Sunil Bharti Mittal Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Group "Right from the beginning ours was

never a trading or money-making mentality, but of wanting to be recognized in our field and to establish a corporation. We did things never tried before in India. We wanted to prove that even with meager capital we could do bigger things....Sunil Bharti Mittal Story behind his name His parents (father Sat Paul Mittal, a bania, and mother, a khatriHindu castes) had an inter caste marriage, which created a brouhaha at that time, forcing them to adopt the surname Bharti. Sunil Bharti reclaimed the surname Mittal much later in life. The Journey Mr. Mittal started his first business in 1976 at the age of 18, with an investment of Rs 20,000 borrowed from his father. His first business was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers. In 1980 he sold his bicycle parts and yarn factories and moved to Mumbai. Later, in 1982 he became the exclusive dealer for Suzuki Motors's portable electric power generators imported from Japan. His business was running smoothly but later on the government banned the import of generators as two Indian companies were awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally. Then in 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacturing of electronic push button phones. Gradually he expanded his business and by early 1990s, Sunil Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear. In 1995, Sunil Mittal founded Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Soon, Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark. In 2001, BCL entered into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom International for a $650-million submarine cable project, India's first ever undersea cable link connecting Chennai in India and Singapore. Always enthusiastic and brimming with ideas, Mittal, has revolutionized India's mobile telephony and shown to the world the power of a market called "India". Famous for his guts to take business risks, it's no wonder that accolades and awards have followed Mittal in quick succession. In fact, he was chosen as one of the top entrepreneurs in the world in 2000 and was leveled amongst 'Stars of Asia' by 'Business Week'. Not only this, he received IT Man of the Year Award in 2002 from Dataquest and CEO of the Year, 2002 Award (World HRD Congress). He features in the Forbes 2007 list of world's billionaires at rank 69. Despite his hectic schedule, Mittal still remains quintessentially a simple, down-to-earth man who loves spending whatever time he could get, with his family. A man, for whom yoga is a great stress buster, Mittal's never-say-die attitude and his risk-taking abilities are sure to take him to new heights of glories.

ERP Implementation for Midsize companies Necessary Expense or Strategic Investment?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has become quite an established term over last couple of decades. For most of us it means a tool that helps an organization run various functions of its day to day operations and also help drive strategic decisions. Evolution of ERP followed the general evolutionary trend of Information Technology (IT). Long ago organizations worldwide started realizing how adoption of an ERP system makes some of them distinctly competitive and others an exact opposite. On the other hand ERP product development over last three decades has ensured that ERP products are not just a competitive differentiator for large companies, but a critical enabler for midsize companies as well. For every midsize company, not enabling itself with a good ERP system today is like trying to conduct business without using basic technological tools like emails. To clarify for the uninitiated, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated system which facilitates the required collaborative effort for various departments of an organization such as marketing, sales, production, quality management, materials management, logistics, financial accounting and financial control. At the very basic level, integration of such a system helps in ensuring accuracy of information, productivity, efficiency, scalability and above all reliability. This system unleashes possibility of implementing management practices that make one organization fundamentally different from another. BASICS OF GUARANTEEING A RETURN ON THE INVESTMENT Not every collection of features is an ERP product: ERP is a software product. ERP product market has evolved over last two decades to have clear market leaders and a host of other products. Choosing the right product is very basic to ensuring that one gets highest return from the investment. Implementing an ERP system and fine tuning it to be a business enabler over a well defined roadmap requires that the product chosen by you does not exhaust itself as you go beyond operational execution and look to enable your strategic insight, competitive edges and USPs. Just as it is well understood today that developing a software system from scratch as your own ERP is a big waste of energy, choosing a product that covers 75% of your operational execution is as imprudent. Explosive growth and high returns come from your ERP system when you are able to take beyond operational execution and use for one of following: Operational Excellence Strategic Decision Making Competitive advantage Scalability Enabler

Its important for the product that you choose as your ERP system to be able to enable all of the above over a period of time. Most immature ERP products exhaust themselves at the level of Operational Execution itself, and leave no scope for growing to subsequent steps of evolution. Implementing the Product well is as important as the product itself -Implementation is a crucial exercise in ensuring the success of an ERP initiative. Implementation process does not mean just setting up the transactional parameters and master data for a product so that it can function for a specific company. Its a purely business driven exercise of bringing about a change and taking the organization along with it. Its too elaborate a topic to address in a few paragraphs but just as a word of caution, like any other change initiative all the following are critical success factors 1. Selection of a worthy partner who can bring definitiveness to your project in terms of time lines and ability to give you the best solution for your business 2. A clear solution strategy and implementation plan 3. Buy-in and support from company leadership 4. Buy-in on the solution features from all function leaders 5. Communication strategy for every section of ERP user 6. Commitment of right resources to the project 7. Single minded pursuit to finish the project on original schedule 8. A project control procedure that leaves no room for lack of accountability and has the ability to incentivize everyone involved WHERE DO YOU GET THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT FROM? Lower Cost of Operation Higher productivity and efficiency leads to lower cost of operation across the organization. Higher Serviceability to Customers A company that operated at 85% serviceability ratio to its customers can operate at 95% of serviceability as a result of collaborative efficiency between sales, production, quality check and logistics. This translates to 10% more revenue collection and proportionate profits year after year. Higher Throughput Getting more out of your installed capacity could mean crores of saved capital investment. With a good ERP product and a well implemented solution one can optimize its production capacities and coordinate with sales to achieve higher throughput. Faster Inventory Turns Most manufacturing companies have 70% of their cost in the raw material. Faster inventory turns means significantly lower amount of working capital and its cost. Lower Cost of Compliance Accurate and demonstrable operational execution means higher statutory compliance. This translates into saving significant amount of money on ensuring compliance and management time. Control on intended inefficiency As the organization grows, visibility and transparency is sacrificed. Trust based system leads to scope of mismanagement. A good ERP system brings a huge deterrent of audit trail and traceability into the system. This leads to crores of money saved over a period in material handling itself.

Dr. Mahesh Taneja, AVP Finance and Information Technology at Munjal Showa Ltd and a doctorate in Inventory Optimization says For a company that is past 50 Cr INR turnover, cost of the best ERP solution can be recovered from the material handling efficiency itself. Apart from tangible benefits there are plenty of intangible benefits. Can we really think of implementing vendor evaluation or distributor management if we cant measure a few key result areas accurately in real time. Can we possibly incentivize our dealer network if our marketing departments vision of a rebate system cannot be automated through our ERP system. Is it going to be possible to sell to a OEM in Europe if our ERP system does not help us in tracing the component supplier in case our client had to unfortunately recall its product. What if my USP is fastest order-to-delivery, if I cannot make it happen through my ERP system. Can I ever ignore the fact that a core of well defined processes that is embedded into my ERP system can free my management to drive the company to a growth target in 4 years time that was otherwise to be achieved in 5 years time. The list of ROI elements goes on. On one hand ERP is as necessary to a business as an email system. On the other hand a good ERP system can be source of sustainable competitive advantage, higher profits and scalability. For an Indian manufacturer growing beyond about 50 crores INR turnover, having a good ERP solution is a must. The great news is that it is actually a wealth creator.

The Changing Face of Contact Center

Indian Telecom Operators Perspective

The only permanent thing in this world is change- the adage has stood the tests of time and couldnt have stood truer for any other sector than telecom. Telecom industry in this country has undergone many tumultuous transitions and experienced rapid changes in the business practices. Analyzing the history of telecom operations in India one can easily conclude that the industry has been operating with infinite elasticity; metamorphosis of the competitive landscape, deep fluctuations in the rules of the game couldnt dither the survival of the players. The pricing and profits have been spiraling southwards and the break out of the price war doesnt seem to be ebbing in near future. If Porter ever coined the term competitive advantage he always believed the same can be gained by adopting and embracing differentiators for the business. As in the case of all the nascent markets the differentiators for telecom operators were Price, Product and Place. The Price depicted usage charges, the Products included a variety of specially crafted recharges or the different values added services offered and the Place was meant for the network coverage and the availability of the products. But the rapid changes in market dynamics and the hypercompetition has changed the differentiators. Price, Product and Place are pass as differentiators and Service remains the only sustainable differentiator. Enough evidences are there that excellent service attracts and, most importantly, retains customers and also the touch points making the customer experience the levels of services offered by the operators have multiplied with the passage of time and changing levels of technology. Customer Service Excellence, cost reduction and the addition of revenue-generating services have become the top winning strategies. The start and the progress The most important and cost centric touch point for the telecom operators has been the Contact Centers. It all basically started with setting up of a small facility for receiving calls from customer with employees on rolls and space owned, but as the operations started getting wider and deeper the challenges to manage the inbound call flow became difficult. The easiest available option was to establish local level call centers with smaller volume of operations meant to cater the calls originating from the circle itself. Small time entrepreneurs were asked to commit and the operations were ghost managed by the operators themselves. But with passage of time and explosion in the subscriber base this model became inefficient due to lack of professional commitment, focus on costs alone, lack of scalability and poor quality of services. It forced telecom players to change their strategies and start innovating their business models. Strategic outsourcing and partnerships and alliances (with the customer being at the center) were established as the cornerstones of the new competitive theme. The focus on core competencies of the own organization and leveraging of others became top agenda for the telecom operators. Telcos realized that their core competencies were sales and marketing of the services and supervision of the service delivery rather than managing the trivial affairs like payroll and

accounting or even the other areas of strategic importance like information technology, network management and maintenance, call center technology and contact center operations. The need to outsource was further fueled by desire to attain. Scalability- Gearing up for growth Increased Retention- Retaining customers is always cheaper than acquiring new ones Predictability- Having predictable cost structures Accountability- Defined SLAs and risk sharing with partners, vendors and alliances The Indian BPOs were having advantages of learning curve from different world class operations supported and amalgamation of best practices from different global companies. This diffusion of knowledge and practices made the BPOs move closer to the much celebrated productivity frontier and become best in the class. Telcos started to leverage this core competency of the Indian BPOs by forming strategic partnerships. The salient factors which assisted the telecom operators in making the choice were Management of heavy call volumes The swelling call volumes at the contact centers, lack of competencies, limited manpower and scalability were hindering the service to the growing subscriber base. The BPOs with hiring & training facilities and deep pockets were more capable of providing desired scalability to telcos cocktailed with high class professional competencies and commitment. Consolidate to leverage economies of scale The scatter bed local contact centers with their own standalone and non-standard practices were posing hindrances in operations. The unification of the contact centers enabled the cutting of costs and benefits of economies of scale with one facility serving for 3-4 circles or more. Leveraging the economies of scope The BPOs also provided an opportunity to realize different revenue streams like upselling (generating revenue from the callers at inbound call center by selling VAS services etc). Establishing command centers for optimizing resource utilization The consolidation spree necessitated establishment of centralized command centers with aim of optimizing resource utilization at each of the contact centers. A specialized team, working round the clock, in a state of the art environment, delivers the following benefits

Improved forecast accuracy Real time work load management Improvement in accessibility and service levels Business continuity and contingency management Optimized resource utilization

This optimization will always have to balance the strike of the double edged sword of decreasing the costs and maintaining the Customer Satisfaction.

