Grinding it out….

GRINDING IT OUT!

Press on, nothing in the world can take place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not reward. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent- Said Ray Kroc, the visionary of Mc Donald’s in his auto biography “Grinding it out”. You may have many a times wondered the speed at which you get served at Mc Donald’s. This was made possible by a 52 year old man named Ray Kroc who began the McD.

The book “Grinding it out” talks volumes about the life of Ray Kroc and how he built one of the most respected brands. A completely sales fellow, Ray Kroc knew nothing came without hard work. He constantly reinvented his sales strategies, products and life skills and moved on in life. Every night Ray had to keep his mind blank so as to get a good sleep, else all the thoughts of McD would disaster his sleep. It all started when Ray left his job in the “Little lily paper cups company” and started selling “Multimixers”. Once he heard of a place somewhere in California where a huge delivery of Multimixers was taken. On reaching the place Ray was amazed on seeing 8 multimixers bucketing in Milk shakes, people rolling out French fries and Ham burgers. Ray was amazed to see the “Mc Donald’s” and wanted to extend the same model across the length and breadth of America. He consequently talked to the Mc Donald brothers and started with a franchisee model. It took long years to replicate the exact model across many stores across the country.

Ray partnered with Harry and started with a life’s journey of establishing a brand in the food industry. Ray had to go without salary for 2 long years and after that too paid his staff more than what he took home. From the beginning, Kroc focused on creating a system for his restaurants that could be easily replicated, and he continued improving the original assembly line. He hired good people who he felt would help him grow the company, and together they created modern-day franchising. They developed a unique method that allowed McDonald’s to own mortgages on land that the franchises occupied, and as he recounts, the initial $1,000 investment was parlayed into more than $170 million of real estate. To cut a long story short, Ray’s grinding out for 5 long years brought him hundreds of McD’s all over the country. He did not stop there; Ray went on and took franchisee marketing to what we know today. He has been crowned to have made the most number of millionaires ever in the American history. Ray has set an example to how establishing a number of small scale businesses, a lot can be done to the society. Ray has built a destiny with a current line up of 31,000 franchises, lakhs of employees and yet many many more suppliers. All this he accounts to his persistent hard work, dedicated team and his never say die spirit. Ray had the entrepreneurial spirit that spilled over to thousands of people to make them small business owners. Ray showed the power of a free enterprise system.

He has mentioned the names of his team mates who never left McD though they were offered triple the salary and better hierarchical positions offered by Ray. This shows the amount of leadership spirit possessed by Ray(records show that he himself cleaned the McD stores!). He says “There is no adventure and thrill in walking over a rope kept on the ground, achieving the feat when the rope is hanging on the ten storied building makes you feel that you lived life to the fullest and that is when you get a sense of fulfilment and achievement.”

To take a page from his book Grinding it out…these are the ones that count

v  No pain no gain

v  Perfection is very difficult to achieve, but without which nothing will be perfect in life

v  Sales is the only area you need to be perfect at if you wish to set up your own venture

v  Give back to the society after you have achieved

v  Every one of us have dreams, but the one who transform them into last mile detailing only transforms them, rest of them keep dreaming!

So start it grinding out, between studies and activities; professional life and personal life; yes and no situations…in fact at all the situations. It’s not easy but once you achieve it you will have a Mc Donald’s to show the world…..

I’m Lovin’ it…..

The Effective Executive-Peter Drucker

The book review of the book “The effective executive” by Peter Drucker.

The book has been described as “If you are ever consigned to that mythical desert island, and can only have one management book, make this the book.”  This has been the standard text book for many management leaders. Not because it teaches management but because it teaches how to manage bits and pieces in your business as well as life. The book starts by detailing the meaning of an executive and the difference of the executive from a normal worker. For example the job of a worker is calculable in terms of items produced or the time spent on the duty, where as that of the executive is independent of the time he works.

Drucker has fantastically explained concepts and furnishes live examples at every corner of the write up. He gives the readers a glance into the lives of great thinkers. The author gives straight points regarding the scope of improvement in the life cycle of an executive. The titbits of wisdom mentioned are so useful that you will start to apply these to your daily life. The book is considered as a management reference manuscript by a lot of strong thinkers.

Drucker puts forth that the work of an executive has to be measured by not the profit he creates but should be based on the results. The author is such sound in understanding the feelings of the reader that he answers most of the questions by the time we ponder upon the reservation. One key learning from the book is that the Executive is a “Knowledge Worker” of the society.  Right from Login to sign-out of the book, Drucker talks about the importance of the Knowledge Worker AKA Executive in the society. He gives out five key stand points that have to be considered by a Knowledge Worker while he climbs in his life. The wisdom about decision making is very helpful. In one of the instance he says that an executive has the key role of not only developing self but also those around him. This results in the development of the team as a whole. To write a long story short I suggest you to take a quick peep into this book to only realize that you had wasted time in not reading this book till now. It’s that good. All the best for your transformation from an Executive to An-Effective-Executive.

