Nitin’s insights..

This headline might be stating the obvious but inspirational talks are important for motivating people in all aspects of life. The trigger today was a talk from Sahar Hashemi, co-founder of coffee chain Coffee Republic, and the messages she was giving and the buzzwords/phrases she used could have emanated from any of a number of entrepreneurs on the speaker circuit. They all say the same thing, give or take a few differences, and if you’ve been to a few of these it can be repetitive – but it’s worth listening to them every now and then.

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Last week (17-23 November 2008), Global Entrepreneurship week was running and there were several events around the world aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship or highlighting some of the positive aspects of entrepreneurship. At a time of global ‘gloom’ (or at least it seems that way right now in the Europe and North America), it is clear from all the key commentators and leaders that now is the time of great opportunity for quick-thinking entrepreneurs.

As the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (often referred to as one of the world’s largest foundations devoted to entrepreneurship) said in its letter to president-elect Obama, “Entrepreneurs invent, innovate, and advance living standards for society. They are the growth-drivers and job-creators of our economy.” Read the rest of this entry »

During the week of one of the biggest electronics components trade fairs in the world, which took place in Munich a couple of weeks ago, you would be hard-pressed to see where were the signs of the down-turn that we’d been hearing about for several weeks.  OK, so visitor numbers were down by about 6,000, hitting around 72,000, but for anyone who was there it was both difficult to get hotel rooms, and book travel to get there in the first place, unless you’d booked months or even a year or more prior to the event.

So what’s the story?  Why didn’t we see everyone drowning their sorrows at the show or whingeing about the bleak future? And is it really bleak or is there a silver lining?  Read the rest of this entry »

India is constantly in the news, vying with China to be the next global superpower. We’ve already seen major acquistions and also talk of further large acquistive moves - particularly with Tata’s recent acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar, and also news such as that of Indian consumer electronics company Videocon pursuing Motorola’s mobile phone business.

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‘Entrepreneurship’ has become a key buzzword in many circles and a national enterprise academy is even being launched in the UK next year.  Whatever you might do to learn about entrepreneurship and starting your business, there are some important basics that any would-be entrepreneur must answer before even considering starting a business.

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There are many aspects to building a brand, but I want to highlight one based on observing real life examples of people I have seen do it - Lord Karan Billimoria, Sir Robin Saxby, and Papa CJ.

Depending on your walk of life, you may know one or more of these. This article has been triggered as a result of seeing the Indian stand-up comedian Papa CJ last week. I will touch on the other two individuals after talking about him. Read the rest of this entry »