Offering segmented service delivery The hyper-competitive telecom market necessitates that the entire base of the customers be segmented into different buckets depending upon their AON (Age On Network), MoU (Minutes of Usage) and revenue contribution. For retention of the best customers the companies started the loyalty and the privileged customer programs which required better skilled contact center agents and superior management of processes. This could only be achieved by better systems for training and operations. Gaining from the core competencies of the BPOs The contact centers are meant for providing uniform services to all the callers by adhering to the processes. The BPOs have developed capabilities of managing the business processes of varied types and have competencies to handle complex operations with higher standards of service delivery. Establishing multiple channels for service delivery The outsourcing of contact centers freed the resources of telcos to focus more on development of channels through which the customers could be served without agents. The increased use of IVR (Interactive Voice Response), speech, web and other non-voice channels of customer contact through customer education and influence was targeted. The telecom operators outsourced the entire contact center operations to 4-5 BPO corporations for managing the operations of the entire country. The operators took a two-pronged approach of limiting the no. of strategic partners they tied-up with and ensuring that the contact center sites got located conveniently at the non- metro locations with regional language preferences to cut costs and manage attrition. This approach was followed by the below mentioned strategies 1. Transforming multiple standalone operations, into a single virtual call center for maximum efficiency, consistency and control. 2. Reducing the application integration backlog that slows down agents and makes them less productive. 3. Providing unified, universal customer access via telephone, email and internet channels, to open less costly and more convenient interaction channels while preserving quality and consistency across all channels 4. Developing and enabling a systematic process to make rapid adjustments to service delivery in order to ensure customer service excellence. What the future has in store? Voice Self-Service The contact centre is caught in the centre of the Demand Delta the gap between customers increasing expectations and organizations ability to deliver service. Voice Self-Service is a communication channel providing opportunities to balance cost control with customer service and to address the issue of demand delta. Types of Voice Self-Service

The challenge would be effective implementation of the Voice Self Service because IVR should involve customer preferences without making the system too complex and slow to use while supporting the brand values of the organizations. In terms of guidelines for the implementation of Voice Self-Service the telecom operators would need to: 1. Select situations where customers make repeat calls 2. Identify areas where call numbers are large and for a specific purpose 3. Pick applications where speed and convenience are particularly important 4. Offer customers the choice of application. In terms of usability, some key considerations that will have to be kept in mind: 1. Speed of IVR Neither too slow and nor too fast 2. Personality Youve got to know its not a person 3. Fall out Provide the option to escape to a live agent 4. Introduction by an education program 5. Test, test and re-test for usability with customers. Customer experience There are several compelling reasons for improving the customer experience: 1. Strategic: The burgeoning competition and heavy regulation has commoditized the telecom services. In rapidly commoditizing markets, customer experience may be the only way to differentiate the brand and create sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, there are evidences galore that consumers are willing to pay a premium for a positive experience. 2. Marketing: If an organization can create raving fans or apostles, it can actually buckle its expenditures on marketing. The word of mouth and referrals by the present customers cause a Snow-ball effect leading to an ever magnifying base of customers. 3. Customer retention: A customer receiving a better service and warm experience will always have a better retention probability, hence giving better revenues. 4. Reduce or eliminate cost to failure: The costs resulting from a poorly designed or implemented customer experience can be enormous. Even a trivial problem or issue can translate into multitude of calls in a contact centre. 5. New technologies: New technologies such as the Internet and CRM, are aiding in improved customer experiences. From agent to expert The agent is becoming increasingly central to the delivery of customer experience within the contact centre. However, with customers becoming more demanding and less satisfied with the contact centre experience, the agent often gets caught in the management of contradictions as they try to balance the demands of the organization (increase efficiency) with the needs of the customer (get service). As we move into the future the call centre agent needs to become more

than a transaction processor, adding little value, and move into the role of an advisor and, ultimately, an expert. The Demand Delta trade-off between cost, control and quality produces three general types of contact centre model and contact centre employees. One model has evolved over the other with the passage of time and dynamism of the industry dealing with complexity, delivering value and customer satisfaction. These models are: Mass Production The Agent. It is based on centralized control, rigorous process definition and employee compliance. A mass production contact centers goal is to maximize throughput, deliver uniformity and minimize costs. It is solely driven by productivity based KPIs for management of the operation and the goals of the business which often leads to behaviors that are detrimental to the customer experience (such as call bouncing) Mass Customization The Advisor. A Mass Customization Model is characterized by high levels of employee autonomy and empowerment. Agents become advisors. Mass customized contact centers aim to deliver effective, high quality, personalized customer experiences using flexible processes, customer knowledge from the CRM and knowledge system. High levels of first time resolution and customer satisfaction are the norm. Costs in this model are not managed through simply counting transactions and volumes of calls but by measuring and eliminating waste (and cost) through the identification of cost of failure demand (characterized by measures such as FCR (First Contact Resolution). Networked Expert The Expert. Unlike the previous two models, where work is monitored (to different extents) and knowledge is presented to agent at the appropriate moment in the workflow, experts themselves are responsible for maintaining and updating their working practices and knowledge. Experts could be anyone in the organization with a particular expertise in a customer, discipline, locale, interaction skill, product or service. These experts do not necessarily reside in a traditional centralized contact centre but could comprise a mixture of office based, mobile and home based workers. They may work anywhere (and for anyone) but they will have customer queries routed to them intelligently, based on their expertise, appropriateness and availability. Conclusion The evolution of the contact center for telecom operators have been a painful exercise and has already crossed several stages discussed in the paper. The rest of journey is going to be more tumultuous and full of challenges. Right now most of the contact centers are following the mass production model of operation wherein the agents are having higher burnouts and organizations are facing acute attrition and performance problems. The concept of Hub and Spoke model of contact center operations is catching the fancy of operators due to scalability and flexibility involved. Another concept of virtualization is in nascent shape in the Indian context but with the passage of time the concept will be fully embraced by the industry and will gradually advance

towards the mass customization model. Some telecom operators are pressing their BPO partners towards the concepts of FCR and analysis of nature of calls with the aid of CRM but this trend will take time to consolidate since the basic model being followed is still the mass production. The costs of serving customers through agents is turning out to be prohibitive in scenarios of falling overall revenues and declining margins, so the idea of utilizing the IVR and self-service is catching the attention and turning out to be a necessity. This journey of evolution is going to be further bolstered by advent of break-through technologies and management fundamentals. Om works in the service delivery function of a leading telecom company in India. He has done PGDM in Operations Management from KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai. He also holds a B.Tech in Metallurgy and Materials from National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi and worked for Mahindra for a couple of years based at Pune.

Microfinance The Next Big Thing Out of Recession

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Written by Prashant Satyam, MBA Student IBS Hyderabad, India

In the backdrop of heavyweight multinational banks going bust, success of micro credit institutions sounds interesting. Such is the gaining popularity of micro finance industry that many commercial and multinational banks are increasingly starting their operations in this sector. ABN AMRO, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, ICICI, HDFC, UTI etc., have also developed their own strategies and models for lending in this sector. Because of isolation of rural India from global financial meltdown, microfinance is considered to be recession proof and in fact is booming like never before in these turbulent times. Before moving ahead let us gain some insight on micro financing. The concept of micro credit was visioned by the now Noble laureate, Dr. Mohammad Yunus of Bangladesh. He established Gramin Bank in 1976. Gramin Bank concentrated on disbursing loans to poor and needy people from rural areas. Its lending system was peculiar but effective. To obtain loans, potential borrowers had to form a group of five. Many groups in a village were federated in a centre. Bank gave credit to centre, which in turn forwarded it to one or two members of each group. This loan was given to members without any collateral security. In spite of any collateral security, the loan recovery rate was as high as 98%. This was because of one of the most pioneering principle of the system mutual accountability. Failure of repayment on part any borrower may lead to ineligibility to receive any further credit to the whole group. Hence the borrower is kept under constant pressure from his group members to repay the loan. This led to timely repayment of the loans. This system has worked wonders and Gramin bank has now over 1000 branches in every province of Bangladesh, borrowing groups in 28000 villages, 12 lakh borrowers with over 90% being women. In India, the micro credit is characterized by self help groups (SHG) and NGOs. SHG is an association of individuals, generally poor women forming a group. These groups are promoted by NGOs who act as centers as in the case of Gramin Bank. NABARD is the biggest institution in India which advances grants and loans to

these SHGs.. ICICI bank through its partnership model has already achieved an outstanding of Rs. 720 cr. Other private sector banks like HDFC (175 cr), UTI (100 cr) etc., are also looking at microfinance as a serious business opportunity. Among the multinational banks, ABN AMRO Bank, (85 cr), Standard Chartered Bank (15 cr), and HSBC bank (12 cr) have also developed their own strategies and models for lending to the sector. (Please note: these figures are as of 2005). The government has also announced opening up of the external commercial borrowing (ECB) route for the micro finance institutions to allow cheaper foreign funds for the sector. Microfinance still reaches only about 10 to 12 % of the poor in the country. Sixty-seven percent of the population in the country has no bank accounts and 80% have never taken a loan from a formal source. This provides an immense potential to micro financing industry in India. Its importance has increased in the present scenario of economic downturn. More and more entrepreneurs are starting their own venture in the field of micro credit. In the words of Dr. Mohammad Yunus its (micro edit) an important tool to create self employment. It bears more significance in terms of recession, as it shows laid off employees a way to stand up again on their own. Starting a micro finance institution (MFI) has become easier with the governments backing to the sector. This has led to many fresh graduates, laid off employees and social activists starting their own venture. This recession has provided us an opportunity to overlook some of the glamorous jobs and ventures to contemplate about micro credit which in no way is as glamorous, but certainly has immense potential and as some consider it is the next big thing.

