand. Car sales for July recorded a jump of 38% from a year earlier, rising to an all-time high. Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata are all building up mass-transit systems. The national capital has just opened a swanky new airport terminal and the civil aviation industry has never been more competitive.

Consumers today have lots of choices in how they choose to get around. This is a far cry from the earlier times when government carriers dominated the skies and entry into the automotive industry was heavily regulated and just a handful of players allowed to manufacture cars.

The Value of Indian CSR

At one level Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is just another piece of jargon. Too often it’s more symbolic than real in contributing to society.

In the US, there is even considerable debate about the value of CSR. Some think firms can serve society best by maximizing risk-adjusted financial returns to shareholders and leaving societal contributions beyond job creation to the government. On the other hand, Indian leaders whom we interviewed in our study published in “The India Way” placed a lot of stock in CSR.

How to Nurture Your Online Reputation

By Pradeep Chopra

Continuing on my previous article ‘Beware of the Unhappy, Web Savvy Customer’, in which I talked about the importance of managing your online reputation, I would like to leave you with few ways to manage and nurture your reputation in the digital world.

I would like to start by again directing your attention to ‘listening’, which is the most important part of online reputation management, or ORM. Without listening you can’t begin your journey to build your reputation online.

Beware of the Unhappy, Web Savvy Customer

By Pradeep Chopra

According to a report by SMC Capitals, there are over 3.1 crore active Indian users on social networking sites. According to a report on retailing by FICCI’s B2B directory website, over 60% of India’s population is under the age of 30, which means they are more likely to take their thoughts and complaints on line.

As these numbers are only expected to grow, keeping track of and caring about what’s being said about a brand in the digital world is increasingly important. Companies can spend millions of dollars to promote their brands, yet a single negative post can damage their reputations.

The Early Stage Mindset

By Sanjay Anandaram

Early stage venture-capital investing in India appears to be the flavor of the season. There are funds being set up from $5 million to $30 million. Some are being established by angel investors, some by former executives and investment bankers, others by successful entrepreneurs. Some are likely to be supported by government-linked institutions, some by international investors and high net-worth individuals.

I recently met with some of the fund managers of these proposed funds. Clearly, they had done their homework: on the state of the Indian private equity and venture capital market, the various participants had been identified and categorized. The state of the Indian economy, the performance of existing venture-backed companies, valuations, exit opportunities, the pluses and minuses of existing funds – all had been analyzed. The inevitable “gaps,” “spaces,” “blue oceans” (choose your favorite piece of jargon!) had been identified. And the findings appeared to point conclusively to early-stage investment opportunities in India being the Holy Grail, or the akshaya patra if you will.

The Farmer Opportunity in India

By Sandeep Singhal

In the last three years, Nexus has invested in two agriculture-focused companies. Suminter India Organics contracts with small and medium-sized farmers to grow organic produce that it then processes and exports. Sohanlal Commodity Management provides warehousing and logistics services to farmers, commodity exchanges and agriculture processors.

Based on my experience while sitting on these boards, there are a number of opportunities for entrepreneurs and companies that want to build business models aimed at farmers.

Here are some of the encouraging trends I see:

–Corporations want to deal directly farmers.

Organized retail chains like Reliance Fresh and Food Bazaar have set up integrated procurement systems that directly reach the farmer instead of working through intermediaries.

The ‘Cost’ of Facebook Marketing

By Pradeep Chopra

There are frequent debates in our workshops about whether the time and effort spent on building a Facebook marketing or brand experience is worth it. Is it really positive when it comes to return on investment? Let me walk you through an interesting example of an ROI evaluation of an Indian brand’s community on Facebook. Ching’s Secret’s Facebook community has around 120,000 fans.

According to Ajaay Gupta, chairman and managing director of Capital Foods Ltd., the brand owner of Ching’s Secret, Smith and Jones and Raji brands, this is how he compares the ROI of its community on Facebook with the ROI of advertising in print:

1. A half page ad in a city tabloid (with a circulation of around 100,000 readers) costs around 200,000 rupees ($4,350).

Pradeep Chopra is chief executive of Digital Vidya, a digital marketing training company. You can read his full mentor bio here.

Tracking Your Company Facebook Page

By Pradeep Chopra

In my previous posts on community building on Facebook, I mapped out a way to create a Facebook strategy and promote your company’s Facebook Page. Monitoring it continuously and making sure it occupies the right position in the consumer’s mind, though, will require you to use the right analytics.

Your business objectives for launching a community on Facebook will define the metrics you use to measure and optimize the success of your community. For example, if you are building a community to promote your brand, you may want to measure the number of relevant target users that are part of your community and the quality of interactions with those users.

How will you know that you are on the right track?

10 Tips for a Start-up Pitch

By Karam Lakshman

After an initial review of a few hundred start-up applications for the iAccelerator program hosted by the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, we met representatives of about 60 shortlisted start-ups in person across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. We averaged around six meetings a day.

Based on my experience with the pitch meetings, here’s a little advice for founders:

1. If the investor you are pitching to is meeting more than five start-ups a day, please keep in mind that for the first 10 minutes of your pitch, the investor is still thinking about the start-up before you. Be prepared to have your presentation interrupted with questions.

Karam Lakshman is the Program Coordinator of the iAccelerator Program.

Can You Fire Your Friend?

By Gautam Gandhi

Imagine that you are thinking about starting a new venture. You discuss the concept with family and close friends and then instinctively ask them to join. It seems logical, since your friends are known to you—you can trust them, you know what they are good at, you know what they are not good at. You’re close to them, and you can share anything with them.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, this may not be the best idea unless you proceed with some caution.

I’ve discussed in my previous post about how much easier it is to start a business with a co-founder, a partner. But you need to be extra careful if that person is a friend. Start-ups often bring friends on board out of convenience, and with a false sense of security.

–Gautam Gandhi is head  of new business development at Google India.