Sunday, October 29, 2006

Books for Entrepreneurs

I got this list from ZeroToMillion.com and the list looked exhaustive and hence wanted to share this will all who are taking time to visit my blog:

Globalization & Economics

* The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
* The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
* The Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
* Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal by Ball and Dagger
* The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L Heilbroner
* Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillan
* The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
* Economics by Stanley and Brue
* Macroeconomics by N. Gregory Mankiw
* Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter
* International Business by Charles W. H. Hill
* Against the Dead Hand by Brink Lindsey

Entrepreneurship

* Zero to One Million by Ryan P. M. Allis
* Zero to IPO by David Smith
* Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
* Rich Dad's Guide to Investing by Robert Kiyosaki
* New Venture Creation by Jeffrey Timmons
* Good to Great by Jim Collins
* The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
* The Young Entrepreneurs'Edge by Jennifer Kushnell
* The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business by Steve Mariotti
* The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship by William D. Bygrave
* Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
* Good to Great by Jim Collins
* At Work with Thomas Edison by Blain McCormick
* Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen
* On Entrepreneurship by Harvard Business Review
* Entrepreneurship.com by Tim Burns
* The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
* Fire in the Belly - an exploration of the entrepreneurial spirit by Yanky Fachler

Marketing

* The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen
* The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
* Obtaining a #1 Ranking in the Search Engines by Ryan Allis
* What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith
* Building Thousands of Links to Your Site by Ryan Allis
* Net Results 2 by Rick E. Bruner
* Protégé Training Program by Jay Abraham
* Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
* Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
* Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
* Principles of Marketing by Kotler and Armstrong

Personal Development

* Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
* The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey
* Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion by Napoleon Hill
* How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
* The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill
* The Student Success Manifesto by Michael Simmons
* Secrets of the Young & Successful Jennifer Kushnell
* Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
* Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
* The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Business Prophet

I was reading a special report on the Business week web site - Business Prophet (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_04/b3968089.htm). In this report, what I got to understand is that Dr. Prahalad says that the essence of entrepreneurship is in your business model. I strongly agree with him.
Rather thank looking at the article as one of his research findings, I would want to mention that the "BOP" edge to your business model is quite profitable on the long run. BOP formula will/might not fit all businesses too. I would want to make it clear that, my intention of "BOP" edge to a Business Model is not only for monitory benefits but also for the success of the service which you intend to provide.
For having a strong foundation to your business, one should extensively research if the product/service which you intend to bring out in the market is of any use to the end-user. I am quite sure that every individual entrepreneur would do this, but I wanted to ensure I reminded here in my writing. Twisting and tweaking your end product to suit the requirement of the end-user will enable you to build your brand.
As an example to quote here - Mahindra had an initial idea of building India's very own SUV. They researched and build the initial version of Scorpio with their ideas of Engineering. They have taken this engineering to people around and surveyed if they would be buying such a car. They noted each individual's comments and incorporated their comments into their engineering. They went back again and again to the same set of people to check if their taste's were changing or if they were liking the concept. Only after building the vehicle with all meaningful suggestions incorporated, did they launch the vehicle. The success of the SUV says it all. The new version of the same vehicle also comes with all the suggestions of owners coming in. (The only reason I quoted this example, is because I love this car very much).
I am quite sure that each business model will have its own way of reaching people and giving them what they want. But, in today's situation, this takes the front seat. If the end-user does not like your product/service, you are out of the game.

I have another good example for Customer Service - One day I was browsing through www.SeventyMM.com (an online video rental organization). I read about this start-up in Business World and wanted to try it out. I filled in the first page for registration and then it asked for my Credit Card number which I didn’t have ready. So, I simply closed the page. The following day I get a phone call from their Customer Care asking me if I was interested in taking the membership! I was quite impressed. Not only asking me if I was interested, the lady on the other side immediately offered me something which was irresistible. I promptly joined.
Till date I have never had any issue with getting my movies. Job well done. I only hope the same care continues.

Loosing my Virginity

An amazing life story of Sir.Richard Branson. It is a must read for every aspiring entrepreneur on this earth, to know how difficult it is to win in life.

Sir Branson's life is a clear example, as to how difficult it is to live life the way you want. But with focus and clarity, you can definitely live the way you want.