Valuing Intangibles in a Complex and Competitive World

In an increasingly flat world defined by globalization and fast technology driven markets, most of the talk across seminars, conferences, workshops and some boardrooms today revolves around creating value out of intangibles. Intangibles, especially Intellectual Property (IP), are recognized as one of the most valuable asset of an enterprise. A wellidentified, managed IP in an enterprise can help it in attracting new investment, in new research and product development, in hiring the best and brilliant minds, and in expanding across geographies, while surpassing competition. Success is no longer just dependent on ownership and management of tangible assets. If one were to look at the recent events in the banking system of developed economies, a key reason for the banking system to be so close to a complete meltdown could be attributed to the poor understanding amongst key stakeholders of the complex financial instruments. In a similar vein, intangibles running an entire global market would require identifying, understanding, managing, nurturing and leveraging such intangible assets before it is too late. When we take an historical view, over the past three decades many enterprises have attained leadership position through effective IP management. During this period, intangibles have started occupying a higher proportion of many corporate balance sheets than ever before. In this context, it becomes extremely important to identify ways to exploit the IP, assess the risks and rewards associated with it, and decide the best strategy to manage it. To determine these, the holder needs to assess the current and the potential value of the IP under each scenario. If one were to look at India, over the past decade, India has been on the forefront of putting IP frameworks in place, with a number of inspiring legislations in place to

protect and promote IP management. The increase in awareness of IP amongst scientists and enterprises is also seen in the increased filings for patents and trademarks at the Indian Patent Office (IPO). By 2010, filings for patents are expected to touch 100,000 per year, while trademark filings would increase to about 150,000 per year.. As India moves towards a knowledge and increasingly IP-based economy and is emerging as a globally sought-after IP destination, this article aims to be a primer that touches upon some of the new and traditional concepts associated with valuing the intangibles. Measuring, protecting and maximizing the value of IP is of paramount importance for companies of all sizes and across most industries. Valuation is of high significance as it helps in valuing IP in the in-licensing/out-licensing processes, sale of IP and alliance/JV decisions, for employee inventor compensation related to technology transfer and for patent pooling. Before valuing IP, the valuer has to gain an understanding of the purpose and context of valuation. The value of an IP depends on the expected future cash flows derived from use or exploitation of the IP. Today there are nearly 50 methods of valuation of IP. But there is no standard approach followed. One size fits all approach does not work in case of valuation of IP as it is unique by nature. Conducting an IP valuation that makes sense to more than a few experts is a Herculean challenge. It is a matter of high subjectivity involving various assumptions, perceptions and judgment, making it complex and difficult to get consensus on the best method of valuation applicable. As rightly quoted by Aristotle It is a sign of an educated mind not to expect more certainty from a subject than it can possibly provide, we cannot arrive at value with certainty but valuation requires an intermediate perspective between ignorance and certainty and requires skill, experience and judgment. It is time and context based. The best that can be said about current methods of IP valuation is that they are better than nothing. But how much is a question of substantial disagreement. There are many proprietary and specialized approaches to IP valuation. These range from subtraction theory of value, to a profit-split approach, to VALMATRIX and Brand Value Equation (BVETM) proprietary methodologies. Some of the key traditional approaches to valuation include the following: Cost Approach: Two different styles are often applied in valuing IP on cost basis.

(i) (ii)

Historical Cost basis Replacement or reproduction cost basis

In the first style, the asset is valued based on the cost incurred in developing the IP. The second style considers current prices to calculate the costs of replicating the asset today. One point of caution is that we should not forget to include the opportunity cost of delayed market entry in calculating the cost. This method does not reflect any potential earnings out of the IP and hence is not highly appreciated in many cases and is least applicable when the asset is old or hard to recreate Its correlation to the utility or the market value is least. However, this may be the only data found or suitable to the context in some cases. In any event, this approach often (but not always) provides the floor price or minimum value. One example of such an application is to make decisions of licensing out during one of the stages of clinical trials.

Market Approach: Under this approach, IP is valued by comparing recent sales or transactions involving similar assets in similar markets. Such an approach would require an active market, sufficient number of similar exchanges/transaction and publicly available price information. Some of the common sources for such market data include Royalty source, Royalty stat, Knowledge express. Apart from the major problem being finding of a comparable asset, it also ignores the deal leverage. However, in practice, when the data is available, the market approach is practical, logical and applicable to all types of intangible assets. Also, when reliable data is available, market approach is considered the most direct and systematic approach to value. Income Approach: This approach is based on determination of future income streams expected from the asset under valuation. This is one of the widely used approaches as the information necessary to determine value using this approach is usually relatively accurate and often readily available. The parameters required in this approach include future income stream, duration of the income stream and risks associated with generation of the income stream. As per this approach, an asset will be worth the present value of future economic benefits that will accrue to its owner. Future income attributable to the IP is projected for an estimated duration of the income stream taking into

consideration the risk associated with generating the projected income stream. The main advantage of this method is that a sensitivity check can be done on the assumed parameters that go into valuation of the property. There are four variations to income approach: Price Premium Method: Price premium method measures excess over guideline company earnings of companies that do not possess the IP being valued. Production Savings Method: This method gives importance to the contribution of IP to inputs which result in cost savings for the entity possessing IP. Relief from Royalty: This is a commonly used method when the revenues attributable to the IP over its economic life can be separated from other sources of revenue. Royalty rate of a comparable asset is considered and this rate is applied to the projected revenues attributable to the IP. An appropriate tax charge is then applied and the resultant cash flows are discounted to the present value to realize the ultimate value of the IP. Residual Method: When the earnings attributable to the IP cannot be separately estimated, this method is of higher significance. In this method, the operating earnings after taxes are estimated, thefair return on average balances of other assets are subtracted and net present value of resultant cash flows is considered as the value of the IP. There are some other IP specific valuation methods including The Twenty Five Percent Rule, Ranking and Rating, Monte Carlo Analysis and Real options. As per the Twenty Five Percent Rule, the licensor should receive 25% of licensees gross profit attributable to the licensed technology. This percentage could be adjusted upward or downward on a case to case basis to reflect respective investment and risk in licensed technology. This method is better for process than product technology. Ranking & Rating methodology is a qualitative approach where the IP is ranked and

rated on some important parameters. This is more useful qualitative method for comparative analysis between various intellectual properties and is a good tool for the management to take some important strategic decisions for better management of IP. Monte Carlo simulation is a process where a probability is assigned to a set of random values within a range and these values are assigned to the variables used in the valuation process. These variables could be price variables like price premium and additional units sold or cost variables like cost of goods sold and Selling & General administrative expenses. Calculation of net present value of the cash flows derived on the basis of the variables is repeated for a number of times and multiple NPVs are then plotted by frequency of occurrence, to obtain most likely NPV. But the point to be noted here is that the NPV values are no better than the range of extreme values selected. Real option is viewed as an option to develop the IP further or to abandon it or sell it depending on future technology and market information. This method is most useful for IP investments with long-term returns and high risks because it recognizes that risk of IP investment is not uniform over time as additional technical and market information becomes available. This has been a brief overview of methods that are commonly used for IP valuation but care should be taken not to over simplify the process involved. The valuer should identify the primary methodology that best satisfies the valuation criteria and where possible should support or cross check the valuation with other acceptable methodologies. In other words, an enterprise should take steps to understand the tools, means, methodologies and techniques that could help them to deal with and quantify both the upside potential and downside risk related to these situations. In addition to developing an awareness of the various methods and approaches available for valuing the IP, it is crucial that the IP team should understand which of those methods best suit their company's unique circumstances, and then get mastery over the science and art of applying them correctly. While making an outline of the path to enlightenment, it is important that steps should be taken by the IP Finance team to attain the critical goals along the path. The failure to understand and master IP valuation by the IP finance team would result in poor performance and umpteen suboptimal decisions, while the acquisition of the essential skills would ensure a bounty harvest of the value vested in an IP. In the current economic climate, the team that makes the right calls on key decisions would emerge stronger post-recession, and would be perfectly-placed to enter the global IP marketplace of the near future.

Advertising- Its Impact on Society

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Written by Antora Dutta

Written By: Antora Dutta Every time you switch on the TV and you will see some products being pushed on you with some assurance. This is advertising. Your mind is being sold to these advertisers. Advertising is the promotion of product or services. This gives companies a way to expose their products to people and hence maximize their sales. With out advertisement not a single farm or company can grow in this world of competition. Advertising is the mostly debated topic now. Like every other thing it has also some positive as well some negative points. If it has some positive aspect of social and economical impact on society then it do have some negative impact also. Advertising a public welfare program has positive social impact whereas exposing woman in an advertisement has negative impact on society. Advertising is a mass marketing technique. Assorted techniques are used for advertising which persuades the consumers that why they need the product which is being advertised. They focus more on the benefits, which consumer will get from that product, rather than the product itself. Through advertising, products can be known to public easily. They can decide which product they need and why. Thus increasing the consumption and as a result also increasing the demand of the product. Advertising can also be used to generate awareness among public that which product they use and to which product they can say no. It can also be used to educate people about certain diseases or danger (example: - AIDS, TB, viral diseases, etc.). Even the backward people are now aware of many diseases and their problems. And all these credits goes to proper advertising. Diseases like Polio could never been controlled if the timings for polio drops arent advertised regularly. Advertising can also be used to inform public about social events like concerts and performances. Charities can use media to advertise about the illnesses and encourage people for donations. Social organizations and NGOs can use the mean of advertisement for promoting their campaigns. Seeking help through advertisement during epidemics or natural calamities can help a lot. There are also various blames that advertising is causing negative social impact on

lives. Even if advertising has a vast good impacts on society, it can be ruled out that is has bad impact also. It plays with the emotions of general public and encourages them to think that buying and depleting are the activities of life. Advertising posters of modern films, where sexuality is shown much than the actual theme of the movie, can divert the society a lot. Materialism is being much glorified through advertisements, which can again have dangerous consequences Society is becoming ignorant towards social or world issues because we are too obsessed to satisfy our newly created needs. We want to earn more and more money so that we can buy happiness in forms of products, being advertised as they can bring all the happiness in our lives. We are starving for material goals, because we always just want to have more. Products which are heavily advertised are expensive due to the cost spent on advertising. It is true that advertising increases consumption, but its also true that the more we consume, the more we destroy the environment, because if demand increases production also increases. Thus the need of raw materials also increases. There are two advertisements, shown below. Both of them are of same products, that is ice-cream, but with different forms. One can judge from them that which one have positive and which one can have negative impact on society. So, we can say that advertising has positive as well as negative impact on society. The balance, of what is necessary and what really not needed should be focused more. Advertisement can create contentment but can also simultaneously create discontentment. Our society and the marketing of products depend so badly on advertisement that even its negative impact on society cant outweigh the many positive social and economical effects.

Advertising - Its Importance In Marketing

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Written by Tanushree Bhattacharya

Written By :- Tanushree Bhattacharya Advertising is a potent vehicle which includes imagination, creativity, concepts, ideas and innovation to promote new products and remind about changes in the old one. Advertising means selling but for this one need a creativity of mind with the work of beauty and art. Advertising can be said both powerful and magical. It sells us dreams and has become fabric by selling life style. We can find that people of the society have tremendous impact of advertisements. In todays fast moving media driven world it plays a vital role in customers mind and sentiments. So advertisements reach to them through the route of emotion which is a powerful one in advertising. Advertising proves magical by the power of wordwhich leaves an image on the mind of the customers. Words not only control the minds but it also changes the view points completely and help the customers to climb the ladder of inquisitiveness. If advertising is shown with the combination of words along with something new factor highlighted then it bring a favorable response of the consumers. In the present market scenario advertising is experiencing a period of rapid economic growth worldwide. Like many other marketing tools, advertising is among one of them which try to draw the attention of prospective customers and try to quench their thrust for products and services by presenting them in a favorable manner. If an advertising campaign proves effective then it invites more and more customers with greater frequency. Advertising is one of the parts of marketing Mix. We have to accept the fact that advertising rely on the heart of marketing strategy which includes public relations, product, packaging, customer service, pricing, promotional programs, word of mouth and channel relationships among other strategies. Advertising acts as a guide book which tell us what to buy or not to buy. It is found that advertising is just not only the way to sale products or services but it also acquires its own importance by educating and providing knowledge to customers. It can be said as revenue generator as many media outlets such as television, radio, and newspaper do business due to sale advertising which earns revenue and helps in economic growth worldwide. Building of brand image through advertising is important as brand always lives in the memory and hearts of the customers. Companies and customers can share a strong bond of relationship through branding. Promoting public relation is one of the

greatest ways to form a brand because it only helps customers to understand a company and its products. To create a good brand and its effectiveness is a long battle although it makes selling easier. In case of advertising whatever we see may not be reality and if it shows reality it is quite possible we may not see it. So one of the oldest and traditional conceptual model for creating any advertising is AIDA model: get Attention, hold Interest, arouse Desire and then obtain Action. This model conveys that A stands for Awareness and Attention. That means the first task of an advertisement is to make customer aware about a product. I stand for Interest. It means when a customer will come to know about a product it will automatically create an interest in the mind of that customer regarding the product. D stands for Desire. The desire to obtain that may be generated in the mind of the customer. At last A stands for Action which is the final stage and depends on the determination of customer for taking action to buy that product. Through the help of the above model advertising can knock the mind of customers and if it proves effective customers will definitely try the product at least for once in their whole life and if it meet their expectation then it becomes their lifetime product. In a whole advertising is important for marketing.

