Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

Your Absolute Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Posted on February 5, 2008 by rl

Organizations grow around individuals, and typically entrepreneurial organizations reflect the inherent values and qualities of the founder(s). So if you are struggling to define your USP as an organization, a good reference exercise may be to ask yourself, “What are … Continue reading →

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India – Entrepreneurship Week, 2-9 February 2008

Posted on February 2, 2008 by dd

A bunch of organisations have got together to celebrate an Entrepreneurship Week starting today. (Here’s the “E-Week” page on the National Entrepreneurship Network website.) The post-independence decades saw business being subsumed by regulation and businesspeople being publicly treated as social … Continue reading →

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Leadership Change at Starbucks – The Barista Returns?

Posted on January 28, 2008 by dd

Starbucks faced the classic problem of any company scaling up (especially a retail brand) – how to be large without being bureaucratic, how to be efficient without losing the soul of the brand, how to be consistent without losing the differentiation edge. Will this change now, with the return of Schultz at the helm? The other question is whether, for iconic brands that are more than just the physical product or service being sold, can a ‘professional CEO’ ever take the place of the founder(s), replicate their passion & vision and maintain the integrity of the brand? I believe there are examples to support both answers: ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Continue reading →

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Barriers to Becoming an Entrepreneur

Posted on January 23, 2008 by dd

One of the thoughts that I shared with a gathering of students of entrepreneurship at a University near Delhi recently… The Top-3 barriers, in my mind, to becoming an entrepreneur are: 1) Success 2) Security 3) Education With success comes … Continue reading →

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Is Entrepreneurship a Gamble?

Posted on December 3, 2007 by dd

What does entrepreneurship mean to you? We’re still discovering, and learning – and sometimes teachers are much younger. Such as while playing a game, a child saying – “You can’t play safe all the time – to gain something you … Continue reading →

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