As I read through the book, I was amazed with the energy this entrepreneur had. Starting to be on his own at a very early stage in life, Sir Branson had spent most of his 'young' age trying to explore what he could possibly do to the student community which he felt needed something. That was the beginning, and today, we know what he has achieved. 'Sir' in front of his name says it all.

Just wanted to mention that having the desire to achieve is not the only thing, but the passion to perform also counts.

My salute to you Sir.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Entrepreneurship is Attitude

So, what does it take to be an Entrepreneur?

Is it so very simple? Ofcourse, Yes. But there are parameters for consideration.

E - Energetic
N - Neutral
T - Tough
R - Romantic
E - Elaborative
P - Passionate
R - Researcher
E - Empowered
N - Novice
E - Enterprising
U - Understanding
R - Rich

Energetic - Need to have energy to face failure.
Neutral - Never get carried away, you need to always be on ground to take off.
Tough - When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Romatic - Need to Romance with your Passion.
Elaborative - If you cant be straight forward, then the road ahead is bumpy.
Passionate - Eat, Sleep, Drink only your thoughts.
Researcher - Only when you explore, do you succeed.
Empowered - Empower yourself with Passion.
Novice - Because, every day is a new day.
Enterprising - Because, every day you need to be creative.
Understanding - If you cannot understand others, you can never solve their problem.
Rich - Attitude, Passion and Committment to Succeed.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Global Poverty

More than one billion people around the world live on less than one dollar a day. Poverty, however, means more than low income. Poverty results in child mortality, hungry people, and can lead to the oppression of women:

The poorest countries have infant mortality rates above 20%. Two million children die each year of dehydration from diarrhea. Another two million children die annually from pertussis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and measles. Three million more children die each year from bacterial pneumonia. Several hundred million children suffer annually from intestinal parasites. And according to the World Human Rights Guide, no country with a Gross Domestic Product in the bottom fifth globally has achieved social and economic equality for women.

Can we as a society do anything for this? I am quite sure, that we might not be able to do anything and everything for all people around the world, but my only thought is that if we could do anything for people around us? I only quoted this para because it matches with our objective taking this society forward.

Any ideas and suggestions as to how we can mark a difference????

Thursday, October 05, 2006

aWorldConnected.org

I have been following few emails around this organization and today, I have decided to visit this site. aWorldConnected.org is an organization dedicated for Globalization, Prosperity and Human freedom. I am quite sure, you would enjoy this site if you can visit it once.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

A genuine beginning...?

Part 1
Since the time I started my career, I had one point clear in my mind - I want to do something different. What is 'Different' and how do I understand that this is different?
Day's passed by and a couple of years back, I have decided that I would want to do something different in area which touch's each one's life - HealthCare.
Now that I decided on the area, what to do next is the major question. I had loads of thoughts passing by, but nothing concreate or meaningful.
A year-and-half back, I was reading a book - Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, by Dr.C.K.Prahalad. I have heard about him earlier, but I have not read any of his papers/articles/books. I started reading and to my suprize, I finished the book in a month's time (I understand this is long, but its short for me!). This is quite a different book - a compilation of case studies (probably we can call them short-true stories). These case studies are different. How are they different and what are the case studies are best understood in the book rather than on this blog :)
One of the case studies has given me a pointer to start framing my idea. After about a years work on the key points, Manish (my friend who shares a similar passion) and myself came out with a Business Plan.
In Feb 2006, we registered our Organization.
We took part in in two Business Plan competitions and we did recieve a good rating for our plan, but our implementation model was not well appreciated.

Part 2
With our implementation model not being practical enough, we have dediced to take things a bit slow. We concentrated on our regular jobs and have been quite busy.
Recently, I came across http://BarCamp.org (Read about this in Oct 2 issue of Business World) and quite impressed. I have decided that we should take our idea to this forum. Am looking forward for the next BarCamp in/around Bangalore.

Before I Begin...

As I mentioned above, this blog is dedicated all people around the globe inspired to change the way we live through entrepreneruship (any kind, this is the broadest term I could find).
I will post here my ideas and all kinds of information I find and pointers to people and organizations which share the similar passion.
My sincere request for readers of this blog is - share your information and write to me if I can be of any help to your aspirations.
Probably, if we live near to each other, we can also meet...