The Point Blank | Transforming Rural India- Prevalent Scenario

countries advance not because of their size but by the manner its people lead their lives and by the character they possess and by the skill of their hands and intelligence they possess to do things. If India would make progress, it would do so because such people live here and not because 36 crore people live in this country.- A pertinent quote of India's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s during a visit to the small township of Dayalbagh (population 5,000 at that time), about 200 kms from Delhi. Unarguably the Rural India to what some prefer to refer as Bharat - is predominantly dependant on agriculture for its livelihoods and the burgeoning population coupled with more efficient farm practices has made it unsustainable for agriculture to continue to sustain its traditional market share of rural employment. In India, Today agriculture employs more than 70% of rural population, but only contributes to about 18% to nations GDP. The dependence of village communities, specially the resource-poor (comprising mostly of agricultural laborers and farmers with very small landholding) on land is enhanced because of the lack of access to other productive assets and skills. Today, WE are a nation of approximately 638,000 villages with more than two third of total population living in the villages. In this scenario, in order to achieve nationwide transformation and push our country in the orbit of developed nation, bring mass awareness, fight against enemies such as poverty and population, create an advanced educated society of citizens and above all in order to witness India transformed after 75 long years of independent rule, I believe, the up-most action-item is to bring about Rural Transformation.
Prevalent Scenario Need to Eradicate Urban Rural Divide As we are aware majority of Rural India population has been engaged in the core agricultural work till date. This, however, being the most accepted-and-followed Socio-Economic model; there has been evident reason for the Rural Youth to remain engaged in the business which they had for generations. Categorization of task backed by limitation of choices in the Rural India eventually widened the chasm between not only the Rural and Urban Youth communities but also between the opportunities made available to them. Moreover, the divide not only barred the opportunities but also the exposure of advancement to the youth of Rural India. The divide formed uneven income groups starkly differentiating the Urban and the Rural Youth. And, sadly so, the differentiation factor responsible for disparity is, I am sure, the unavailability of opportunities to Rural Youth and certainly NOT unavailability of talent. India is in the race of being a super-power and, luckily, there are many visionaries - like Former President APJ Abdul Kalam who have already shown pathway for the same. Amidst all the efforts we direct to make India a developed nation, the pressing need of time is to eradicate the opportunity difference between Urban and Rural Youth. Eradicating barrier of Urban Rural Divide would help us address plethora of our prime concerns such as poverty and population explosion (or implosion?!) to name a few. Having noted the need for highly-scalable model which can bring mass awareness and help the nation prosper; I believe there is a need for a model which, i) Provides requisite opportunities to Rural Youth

a. For getting trained b. To receive appropriate feed-back c. For better utilization of their time and efficiency ii) Creates employment with even opportunities for both men and women

iii) Eliminates the difference of exposure between Urban and Rural areas iv) Proves to be the most competitive yet economical model wherein comparison with other conventional/ traditional existing models. v) Itself should be a highly scalable for leveraging the untapped potential of the Rural Youth. With 70 percent of our population living in villages, the development of India will not be comprehensive or complete unless there is development in our rural areas. Our objective of inclusive development will not be achieved unless villages do not prosper, where as Mahatma Gandhi used to say the heart of India throbs

Open Innovation In Slowdown

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About the Author: Mr. Prashant Kumar, MBA Student, LM Thapar School of Management, Campus Editor, The CEO Insights

Abstract Innovation is a key to success and for survival as well. When resources are scarce and/ or constraints are imposed, new ways are to be sought to survive and sustain. Same is the situation at present in the world economy. Financial turmoil has shaken the whole world and all governments. This has direct impact on enterprises, be it large companies or SMEs. The research paper analyzes the past and reframes the future. It proposes a framework for the enterprises to survive based on open innovation and strategic correlation. The paper introduces open innovation and explains the role of open innovation in endurance of enterprises with briefing about challenges of open innovation. The paper proceeds with what can be achieved by open innovation in recession and explains the necessary actions for open innovation in recession period. The paper touches human side of innovation and based on all these, proposes a framework for open innovation. The paper ends with role of open innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to show importance of the same for their survival. 1. Introduction
The concept of open innovation approach is becoming more and more popular over the years, and several organizations adopt this kind of methodology. Based on the open innovation approach, better results and developments can be achieved through the extension of the innovation processes outside of borders of an organization, and involving partners in the processes: suppliers, customers, business partners, but especially the end users of the new products and services. Organizations realized the importance of opening their innovation processes, but there are several levels of this openness, and using external resources. Innovation process is the development or refinement of new products, services or capabilities of an organization, or application existing solutions in new ways. For the innovation process both internal and external knowledge can be used, or new knowledge can be generated. 2. Role of Open Innovation The open innovation approach changes some traditional innovation and R&D processes: while innovative solutions are traditionally serious business secrets, this new approach makes the future solutions visible not only for the future users, but also for competitors. In some cases open innovation processes are performed in informal development teams, networks, where only weak central coordination supports the processes (e.g., Linux, Mozilla, and Google web applications). In these cases the goal-oriented approach is more challenging, but there is a bigger possibility for radically new solutions. Mozilla developed a legal and functional model that allows the open source community and Mozilla itself to cooperate in product development (Mendonca and Sutton 2008). The main advantage of open innovation is the involvement of new thoughts, approaches into the innovation process. The capabilities, competencies and possibilities of internal innovation are limited, while extending the innovation process outside the organization borders, opens (theoretically)

unlimited capacities. Through extending the innovation boundaries a wider expert base can be achieved, where the experience from other fields or interdisciplinary areas can be useful for the innovation process. In the case of a biotechnological firm, the company faced with a problem related to DNA sequences. Because they have failed to solve the problem, they opened the problem area for outsider scientist. By surprise the winning solution was presented by a scientist, who is not even working close the problem domain, but he could understand it, and he could reframe an existing technology for the actual problem (Lagace 2006). As output, a company can directly use the results of the open innovation, or offer indirect products and benefits (e.g., related to Linux), or use the by-results of the innovation process, like customer loyalty, or image (Burghin et al 2008). Challenges The biggest challenge in open innovation is the motivation of participants. However direct compensation (salary, prices, etc.) can be challenging and interesting for several participants, more personal factors have more important role: Curiosity, Intellectual challenge of the problem (process of problem solving, achieving success), Fame (to show the world of capabilities), To be part of the community, Fun (fun of problem solving). Based on these motivation factors, in open innovation approaches organizations should make emphasis on building a suitable virtual environment for cooperation of participants, and offering intangible motivation factors. Participants can even convert these benefits in other relationships, e.g., the fame achieved in an open innovation project or in the open community could result a good paying contract from another company, or can be a good reference even for a company. Another important challenge is to convince the innovating organization itself about the benefits of open innovation: decision makers usually afraid of presenting the future plans or current developments of the company. Through open innovation it is not hard for competitors to see, or figure out the current development plans for an organization.

3. Innovation for recession 3.1 Achievable benefits The two key benefits are speed and the ability to capitalize on knowledge and labor regardless of where it resides. 3.1.1 Speed. Open innovation fosters faster exchanges of ideas through innovation action networks and shared development. Open innovation is more agile, better able to deal with uncertainty of markets and enables technology development processes that are more adaptive and efficient. Every company is facing greater demands to respond faster to their market and open innovation can enhance those efforts. 3.1.2 Distributed knowledge and labor. Organizations can more effectively capitalize on skilled labor that is mobile and independent. We are reaching the end of knowledge monopolies based on conventional business models. Globalization trends require increased knowledge to compete in other markets. However, in practice, companies are reducing their internal knowledge bases in an effort to run lean. The best way to meet knowledge and labor limitations is to use open innovation methods. Open innovation is about more than a small change in R&D. It has the potential to revolutionize business. But at this stage of the revolution, the open innovation process is chaotic. It is advisable to get involved early, fail quickly and often, learn

from your mistakes and develop best practices for your company. 3.2 To implement open innovation in an organization The biggest issue with implementation is that one cannot simply copy another company. Too often a CEO mandates an open innovation initiative because it works for another company and thinks it can simply be duplicated. It just doesnt work that way. Another issue comes as a result of the lack of company-wide engagement. A go-getter director initiates a program for a department, typically R&D, and the rest of the company is indifferent or even resistant to the changes. Finally, implementation deals with an intangible problem created in a company probably already in shock from too many recent changes to the organization, making it unable to process yet another restructure or corporate culture adjustment. Every company is unique and must develop an approach to open innovation that fits its needs. Make sure the engagements are the right size. In several cases clients expressed remorse that an open innovation project took two full quarters to implement and then came the realization that the market potential for the project is too small, making the open innovation effort seem trivial. 3.3 To assemble a good open innovation network Without a network, open innovation is dead. There are examined the different types of connections: solution bounty, internally prequalified, business partners, suppliers, and crowd sourcing in different literatures: A Solution Bounty offers a reward for offering a solution to a specific question. On the positive side, it is easy to establish through a third-party, and typically you will find an extremely large number of innovators connected. Some of the disadvantages include the tendency towards innovation against specification which can be too myopic. And transparent problem briefs signal strengths and weaknesses to your competitors. Internally Prequalified typically exist in the largest companies. IP issues are handled upfront and the framework supports innovation-against-specification and mission innovation based on the closer engagements between the client and members. Business Partners typically are rich in resources compared with typical small innovators, and they are more inclined to think bigger and understand the innovation mission. Some detractors with engaging business partners include the danger that the partner can claim the joint project and you end up boxed out. Also, make sure IP issues are addressed up front. Suppliers have inside knowledge of your strategy, and ideally, are more likely to generate disruptive technology. Supplier relationships tend to mitigate IP issues, too. If they value your business, they have a lot to lose if something fails. So normally, suppliers do not squabble over IP so they can maintain client relationships. Not all businesses have strong opportunities in Crowd Sourcing. If you are in such a business, crowd sourcing builds customer loyalty and practical knowledge of your value proposition. The primary detractor is the cost associated with

managing customer-feedback processes. 3.4 To evaluate open innovation As with any field that is new, no final answer is available. We can start by examining how open innovation compares to traditional internal methods. Compare the results and time to market of open innovation to previous methods. Ultimately, open innovation should increase profitability compared with only using internal methods. To assess open innovation by output, we can ask a series of questions. What percentage of sales came from externally licensed technologies? Is this percentage increasing or decreasing compared with 2-3 years ago? What percentage of net income last year came from technology licensed out to other companies? Is this percentage increasing or decreasing compared with 2-3 years ago?
In assessing opening innovation in terms of time to market, we should ask how long it takes for patented ideas created inside the company to be transitioned to the firms own products and services. Has this interval changed in the past five years? How? What percentage of internal ideas is offered for external license? How much time elapsed between the patenting of ideas and their external licensing?

