PVC Partners - Passion, Vision, Capital: Creating Entrepreneurial Impact on Society

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 people likely to read in my eulogy or on my epitaph?” What you emerge with as your likely epitaph is also very likely your Absolute USP.

The defining quality of who you are as a person in the work environment is an outcome of:

Your (professional) Genetic Code + What You Love Doing

For most people, it’s not easy to answer this question themselves. Ask others – your loved ones, friends, your teachers, colleagues. It is an exercise similar to the evolution of Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept.

The outcome of this exercise would be either a word or a short phrase, very clear and simple, and easily communicated. And the added benefit is that you will never need to defend yourself against competition.

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Organization | Tagged differentiation, Entrepreneurship, Jim Collins, marketing, sales, USP | Leave a comment

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 outcasts (privately, behind closed doors it may have been another story). However, over the last 15 years business has been welcomed as a legitimate member of society.

But it’s only lately (the last few years) that there is a push towards creating many small and first-time entrepreneurs. You might even call it a democratisation of entrepreneurship. While the traditional media spotlights will continue to shine on big business (after all scale itself rates very high on the aspirational index), let’s not forget the fact that small businesses create and balance the ecosystem.

The fact is that Entrepreneurship creates independence (at the individual level). But the bigger and more diverse the base of entrepreneurship, the more independent a society and country can be as well.

Have just read the pledge that NEN is promoting, that is worded powerfully.

Here’s celebrating entrepreneurship!

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged development, Entrepreneurship | Leave a comment

Leadership Change at Starbucks – The Barista Returns?

Posted on January 28, 2008 by dd

Last year in an impassioned memo, Starbucks’ Howard Schultz identified several strategic and operational decisions that, according to him, were responsible for a deteriorating customer experience at Starbucks.

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.

The problem created by Starbucks taking the certain decisions was compounded by the fact that competitors have not stood still either. Competition has improved its core products (coffee), as well as the augmented product (store ambience, service, wait time etc.), and in comparison Starbucks has possibly stood still or slipped back.

Now, almost a year after that memo, Starbucks begins 2008 with Schultz stepping back into the CEO role. It’ll be interesting to see how his passion for the brand is infused back into the stores and the operations in the coming months.

On a separate note, the classic “founder vs. professional” conundrum also comes to mind, along with the notable examples of Apple (Steve Jobs), The Body Shop (Anita Roddick) and others. (Though Howard Schultz was not strictly the founder of Starbucks – the company was founded in 1971, and Schultz bought the company in 1987 when there were less than 20 stores in the chain – he is pretty close to being one.)

The question is: 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’.

What do YOU think?

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Organization | Tagged barista, brand, cafe, Coffee, coffee bars, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Retail, Starbucks, Strategy | Leave a comment

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 status, which is hard for many of us to give up. When we become “successful” we also evolve formulae and rules that have got us there – unfortunately, they also keep us there. As Jim Collins wrote in his book “Good to Great” – the biggest enemy of great is good.

When we are secure, when we have certain income, we are loath to give that security up. One of the first principles taught to MoC (Management of Organizational Change) professionals is that people don’t want to change, even from a poor situation that they may be in, because the new situation is unpredictable, unknown. When the current situation is comfortable, changing that becomes even harder.

With education come Rules – what is possible, what is not, what should be done and what should not be. The best entrepreneurs break business rules and constraints – not because they are consciously breaking them, but often they are not aware that there is supposed to be a constraint by which they should limit themselves.

Of course, you can build on the back of success. Certainly, basic security can allow us to take some risks which may not be feasible otherwise. Of course, education can provide many more platforms of growth that may not otherwise available and certain rules are absolutely essential (we call them “laws”).

But consider carefully, are success, security and education enablers for you, or are they holding you back?

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged barriers for an entrepreneur, barriers to business, barriers to entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship, growth, own business, personal growth | Leave a comment

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 have to take some risks.”

Entrepreneurship is about knowing the risks (and the rewards), taking “calculated” risk and managing the risk to minimise its impact.

The person who is taking risks without understanding them, calculating them, hedging against them is less an entrepreneur, more a gambler, where the weightage is on chance / luck / fate.