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THE SILICON VALLEY START UP CITY

Learning from the Silicon Start up City Bangalore

It was an event that witnessed 3500 dignitaries coming in and about a 150 start up companies from all over the country. There were various guest talks from eminent personalities of the business world and few discussion panels. The event is a must go to those interested to start their own venture. The views presented are not personal.

Entrepreneur funda:-

The six point take away from mind tree founder

v  Entrepreneurship is about institution building

v  Entrepreneurship is about relentless optimism

v  Entrepreneurship is not about not committing mistakes(In short making mistakes is allowed)

v  Never fear from the big boys. You will definitely have your own advantages.

v  As an entrepreneurship risk taking is very important.

v  .. As an entrepreneur do what you are good at doing. Never do everything of your own. You will definitely put on more value to what you are good at.

Create performance based teams. An MBA degree is not at all a pre requisite for starting on your company. The problems that you are going to face can be cracked like any normal math problem. You can definitely find the right kind of people to join your team if you are truly committed to last as a successful institution.

VC funda:-

No VC or an angel investor will ever ever ever ever invest in your venture unless you have put some meat in the game. Go for funding only after you have exhausted the finances from yourself, the 3F’s (family, friends, and fools). Always show that you can do something and show the confidence levels of the teams.  When you go to the VC for funding see that you don’t sell your idea. Instead go for a conversation with him. See if he is the right person to be in the game. Don’t be just a sales person. It is always important to address the VC what he wants to listen. If he wants the financials don’t make him wait till slide 23 or so. Show him then and there. Remember money is not the limit for getting venture capital. Even 100 crores are very easy if you can prove that you are the right person.

Innovation funda:-

No inspiration no innovation. Innovator is one who understands the facts, feelings , trends , problems of the consumers and then goes about making it suitable for him in services, delivery, marketing and of course the product. Innovation is just not about technology. Innovation is a money making venture.

One in 50 ideas becomes a business. 1 in 20 gets money. And one in 20 is 1-bn above in the market. So facing difficulties in this field is very common. Never get scared of failure, take more risks to grow more. In short odds are substantially high and so the difficulties are also very high. This is a very audacious field and once you get into it just be hooked because you have taken the best decision.

THE FLAT TYRE

14June2010 – Story of the Week

The Flat Tyre

One of Mr. Ratan Tata’s first assignments was the stewardship of the ailing electronics company in the Tata portfolio – Nelco.

Story goes that a team of senior managers from Nelco were driving to Nasik along with Mr. Ratan Tata. Halfway into the journey, the car had a flat tyre, and as the driver pulled up, the occupants – including Mr. Tata – got off for a comfort break, leaving the driver to replace the tyre.

Some of the managers welcomed the forced break, as it allowed them a much-needed chance to light up a cigarette. Some used the opportunity to stretch, and smile, and share a joke. And then, one of them suddenly noticed that Mr. Tata was not to be seen, and wondered aloud where Mr. Ratan Tata might have vanished.

Was he behind some bush?

Had he wandered off inside the roadside dhaba for a quick cup of tea?

Or was he mingling with some passer-bys, listening to their stories?

None of these, in fact while his colleagues were taking a break, Mr. Ratan Tata was busy helping the driver change tyres. Sleeves rolled up, tie swatted away over the shoulder, the hands expertly working the jack and the spanner, bouncing the spare tyre to check if the tyre pressure was ok. There were droplets of sweat on the brow, and a smile on the face.
In that moment, the managers accompanying Ratan Tata got a master class in leadership they haven’t forgotten.

And that’s a moment that the driver of that car probably hasn’t forgotten either.  

No Work or Worker is too menial for a true leader!

Don’t command leadership, live to be leader, followers are bound to come.

Most importantly learn to lead with out title.

VIII THINGS THAT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO

VIII THINGS THAT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO….

Recently due to exam time I could not read any books other than the prescribed ones for the course. Thus I shifted to quick podcasts. These I downloaded to my phone and started listening to them during my study breaks. One inspired the most which I feel to present my version of understandings. Hope you will like them.

The podcast is by Robin Sharma (author of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.”) named

VIII THINGS THAT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO.