4. The human element of open innovation 4.1 The human side: a missing element Its easy to assume, especially since much of the open innovation movement focuses on identifying external sources of innovation, that ideas and technologies (or the processes to find them) are the keys to success. But, the key to success in making open innovation happen is in overcoming the significant barriers and perceived risks on the people side of the equation. According to a recent survey by Strategos, executives cited short term focus (63%), lack of time/resources (52%), and management incentives not supporting innovation (31%) as the biggest barriers to effective innovation. Only 15% cited lack of out-of-the-box ideas as a major barrier. Marketing guru Seth Godin sums up the sentiment well, when he says Whats missing isnt the ideas -- its the will to execute them. At leading companies like P&G, Nokia and others who are successfully adopting open innovation models, the stories behind the scenes are tales of inspired leadership, aligned incentives, and cultures that support strategic experimentation and reward collaborative results. They have created in their organizations what is called an Open Innovation Mindset. 4.2 Five keys to creating an open innovation mindset Key 1: Broaden your view We all see the world through the lens of our own experiences and pre-conceived viewpoints. For this reason, having the right people doing the looking and having the right mindset becomes critical in where/how you look for innovation and how you filter what you discover. As an example of this filtering, its interesting to look at a study from Dr. Richard Wisemans book Luck Factor, a book about his study of self-reported 'lucky' and 'unlucky' people. One of his studies showed that when each of these groups were shown a newspaper and asked to count the number of pictures, on average the self-reported unlucky people spent about two minutes on the exercise

while self-reported lucky people spent seconds. The reason? Lucky people tended to spot the message on page two -- in big type -- "Stop counting: there are 43 photos in this newspaper". In fact, the unlucky people tended to miss not only this message, but the next one about halfway through -- "Stop counting, tell the experimenter you saw this and win $250". The lesson: "Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they're too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there and not just what they're looking for". Key 2: Create alignment across the innovation ecosystem Creating alignment within any company is critical to achieving the organizations goals, and lack of alignment is often cited as a barrier to effective innovation, especially conflicting goals across functional groups. These barriers become even more pronounced in cross-company collaborations. Often in collaborative relationships, at the highest levels it appears that groups are aligned, because they agree on the major goals to be achieved. But if you look deeper, youll often see that incentive systems, functional and organizational goals are often in direct conflict with the overall stated goals. One of the most common mistakes occurs when functional groups across the companies (whether marketing or engineering) negotiate and develop plans with counterparts in other organizations. Because they believe that they speak the same language, and are often quick to agree on certain aspects of the approach or program, each is much too quick to fill in the blanks with assumptions about the other sides intentions and needs. This is a critical point to remember: you are especially susceptible to misunderstandings when the differences are subtle. Key 3: Adapt to your organizations tolerance for risk Authors and consultants James Andrew and Harold Sirkin11 present a framework for alternative approaches to new product and business development, which is valuable as a tool for structuring strategic initiatives that are in line with an organizations tolerance for risk. The three types of roles include that of Integrator, Orchestrator and Licensor. Integrators manage all steps necessary to generate profit from an idea. Orchestrators carry out some steps and link with partners to carry out the rest (the traditional view of co-development). Licensors license the innovation (or brand) to another company to take it to market. When viewed through the lens of managing risk, these approaches can be adapted to suit an organizations culture and needs. Key 4: Put the focus on learning, not results All of the great skills that larger established companies bring to the task of optimizing current business can become an obstacle to nurturing nascent opportunities within an open innovation environment. In their work on the fallacy of ambidextrous organizations, academics Markides and Geroski state The skills, mindsets and competencies needed for discovery and innovation are not only different from those needed for mass market optimization; they conflict Open innovation initiatives can be thought of as strategic experiments in many ways. In open innovation initiatives, the focus should be on accelerating learning, not solely

results. Theory-focused planning and other more flexible planning approaches recognize these differences and put the focus where it belongs: on learning. Key 5: Transform your culture from the outside in Individuals and organizations that repeatedly fight their way through to transformational events acquire an ability to champion innovative and potentially risky ideas. It's not blind optimism; it's a recognition and calmness about the process of trial and error and a development of informed instinct as to when it's appropriate to continue with the challenge or move on to the next one. Many of the entrepreneurial companies and individuals that you are likely to partner with in an open-innovation initiative are often just these types of transformational champions the Michael Boehms of the world. Continued exposure to these innovators and these initiatives within a somewhat protected and risk-reduced environment will over time create the kind of innovation mindset that otherwise would likely never become reality. 5. Framework for Recession: A Ripe Time for Open Innovation Recessions present a good opportunity to collaborate with others on finding, developing and marketing new ideas. With the economy softening, it's tempting for companies to turn off the lights and shut the door on innovation efforts until things pick up. But while this might look like a smart move, the impactlost momentum, team dispersion, and wasted investmentsis less than desirable. It doesn't have to be this way. One of the best options for recessionary times, and, some would argue, even in expansive times, is to join forces with another entity with complementary innovation goals. Open innovation is about connecting with others to find new ideas and, often, to codevelop and co-market them. There are many examples of successful open innovation efforts today. Some take the form of pan-industry innovation networks that share in the risks and rewards of their findings. Others are straightforward co-development projects between strategic players. 5.1 Higher levels of brainpower applied. As the old saying goes, "two heads are better than one." When companies with aligned interests come together, there is a better chance the problem at hand will be more broadly defined and there is less chance of falling prey to group-think. Such broadly defined problems increase the chances for more holistic, breakthrough solutions to emerge. 5.2 Validity. Especially in open-innovation situations that involve a potential provider and a customer, the team has access to field conditions where the essential issues lie. The reference points and shared values that teams derive by working with users on a daily basis helps them zone in on the right problems up front. Solving the right problems is half the battle of innovation, primarily because working on the wrong problems is so costly. Think foregone investment, market share, profits, and the negative career implications associated with failed efforts. 5.3 Quicker to scale. One of the biggest reasons you see entities coming together is to make a given partnership scale up quickly should its efforts be successful. In the Netflix/LG Electronics deal, LG gets ready customers (who it expects will buy

millions of its new boxes), while Netflix gets a new media platform that makes it more competitive. This means access to something new to the world that could only have been co-created. Before initiating and/or participating in open innovation efforts, bear in mind a few important things that need to be aligned from the outset: 5.4 Identify partners who share a common vision. Obviously, things can move more quickly if companies already have a relationship, but that is not essential. And sometimes partners can be found in existing networks where you can "meet" and perhaps "date" before getting "married" into a tighter co-development relationship. 5.5 Have a big idea with clear goals. Start with a big ideaafter all, one of the advantages of open innovation is that a team of companies can accomplish more than one alone. But the effort also needs clear goals and milestones that partners commit to. 5.6 Plan two team workspacesone physical, one virtual. It's important for the team to meet in person at the outset of the effort, any time the team is working to draw conclusions from their separate analyses or when decisions are being made. Other than that, concentrate on using virtual tools to post and share documents and communicate through regularly scheduled calls. 5.7 Manage IP. Managing intellectual property is always the stickiest part of collaborative innovation. The most successful efforts seek to build win-win cultures where both parties benefit in equal measure. Although it should be an expectation to involve lawyers at some point, it is often unproductive to have them driving the early meetings before the parties have had the chance to explore the commercial or investment requirements of the partnership. Instead, it is often more productive to understand each company's legal culture, its successes and failures in past relationships, and any assets being brought to the table. These things can inform a more casual letter of intent that can guide the early stages until more is known. That document would include the fundamental goals of the united effort, an agreement in principle regarding the resources being brought to the table, and what the expected timetable would be to draw up a more exact picture of the future business relationship. When exploratory activities result in a tangible concept of what the parties will produce and a business model is formulated, then it is time to formalize a business contract. 5.8 Create a new mindset. In many cases, organizational culture can be an obstacle to open innovation. Internal groups often perceive open innovation as a code word for outsourcing, when it's really an issue of redefining some internal roles and rethinking your innovation organization much more broadly. Success requires a toplevel vision and a lot of internal communication as the initiative is rolled out. But, says Venture2's Docherty, "it's almost magical to watch the transformation as companies actually become more innovative when they learn to partner with creative companies and entrepreneurs on the outside." Open innovation is a leap of faith. The job of leadership is to make it a short leap. But given how many recent collaborative efforts have been successful, open innovation should be put on the top of the list of core competencies for the foreseeable future, recessionary times or not. 6. Survival of the Innovative Doing More with Less When the economy is down, money is short and cutbacks loom, the first instinct at

many organizations is to freeze and do nothing. No new projects, no new ideas just keep a low profile, cover up and wait for the storm to pass. But while this may be a natural reaction to the crisis, Ill argue in this paper that it is the wrong reaction, and is actually the riskiest and most dangerous option for companies today. The reason should be no news to anyone reading this paper: The state of enterprise, for example, IT hasnt changed demand for computing services within the organization continues to increase, and the existing infrastructure, often based on the N-Tier distributed computing model, is still as cumbersome, inefficient and difficult to scale. Yesterday you could still solve things by throwing money at the problem. But today theres no budget for expensive machines, complex integrations or armies of consultants. The only way to deliver the goods, and prove the true value of IT within the enterprise, is to do things differently. Doing something something innovative is key to ITs very survival in these tough times and is true for any company in any sector. 6.1 Innovation that Saves Money We often think of innovative technology as something that goes beyond the ordinary that allows you to make things bigger, better, and faster. But in fact, one of the main drivers for innovation is economic pressure. Not having enough money makes you think out of the box, and discover how to do more with less. When budgets are cut, you have two choices: deliver less to the organization, making yourself even more prone to the next round of budget cuts, or think of innovative ways to produce the same level of services or even better services! With less resources. But this isnt an easy task: being more efficient requires you to look into how your current systems are running and re-examine some of your most basic assumptions. 6.2 Time for a Change It is an interesting irony that sometimes the strongest incentive for a change is we have no choice. When survival is at stake, many barriers to innovation fall, and stakeholders rally around new ideas which might save the day. The current crisis might be exactly the time to take a bold technological leap which addresses the glaring inefficiencies in the existing infrastructure. For the architect, a crisis might suddenly provide freedom to perform core architectural changes, which, although badly needed, would previously have been very difficult to achieve. Under todays market conditions, the regular objections "let's not break what's running", lets not rock the boat, "its not company standard" are not going to cut it. The name of the game is survival of the innovative those who push forward new ideas that will improve efficiency are most likely to survive, while those who take the "sit and wait" approach take the risk of being left behind. 7. Innovation in SMEs SMEs play an increasingly important role in innovation and job creation, but are nevertheless left out of the research on open innovation, which has been analyzed mainly within the context of large, technology user firms (Chesbrough, 2003). Many surveys have shown and indicated that open innovation is also becoming increasingly popular among SMEs. This is not a surprising, considering the increasingly important role small and medium sized firms play in innovation. After all, small firms often lack resources to develop and commercialize new product in-

house and as a result are more often inclined to collaborate with large firms. In addition, the survey results show that open innovation is not entirely different for services and manufacturing firms as we expected based on the literature. Manufacturing firms are on average more active in the outsourcing of R&D and the out-licensing of IP, a result that is not surprising given the technological commitment of these firms, but they do not differ with service firms on other open innovation activities. It has also been found the significant differences between different SME-sizes which show that there are different open innovation strategies and practices among SMEs. Several motives have been found in studies for firms to start open innovation practices and barriers that SME managers encounter when they open up their innovation process. Open innovation is mainly motivated by market-related targets: these are the most important driver for firms to engage in venturing, to participate in other firms and to involve user in the innovation process. Most SMEs use a broad set of methods to meet the ever-changing customer demand and to stay competitive. Corporate renewal is second most important driver towards open innovation. In addition, many barriers for open innovation in SMEs are related to corporate organization and culture, no matter which type of open innovation practice is pursued. There is certainly no one unique ways in which SMEs deploy open innovation strategies, but we have no further specifications about these different strategies. 8. Conclusion The recession and financial meltdown has provided companies an opportunity to come close to each other and to behave with each other in a way of partners in an industry than competitors. To survive, when the resources are scarce and constraints are increasing, innovation is the only way ahead. Many times, it has been proved that collective efforts have shown more substantial results than individual efforts. So, the time has come when all companies in the economy should join hands with their suitable partners and to support each other in survival against all the odds. The purpose of the research is to communicate a message to all the companies and enterprises in India that world economy is changing its faces and economical focus is shifting to Asia. Since, India is a country having a large number of SMEs who contribute a major percentage in economic development and growth; it is required to understand the role of innovation in their survival. Strategic partnership and collaboration will generate new ways to survival for enterprises; leaving them preparing stronger platform for themselves.

Games the First Boss should play with the fresh recruits from Colleges and Universities

This is the hiring time for all fresh engineers and MBAs. Every year they join the corporate in the month of April, May, and June.

With lot of expectations, energy, vigor, optimism and with good academic and training background they are recruited from colleges and universities to the corporate. These young educated people have tremendous potentials and they can perform at their peak performance provided they are given a very conducive environment where they can perform brilliantly. These fresh recruits look out for Conducive Corporate Environment, and major and most important player (THE FIRST BOSS) plays an important role to make these young people to work and perform at their best. They are the managers(First Boss) to whom the new recruits report, they play most pivotal role in building and shaping the new recruits careers and help them to build them as leaders in future. The role the First Boss is very important in setting directions , making and shaping these young peoples mind, careers and individual goals along with the corporate goals. Games the First Boss should play with these young and fresh graduates just coming out from colleges. 1. Responsibility and Challenge: The first Boss is an important person in everyones life, as we commonly say first impression is the best impression the first boss makes lasting impression in the fresh recruits mind. You are the leader, manager, motivator, mentor, friend, philosopher, and guide to these young men. Your responsibility is to make them true leader and a performer in the long run. Undoubtedly this very challenging task and a stupendous responsibility to become the first boss in some ones life. 2. Task and Target Oriented: Right from the day one makes them accountable for the job they have been assigned for. Be candid and polite to them and make them understand that they have been recruited for these specific task and should be ready to and willing to go for hard work in order to achieve the targets that they has been assigned for. In a professionally managed organization performance is the only thing that matters. Be task an oriented Boss not a task master. When specific targets are given along with time deadlines they may feel little bit nervous not for achieving the targets within that deadline it's the First Boss job to show them the process how to achieve the targets within the deadlines. Make them successful because their success is your success.

3. Teacher and Coach: The First Boss right from the day one make the business process understand to these young recruits, it involves lot of teaching and coaching for these young resources. 4. Power house of Encouragement: The First Boss is the source of encouragement, he is the person who will break all the fears and doubts in the mind of these your people, enable them to open up their mind which can be a bonanza. Encourage them to come out with new ideas of doing the job and help them to do the "Out Of The Box Thinking". 5. Appreciation Catalyst: The First Boss should be loud in their appreciations even for little achievements that these young guys make. 6. Can Do Attitude Initiator: Appreciations by First Boss is like wining first 100 meters flat race in schools, it increases the confidence level in these young minds and the Can Do attitude starts developing. After they accomplish small task and targets, slowly give them additional responsibility and bigger task and targets, make use of the "Can Do" attitude artfully. 7.Hand Holding If Necessary: The First Boss should never hesitate to roll up his sleeves and make his hand dirty to teach complex things to these young recruits, once he teaches them his job becomes easier. Never get irritated even if they ask you very stupid questions. Remember your parents did hand holding while making you walk. Remember handholding is a part of mentoring; they remain obligated and indebted to you throughout their life. 8. Delegate and Encourage Them to Take Decisions: The First Boss should delegate little power and ask them to take small decisions. Look out carefully for the outcome of the decisions if its good give them appreciations, if the outcome is poor sit with them to analyze where it went wrong and what precaution they should take while making the next decisions. Dont shout at them if the decision is wrong they will close them up get back in to their cocoon. After all decision making is the most important thing in business. Help them to make good decision makers. 9. Respect Leads to Responsibility: The First Boss should never ever disrespect these young recruits .Respect works like magic. If you respect these young recruits they not only reciprocate but automatically take responsibility, and once they take full

responsibility they start delivering the goods. Results give confidence, and confidence building is a step by step method. Delivering results becomes a habit. Mutual Respect is a 'Win-Win" situation. 10. Never Steal Credits: The First Boss should never be a credit stealer, remember these young people are very smart they understand every thing, if you have a 360 degree appraisal system working in your firm they will fix you up then. Credit stealing by a boss is like digging his own grave in the professional organization. 11. Dont involve them in Office Politics: Every office has got office politics; the First Boss should never use these young recruits as pawn in the office politics that he may be involved in. These young guys will come to know office politics and lobbying in due course .Office politics reduces energy and in turn reduces efficiency. Here come the maturity calm and composed character strength of the First Boss. 12. Close Monitoring: The First Boss should keep a strong vigil about the quality of learning, engagement and the involvement in the work that these young recruits are doing. Keep always the communication channel open. Make the communication is an adult -adult mode. 13. Encourage Them to Do Self Audit And Introspection: The First Boss should make sure that the young recruits are making the Self Audit after first ninety days of work and correcting themselves on the basis of their audits. Ask them to find out their own mistakes/drawbacks and remedial measures which they need to overcome them. Give them suggestions about the blind spots which you may find by using Johary window. 14. Make Them Think Big: The First Boss should be able to make these young guys to Think Big. So he has to Think Big in order made others Think Big. If you can make them Think Big they can achieve big by Thinking Big" is a practice and it stays lifelong. 15. Never Be Afraid of Smart and Intelligent Recruits: Last but not the least the First Boss may come across young recruits much smarter and intelligent than him, please dont get afraid of them, dont think them as your threat. Smart people working in your team can make you and your team smarter. These are all old saying and observations; its just like old wine in the new bottle.

One interesting survey was conducted by an agency and it was found that 47% of the employees don't leave the organization but actually leave their Boss. Its easier said that done. Its true the impact of the FIRST BOSS lasts long. Just after academicss entering into the new unknown big corporate world is a transformation stage, where a professionally qualified student has to perform and deliver, some perform and excel and some dont. With my experience and observations I have written this topic after working in various firms watching many bosses and training and building many careers by being a boss. Some BOSS you want to remember throughout your life and some you dont want to remember at all, and they are your nightmare.

INDIA TO FOCUS ON LAG OF ENTREPRENEURIAL TALENTS AMONG RURAL YOUTH WITH THE HELP OF SUPPORTIVE DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTIONS UNDER PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP MODEL. Indians are in general risk averse and look for employment opportunities rather than engaging in business and industry. However in recent years some change is visible particularly in urban and metropolitan areas. It may also be mentioned that some sections of Indian people have earned name and fame almost globally as entrepreneur of small retail business houses particularly in provisions, clothes, and

gold and silver ornaments businesses. It is interesting to note that such entrepreneurs could be traced in most of the counties of the world as since time immemorial these people have migrated from India to set up their trading businesses in various parts of the world. It would be further interesting to note that most of these people migrated from their villages and towns and stayed over there for generation. In fact even in agriculture like sugarcane etc Indian farmers have enriched many backward countries through their entrepreneurial skill. However it is equally true that India lagged in Schumpeterian model of entrepreneurship for quite some time and of late only this could be seen emerging in metropolitan and also in some developed parts of urban areas. GLUED TO FARMING Most of the Indian villagers remained glued to farming only partly because the traditional farming was seasonal and provide enough time to laze away. It also needed no formal education. Moreover but for monsoon failure, the risk in farming was almost negligible and hence remained attractive for generations. However with the emergence of risks beside monsoon viz. seeds, attack of pesticide and volatility of prices of agricultural products farmers over the years developed a mindset of fatalist and cursed their fates for any calamities and sought doles, waiver and charity from governments and charitable institutions. It would not be wrong to say that successive governments and politicians even after independence followed a policy to keep farmers and artisans under their thumbs by making them dependent on their doles, grants and subsidies etc. as that helped them to build their vote banks. However it would be wrong to assume that villagers could not be transformed as entrepreneurs as they have been found developing many innovations even with primitive traditional knowledge for survival. It would be possible to develop an appropriate entrepreneurship model if rural youths are empowered with marketable skills. FORTUNE AT THE BOTTOM OF PYRAMID Dr C k Prahlad of Wharton in his famous book The Fortune at the bottom of Pyramid has brought out how poor people in rural India could become employable by adopting new growth models suitable for generation of new employment opportunities and economic growth. In this regard he stressed that the role of multi national companies has to be re-defined. He emphasized that the present trend of MNCs to cater for mature markets need to be changed and to extend the same even to poorly developed markets in villages and semi-urban areas by introducing some strategic changes like packaging and pricing. It would not be difficult as the recently developed supply chain management techniques empowers industries to reach easily and in cost-effective way to the remotest area of any place. Some initiative of this nature has already been taken by some consumer goods industries and no doubt these efforts have helped these industries to capture more space and also have helped villagers not only to earn and spend but also to produce and consume these along with people residing in urban and metropolitan towns. However these efforts have led to growth of market for MNCs but have not helped villagers to develop their latent potentiality of becoming full fledged entrepreneur as manufacturer of goods. It is true some of the villagers could develop some supply chain management and retail business in the process. NEED CHANGE IN MINDSET IN FRAMING POLICY