1. Successful people are focused: – Every activity that successful people do are aligned with what they want to achieve at the end of their lives. It is the law of linkage, linking what you do today to what you want to achieve. It is really good to say NO to the things that don’t matter so that you can say YES to the ones that really matter.
2. Successful people are positive and PASSIONATE:- Passion is truly contagious. When you get excited and passionate about your goals and what you want to do, it rubs off on other people. Be always positive on the things you see in the outside world.  So be always positive to others, be positive to the surroundings and the way life is going on.
3. Successful people Work hard: – There is no successful person who has not worked harder than those around him. Because hard work yields wonderful results. Go that extra mile today. See how happy you feel tonight when you remember how hard you worked.  Hard work with smartness really pays off big time. There is no substitute for hard work. Outwork others.
4. Successful people follow NSI (Never Stop Innovating):- Be always innovating. They always keep innovating on how to make their business better, how to improve my career, how to improve my health, how to improve my study time, how to develop my life…. Successful people always come up with new ideas on pieces of paper, on their desks, napkins, phones, because they want to make a difference. Never accept the ordinary, get what that suits you. Keep pushing the envelope. N-S-I.
5. Successful people are masters of time: – Manage your time master your life. You have to be world class at managing your time. Time slips down like grains of sand. The moment you are sharing with me now will never come back to you. Today will never come again. This is a very unique commodity. Be so good on focusing the time on the things that will get you to your dream land. TIC-TOK-TIC-TOK.
6. Successful people add outrageous value: – Successful people always ask themselves that how can they add value to others? How can I add outrageous amount of value to my clients and elevate the way they do things? Remember that when you help others to reach their goals then they will surely help you to reach yours. When you improve the way you go about doing things and add value to it constantly, then you elevate yourself as a whole. It’s as simple as making tomorrow better than today.
7. Successful people have strong relationships: – Business is all about strong relationships. People like to do business with those who they have trust on. They want to do business with people they like. So build strong relationships. Make time to do “good” with people. Make time to break bread with your team mates and work mates. In short a great life comes down to the quality of great relationships. At the end of the day who wants to become famous in a grave yard. We all want people associated with us. So start building great human bonds.
8. Successful people are committed to Excellence: – Successful people want to be magnificently great at whatever they do. They want to stand for the highest and want to be truly excellent. Play harder go for the extra mile and keep pushing the envelope. Be the Sachin of your field.

So here you are, now you know what successful people do.

Awareness precedes choice which precedes results. With better awareness you make better choices and with better choices you get better results.

Bon voyage

SHOULD YOU BE BORN GENIUS TO SUCCEED?

Should you be born with that G in you??

This article is a small research conducted by me when I got the doubt that if you really need to be that genius (G) in order to be a successful entrepreneur. I always felt that only IIT’ans and above are bound to be entrepreneurs . are entrepreneurs born or can evolve was my secret question? Thus I made a point to point search of the various qualities possessed by the big shots of today’s business world especially in India.

To start with

Á       Narayanmurthy :- he is known for his Discipline mainly, he himself asks his close associates to be well disciplined. This quality has taken him to places, he is known for taking Infy as a huge software giant globally. Another aspect which sets him aside is his huge pool of knowledge, from Finance, entrepreneurship, teaching, social services, politics and so on, he is very knowledgeable. This can be well understood when we see any of his interviews on T.V. The clarity that his company followed is awesome because he knew what to do when in his organization.  The most important feature which is also common in many entrepreneurships is that he went an extra mile and did something different. He might be an extraordinary person but these are the reasons why he has become very successful.

Á       Ratan Tata: - The poster boy of India. His determination for doing a work is so high that nothing can stop him achieve his pursuit. He wants to take the Indian product to International levels, the determination with which he worked for the Nano factory is well known. One more  feature is his dedication to work; he wants the welfare of his firm and does not want his personal interests to collide with the advancement of the company. (The fact that he is as of yet unmarried proves this). Though he is from one of the richest backgrounds, unless he has these principles he cannot take Tata to the position of what it is today. Once again proving that it is not only the inborn talent in you but also the talent you gather as you go to make one successful in ones filed.

Á       Dhirubai Ambani :- This man used to walk kilometres ever day to save the money of travel so that he can invest in something else. The determination in the achievement of goal what so ever, shows the importance of this quality. He had belief in final goal of his life that persuaded him forward. We might have heard many stories about the techniques he has used to take his company forward , but it has to be noted that whatever path he took he not only earned money for himself but also to his lakhs of shareholders who depended on him. If requirement was money he could have got it somehow but he wanted to keep the trust on him alive, thus he could succeed. I feel his determination, belief in final goal and a sense of good will along with the common entrepreunal feature has made his company what it is today.

Á       Kishore Biyani:- according to me he can :

• Sell a glass of water to a drowning person
• A sack of sand to an Arab
• And snow to the Eskimos.

Such a great retailer he is.

After going through the book “It happened in India” (By Kishore Biyani)I understood the extent of hard work he has shown in understanding the Indian customer. I once recall Raj sir saying that he used to visit the Saravana stores in Chennai form 9 AM to 5 PM in order to understand the basic behaviour to the customer. Thus if someone shows that much importance to minute details then he is bond to have resounding success. The innovativeness in the product is not important because walmart was there prior to Big Bazaar, but the way you sell your product is more important, this was proved by him.  Once again proving that he does not have any extraordinary power!