It appears there is need for some paradigm change in our policy thinking as well as our mindset particularly of our politicians. In this regard our ex- President Kalams vision of providing urban facilities in rural areas (PURA) is worth mentioning as this is possibly one such step that would help transforming agri-business potential through knowledge, institution and technology platform. It would therefore need to be multiplied to help spreading knowledge and technology to rural youth. It has to be borne in mind that technological innovations could also emerge in the laboratories of life as rightly pointed out by Dr. Mashelkar. Accordingly this has to be stressed in all efforts to rejuvenate rural youth and transform them as entrepreneurs. FOCUS ON DISPARITY IN INVESTMENT IN RURAL AREAS In fact investments made in rural areas though undertaken extensively and at times even massive amounts have been earmarked for various rural projects but all these generally have proven ineffective as most of these are in the form of subsidies, doles and waiver of loans instead of investment in infrastructure development in rural areas. These also failed to generate effective delivery institutions and virtually generated highly corrupt institutions manned and fanned by politicians and rural elites. In fact the highly noticeable disparity in between rural and urban infrastructure like roads, transports, power and communication have created the hiatus in economic growth of rural and urban areas. Lack of infrastructure in rural areas have made private sector also hesitant to develop industries over there. It is true the scene is changing and some new industries are growing in villages or its outskirts. But essentially villages have remained agrarian with low and disguised unemployment. It is therefore high time for policy makers not to introduce employment opportunity plan like ROJGAR YOJNA (NREG) where unemployed rural youths are either given work of mud lifting or paid even when no work could be allotted to them. This would obviously make them lazy and some of them even come out to refuse digging mud and to carry the same for dumping at some allotted place. It is difficult to fathom out the type of mindset of politicians who actively advertise such projects and feel complacent and happy as if they have been doing great work for poor villagers. In fact it would not be wrong to state that the program seemed well designed for bureaucrats and politicians to siphon off money. NEED TO CHANGE MINSET OF POLICY MAKERS However if something has to be done for rural poor it would be necessary to change the mindset of policy makers and bureaucrats. In fact rural areas should not be considered as agricultural belts and rural youth should not be taken for granted as farmers and artisans only. In fact rural youth like all other youth should be considered as human resource and could be shaped like all other youths as entrepreneurs, innovators, professionals and managers. In fact many rural youth after getting some education have migrated to urban areas and have developed many new business and even industries. It is therefore natural question that would arise in the mind of any rational man what for these migrations should continue and why not such thing could not be done in rural areas. The answer is not very far to seek. It is the lack of infrastructure that has led to such migration of youth. It would therefore be necessary for government, enlightened institutions and individuals to come forward with projects both agriculture and other sectors including service and manufacturing to provide opportunities to rural youths to work in these village projects and enterprises. MODEL RECOMMENDED

In this regard it is worthwhile to keep in mind that there would be some lag in developing village entrepreneurs as there would be dearth of capital to develop village projects and enterprises but this could be dealt with by developing institutional entrepreneurship as is done to meet the capital needs of urban entrepreneurs by creating development banks. However in this strategy also there could be some difficulty as overall supply of individual entrepreneurs and mangers with necessary education and aptitude might not be readily available. It would therefore be imperative that institutions under public private partnership model should be developed to fund and organize ventures to provide services and to manufacture product. Such organizations should conceive projects for compact lands for farming and for clusters of artisans for manufacturing, trade and commerce. States in developing countries have assumed the role entrepreneurs. In some of the developing countries including India some efforts have been made to institutionalize development activities even in rural areas but these have not been specifically assigned the much needed role to act as catalyst for growth of individual entrepreneurs. In fact villagers could have been as good as city dwellers but for lack of infrastructure including education. It would therefore be necessary to hold the hands of villagers for some period and enable them to grow as entrepreneurs and managers without getting the shocks of market and monsoon or such other natural risks for some time as these have created fear psychosis in villagers for generations and obviously they need some time to get over such psychology and become an entrepreneur rather than remain as fatalist and dependent on doles alms and such other charities. APPLICATION OF RECOMMENDED MODEL In recent years some efforts have been made to hold hands of farmers and artisans by some micro financing institutions particularly in south. Pragati Bandhus in Karnataka is one such model as these groups of marginal farmers named as Pragati Bandhus not only provided hassle free loans to farmers but also physically stayed with them to help them to prepare crop planning along with marketing and technology support. This obviously a better model than usual pattern followed by micro financing institutions to act as lender to farmers, however to achieve real success it is imperative that these institutions should shoulder the risk of farms and firms in rural areas run by rural farmers and artisans. The ultimate need is to enable them to get enough confidence and managerial and financial strength to become entrepreneurs on their own. Only with such transformation of rural people particularly youth who outnumber others could make India a developed country and decouple her from the present global meltdown. A LIVE CASE STUDY of CANADA-A SUCCESS STORY* *(adapted from www.tbs-sct.gc.ca; www.rural.gc.ca; www.google.com ) Business Development and Entrepreneurs Small businesses are the source of nearly 80 per cent of new jobs in Western Canada. These are the employment engine of the region. In recognition of the importance of community-based delivery of services and support to Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) development, western economic development (WD) program provided funding to third-party organizations including industry associations and those making up the Western Canada Business Service Network (WCBSN), which in turn deliver business services and support to entrepreneurs. This has obviously led to improved access to business information, training, business

advisory services and capital for all western Canadians, including women and francophone entrepreneurs, and people located in rural communities.
Improve Business Productivity It provided operating and loan funding to a number of other organizations that in turn delivered targeted loan programs, business advisory services and training for entrepreneurs. It improved business productivity by addressing the needs of SMEs and entrepreneurs through a number of service delivery mechanisms and partnerships including more than 100 offices. It engaged Community volunteers, who knew local issues and could identify business opportunities, mainly helped in achieving success in grooming entrepreneurs and their business enterprises in 2005-2006; this organization was stabilized through new, multi-year agreements providing operating support for member Community Futures Development Corporations (CFDCs) Furthermore CFDCs were floated as a national community economic development program implementation organization that would help people in rural communities respond to local needs. It has provided operating funding to the CFDCs since 1995 to enable them to provide local strategic economic planning services, business counseling and loans to small businesses in rural communities. Women's Enterprise Initiatives (WEIs) WEIs work to provide customized services to help women entrepreneurs face challenges and succeed. Operating from head offices located in Kelowna, Calgary, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, the WEIs improve access to financing, education and training, business advice, loan aftercare, information, networking and mentoring for women entrepreneurs. Francophone Economic Development Organizations (FEDOs): FEDOs enhance the vitality of Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) in Western Canada and strengthen economic opportunities for francophone business. With head offices in Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and Vancouver, FEDOs provide enhanced services to francophone entrepreneurs, including training, business and community economic development, access to capital, information services, marketing advice, and networking. Canada Business Services Centres (CBSCs): The CBSCs provide a single, seamless gateway to information for businesses and maintain an extensive database of business and trade information from federal, provincial, municipal and non-government sources. Western Canada CBSCs are located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg and services are also available through a network of regional CBSC and Aboriginal service sites. In addition to support through the WCBSN, WD has undertaken a number of initiatives to encourage SMEs and R&D organizations to be innovative in improving their productivity and competitiveness. These include lean manufacturing practices (identification of new trends, the development of innovative strategies and the implementation of new processes), technology and management training and academic and industry internships and exchanges.

Sub-Activity: Access to Capital

A 2004 Statistics Canada Survey on Financing of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises found that 20 per cent of SMEs cited obtaining financing as an obstacle to business growth. Those more likely to experience difficulties in obtaining financing included innovative businesses (40 per cent), young enterprises - defined as those that started operation in 2002 (34 per cent), exporters (29 per cent) and manufacturers (27 per cent). Through work with financial institutions, members of the WCBSN and other organizations, WD has contributed to increased investment in targeted western Canadian firms. In particular, WD has responded with the development of two types of SME loan programs; Evaluation 1. WD Loan and Investment Program (previously Program) at:http://www.wd.gc.ca/rpts/audit/lifp/ic-eng.asp.-source The evaluation found that: the Loan Investment Fund

Only 16 per cent of Loan and Investment Program loan clients could have obtained financing from other sources; 82 per cent of the small business financing experts surveyed indicated that there are gaps in loan financing available to small-and medium-sized enterprises; and 64 per cent indicated that the Government of Canada should influence private sector financial institutions to do lending to eliminate the gaps; and

The Loan and Investment Program does not significantly duplicate other loan programs and services.
Loan loss agreements have been negotiated to leverage additional loan capital from credit unions for rural business lending by CFDCs in British Columbia. The urban micro-loan, Advice and Business Loans to Entrepreneurs with Disabilities loan (ABLED) and francophone (FEDO) agreements provide loans averaging $14,000 to very small and start-up businesses.. 2. Developmental loans delivered by the Western Canada Business Service Network and Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Program (EDP) urban delivery agents WD has provided WCBSN network members with funds to support repayable loans to SMEs in rural areas, and SMEs operated by women, francophone, young entrepreneurs or those with disabilities. WD's network members also provide SMEs with path finding services and referrals to alternative sources of financing. Results for 2005-2006 An evaluation of the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Program (EDP) and the Urban Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Initiative Fund (UEDI) undertaken in 2005 is available on WD's website at:http://www.wd.gc.ca/rpts/audit/edp-uedi/default-eng.asp. In the evaluation, Ference Weiker & Company estimated that "the average EDP and UEDI loan client generates 260,000 in revenues and 6 person years of employment over the first five-year period after they receive assistance that is attributable to the assistance that they received." In 2005-2006, total external financing leveraged by FEDOs was estimated at $2.3 million. The results for CFDCs in rural areas and WEIs serving women entrepreneurs are summarized below:

Total statistics above include: 68 loans to entrepreneurs with disabilities, totaling $1.4 million and projected to create or maintain 156 jobs; 113 loans to youth, totaling $2.3 million; and, 236 loans to Aboriginal clients, totaling $7.18 million.

Program Activity: Innovation

, A innovation process that translates knowledge into new products and services is an important driver of long-term economic competitiveness and prosperity. WD investments in innovation are an important building block for creating a diversified economy in Western Canada. These investments support the emergence and growth of technology clusters in key sectors - such as environmental technologies, life sciences, information and communications technology (ICT) and value added resources and contribute to the development and commercialization of new technologies and technology based services and products in Western Canada.
According to the cluster life-cycle model, most of the western technology clusters are in their earliest formative stages. Recognizing this, the majority of WD investments have been made in knowledge infrastructure and technology adoption and commercialization, which help set the foundation for clusters and future growth. As the clusters mature, investments will address gaps and opportunities and will be connected to markets and collaborative research opportunities with the United States through the ERI.