These people are said to be the ones who changed the face of the Indian Business mart, but its not because of a totally superficial power that made them so big, each one of has the capability to get to that position. I totally believe that when I really require that skill it comes to me with ease. Thus let us stop blaming our stars, let us take a paper from the lives of these people and do something that we are really capable of doing.

THIS IS TOTALLY BASED ON MY UNDERSATNDINGS…WHAT DO YOU FEEL?

FACTS de ENTREPRENUERSHIP

When anyone is first thinking about starting their own business, they want some cold hard facts regarding this industry. They want some facts on how many make it, how many fold, how many hit their profit goals and how many of them over shoot their profit goals, etc. So I have put together a little list of some interesting entrepreneurship facts :-

●More than one third of job creation is due to new businesses.
●In 2007, an average of .30 percent of adults started a new business which accounted for about 495,000 new businesses per month.

● What do Microsoft, Disney, Genentech, McDonald’s, Southwest Airlines, Johnson& Johnson, and Krispy Kreme all have in common? All were founded in recessions, depressions or bear markets.

●Nearly 75% of start-up capital are made up of equal firms such as banks, loans, and credit card debt.
●Young businesses are right off the bat are 3 percent more productive than that of mature businesses and their rate increases up to 5 percent more productive after they have been open for five years or more.

Learnings From the HR meet….

HR Summit

The HR forum organised by Ascent Times by Times Of India and SRM University.

This was saw the participation of 350 HR personnel all throughout the country, there were various respected members from huge associations like Yahoo, Infy , saint Globain , also the MBA students of various colleges were present, including a couple of us who were the only ones from engineering background.

The chief guest Swami Sukhabodhananda inaugurated the crowd with a really awesome lecture on work life integration. His lecture gave an insight on how we have to respond to a situation rather than reacting to it. The lecture was filled with many stories, jokes, and shayaris and of course great take aways.

Change management:-

The first panel discussion was on change management. Headed by Balaji (CEO – MD of Ma Foi).  Great trends in the present market were discussed. Basically about the way the customers adapt to change and how it becomes difficult for the companies to adapt to it specially in the tech based companies. The change of the market where Gen-Y people use the 160 word format of twitter to convey pages of company internals was a catchy issue. Change is inevitable and it is uncomfortable should be inculcated in the culture of every company was widely discussed. Then there was a doubt session by the audience where the catchy one was –“why do HR people never smile and are always very lifeless guys?”, for this the panel gave a uniform widening of their face muscles.

Performance management:-

This panel discussed a lot about the trends followed by their respective companies in this regard. Ms Aparana (VP-HR Yahoo India) said that extracting the 100% from an individual is very important and constantly evaluating the performance with regular incentive is essential. The three things followed basically in every company to manage the performance are:-

1. Performance based job distribution
2. How to catch the potential of the employer way behind others
3. Readiness of a job for a person when he develops spl qualities.

A lot of talent management was talked about. The take away for the students was that no one is Plug_and_play when they come to the job; it is always that you have to keep learning new things at every level. (So never feel college is the last learning place). The conclusion was

GROWING OLD IS ADDING YEARS TO LIFE whereas GROWING UP IS ADDING LIFE TO YEARS!

Role of HR as strategic business partner:-

The final panel discussion was carried on by Ms Nina (leadership & talent consulting Korn Ferry India). This session was important because it gave the insight into the various huge players like Indigo, Raymonds and Infosys. They were constantly telling the role of every person right from the sweeper to the CMD in decision making of the company at various levels. The depth of the understanding of a particular business into which we are into was shown importance.

The meet ended on a note to stop laying the cycle of JOB CUT OFFS and again recruiting the employees. The HR community showed what they truly want from a person. The best take away what I feel is that we need to understand how mutual interaction among various departments shall increase in the cultivation of better results for the company and the individual.

Welcome one and all…..

Hello,

A whole hearted welcome to my blog. I am Eshwar K Vikas from SRM University EEE department. This is the kind of place which is meant  to share my feelings, knowledge, experiences, opportunities, things that impress me and in fact a lot more. This is the place where I expect all of you to share your thoughts, expressions on—- ME, the country, the social system , the college, current stories  , gossip and in fact everything. I want to make this the platform where you can keep coming back to refresh your knowledge, know about the other side of the world, share thoughts with others and if required to de-stress.

I will be covering topics from all sorts especially entrepreneurial, technical, philosophical confidential, breaking stories, sports and current issues. I hope that you shall have a roller coaster ride whenever you come in here.

Let us all share our comments on whatever we like. Let us never feel lonely again. Remember that this is a place for all from any walk of life.

Welcome,

My dear friends, well wishers, family members, colleagues, beloved faculty ……. and every one.

Keep coming back,

Eshwar K Vikas.

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