By strengthening the innovation system and enhancing technology clusters, resources such as highly qualified personnel (HQP), large anchor companies, venture capital, investments in R&D and knowledge infrastructure are drawn to and developed in the region. Firms in clusters are often active in export markets and international supply chains, and contribute to economic growth and diversification by reinvesting in new R&D activities and creating or retaining highly skilled jobs. In 2005-2006, WD approved almost $52.7 million to support the growth and development of technology clusters and the innovation system as a whole. The following graph illustrates this distribution:

WD works with many partners when developing and funding innovation projects. On average, the department contributes 33 per cent of the costs of an innovation project. For innovation projects approved in 2005-2006, WD support will leverage funding of $146.4 million from other sources.

Sub-Activity: Technology Adoption and Commercialization

Technology commercialization ultimately occurs in industry. WD supports all phases along the technology commercialization continuum from support to organizations such as university technology transfer offices that identify, protect and license technologies to support that encourages technology adoption and adaptation. Increasing investment and support for the commercialization of new technologies in Western Canada is a priority for WD. The department's work in this area has led to broad results including an increase in the number of technologies developed in research institutions that have commercialization potential, as demonstrated by intellectual property (IP) protection, licensed to an external user, or form the basis for a new company. The ultimate goal is to bring new products and services to the marketplace. In addition, WD's efforts have led to increased technologies adopted by existing firms.

Sub-Activity: Technology Linkages

Through its work in innovation, WD has increased connections and synergies among innovation system members through new partnerships/networks, collaboration, and conferences to exchange information and increase awareness.

Sub-Activity: Technology Research and Development

To support technology R&D, WD has invested in applied R&D leading to a new product or process that will have a near or midterm commercial potential. This has resulted not only in applied R&D leading to technologies with commercialization potential, but also support for the operating or increased capacity of R&D canters and increased availability of skilled personnel

Sub-Activity: Community Innovation

Innovation at the community level can identify new opportunities and enhance the viability of traditional sectors. WD's support for community innovation in 2005-2006 resulted in planning studies used by communities as a tool for economic development, increased capacity in communities based on the generation of new knowledge, and community businesses adopting new technologies.

Sub-Activity: Technology Skills Development

Under this sub-activity, WD supports projects that increase training, education and skill building in the new economy sectors. WD has contributed to several initiatives that increase the number of qualified individuals in the field and build linkages with industry.

Sub-Activity: Knowledge Infrastructure Investments in knowledge Infrastructure provides the foundation for technology clusters. WD's investments in this area have resulted in increased physical assets for R&D and/or training and new investments to the field. CONCLUSION It is obvious therefore that the present lag in entrepreneurial development in rural areas in India could be overcome if institutional entrepreneurs under public private partnerships are formed. This would not only help in risk minimizing but also in risk sharing and that would help risk averse rural youth to undertake business and farming with more gusto and less fear. It would make them also real entrepreneurs after they start tasting success in their enterprises jointly managed with state partnership. In the process they would also be groomed as better managers under the enlightened and better educated executives drawn and recruited by the state....

Sunil Bharti Mittal, born October 23, 1957 is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bharti group. The USD 5 billion turnover company runs India's largest GSM-based mobile phone service. The son of a politician, Sunil Mittal is from the town of Ludhiana in Punjab. He has built the Bharti group, along with two siblings, into India's largest mobile phone operator in just ten years. He has been Chairman & Managing Director of Bharti Group since October 2001. Residing in Delhi, he is married, with three children. A first generation entrepreneur, he started his first business in 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 borrowed from his father. His first business was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers. In 1980 he sold his bicycle parts and yarn factories and moved to Mumbai. The importing of telecom equipment was banned by the Indian Government as ITI (Indian Telecom Industry) monopoly practices & sole OEM for Department of Telecommunication. He established the first company to manufacture push button telephones in India. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area and launched services in the city of Delhi and the National Capital Region in the year 1995. Awards Sunil has received several awards including: Transforming India Leader, NDTV Business Leader Awards 2008. GSMA Chairman's Award 2008 Padma Bhushan in 2007, from the President of India Asia Businessman of the Year, Fortune Magazine 2006 Telecom Person of the Year, Voice & Data, 2006 CEO of the year 2005, at the Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT awards 2006 Best Asian Telecom CEO, Telecom Asia Awards 2005 Best CEO, India, Institutional Investor, 2005 Business Leader Of The Year, Economic Times, 2005 Ernst & Young Entreprener Of The Year 2004, Ernst & Young

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder, Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises, one of Indias leading business groups with interests in telecom, retail, financial services, realty and agri-products. Bharti Airtel, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is among the leading global telecom services providers with operations in Asia and Africa. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders; Singtel, Wal-Mart, AXA and Del Monte. Sunil started his career at 18 after graduating from Panjab University in India in 1976 and founded Bharti. Today he heads a successful enterprise which employs over 30,000 people. Bharti Airtel, the flagship group company, has a market capitalization of over US$ 30 billion. Sunil has been recognized with the Padma Bhushan, one of Indias highest civilian awards. He has also been conferred the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for 2009. He is a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry and serves on its Sub-Committee on Promoting Financial Inclusion. He served as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the premier industry body in India (2007-08). Sunil has been awarded the Global Economy Prize 2009 by The Kiel Institute, Germany. The US-India Business Council has also honored him with Global Vision Award 2008. He has received the GSM Association Chairman's Award for 2008. In 2006, he was chosen Asia Businessman of the Year by Fortune and Asia Pacific CEO of the Year by Frost & Sullivan. Sunil has been named Business Leader of the Year by several important media houses, including The Economic Times, Business Standard, and NDTV. He was the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. He is also a member of the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs, Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Sunil was Co-chairman of the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2007 and is a member of its International Business Council. He is a member of several premier international bodies Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Leadership Council of The Climate Group. Sunil is also on the Telecom Board of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the leading UN Agency for Information and Communication Technology. He is a Commissioner of the Broadband Commission at ITU. He is a member of several business forums including the India-US CEO Forum, India-UK CEO Forum, India-Italy CEO Forum, India- Japan CEO Forum and India- Sri Lanka CEO Forums. Sunil is associated with several world-class academic institutions - member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmadabad; member of the Executive Board of the Indian School of Business; member of the Governing Body of London Business School; member of the Deans Advisory Board of Harvard Business School; member of the Cambridge India Partnership Advisory Board. Sunil believes that a responsible corporate has a duty to give back to the community in which it operates. This belief has resulted in Bharti Foundation, which is operating 242 primary schools and 5 Senior Secondary Schools catering to over 30,000 under-privileged children in rural India. Sunil was ranked among the Top 25 Philanthropists in the World in 2009 by the Barrons Magazine.

Sunil has been conferred with the degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) by the University of Leeds, UK and the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by the Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, USA.

Sunil Bharti Mittal is the biggest name in Indian telecom. The man who built the brands of "Bharti" and "Airtel" and made them household names. The fact is that he has built a massive business empire from almost nothing. Today, Sunil Mittals sprawling corporate office is in the shadow of the Qutub Minar. The positive undertone hits you as you enter the office. Satisfied employees are seen everywhere; probably this is the business secret of the great Sunil Mittal. Sunils parents were of different castes, which created uproar at that time. They were forced to adopt the surname of "Bharti" (they gave up their family name of Mittal as they were ostracized by their community).

But later on, Sunil reclaimed their family of "Mittal", and came to be known as Sunil Bharti Mittal. Sunil's father was a Member of Parliament, had always been in public life. But right from a young age, Sunil wanted to create a big mark for himself in the world of business.

When he was just 18, he started a small factory manufacturing cycle spare parts in Ludhiana. He did this by borrowing Rs.20000 as capital. The business began to grow slowly and steadily but Sunil's sights were on something much larger. After a few years, he shifted his base to Delhi. He started operating from Delhi and Mumbai, which had become the nations commercial capitals. He was conducting the business of importing products from abroad, and distributing them in local markets. In 1983, Sunil set up his first company, Bharti Healthcare, manufacturing capsules. But the break that Sunil was looking for came to him in a totally different and unexpected dimension. At that time, the Indian government wanted to encourage indigenous manufacture of goods within the country itself. As a result of this, import of many products was banned, and this opened up a world of opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs. Sunil was quick to identify this, and move forward. The telecom revolution was beginning, with push button telephones being introduced in the country. Sunil saw the opportunity and set up a facility to manufacture push button telephones in India. This was just the beginning, and the group moved into manufacture of Cordless phones, answering machines, fax machines and others, soon after.

In all these product segments, the Bharti group had been the first to launch them in India. But Sunil Mittals vision was wide; he knew that the Indian economy was at the threshold of becoming one of the largest emerging economies in the world. In the early I990's mobile phones were slowly becoming popular in the world. Once again Sunil seized the opportunity and dived headlong into this business. The Bharti group launched the Airtel brand of mobile telephone service in Delhi in 1995. Today, the Airtel brand is the biggest mobile phone brand in the country. Sunil's foresight paid off, as the Bharti group's telecom business, worth Rs.1200 crores today, put him in the bracket of the richest people in the world. Once when asked what he would attribute his success to, Sunil replied, "Right from the beginning, ours was never a trading or money making mentality, but of wanting to be recognized in our field and to establish a corporation. We did things never tried before in India. We are very fair to the people we work with (suppliers, buyers, staff). We wanted to prove that even with meager capital we could do big things. Now a corporation, we are working to make it an institution." An excellent initiative in the Bharti management is that all employees own stocks of the company. They, therefore have a sense of belonging. There is no "owner-worker" kind of feeling

that prevails in the Bharti's corporate environment. And the popular "Hire and Fire" policy does not exist in his company either. So each individual is motivated and works towards the common goal including his ones. Sunil has not neglected his role towards society. The Bharti group is conscious about their social obligations and has set up the "Bharti Foundation'', which works towards furthering the cause of education. In Madhya Pradesh, they have funded over 50 schools, which are in rural and semi urban locations. They have also donated Rs. 20 crores to IIT Delhi for building a Bharti School of Technology and Management. On the personal side, Sunil is an ardent family man. He has a daughter and twin sons. He spends quality time with them whenever he can spare time from his hectic schedule. He meditates and chants mantra's every morning, besides yoga and exercise. He once said Having a positive frame of mind can help overcome extremely bad situations. Amid all this pressure, how does he relax? I used to play golf before, now sometimes I play tennis. But I thrive on my work. For me, work is love, not stress. But I won't say there's no stress. As you come to the top of the pyramid, the intensity of competition, of jealousy, is high, says Sunil Bharti Mittal. In July 2006, Sunil attracted many key executives from Reliance ADAG, NIS Sparta and created Bharti Comtel. In November 2006, he struck a joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India. Today, the Bharti group has a turnover of US$5 billion. On February 13, 2008, Sunil Bharti Mittal was awarded the GSM Association Chairman's Award 2008. This Award, which is the highest honour in the global telecom sector, was conferred on him for his tremendous contribution to the development of Indias telecom sector. Truly, his vision has transformed the lives of millions across India.