That’s not the cheesy title of this blog’s first post — it’s a leading electric car company in China that is blazing a trail in the automotive industry. Founded in 1995, BYD Company started as a manufacturer of batteries, competing against established…
Riding The Indian Education Boom
India’s education sector is seeing hectic entrepreneurial activity and private equity investors are deploying significant capital in this sunrise sector. Funds focusing exclusively on education have emerged. Recently, education company Kaplan announced the formation of Kaplan Ventures, which will invest in the…
The Jugaad Myth
In 2001, Fevicol ran an advertising campaign showing a truck overloaded with people making its way across a rough and barren landscape. Even though the terrain is rocky and the truck overflowing, none of the passengers fall off, bonded together,…
Venture Investors In India Must Rethink Bets
According to Venture Capital deal data released late April, investment in India doubled to $259 million compared to the first quarter of 2009. While more than $210 million was invested in business services and financial servicescompanies, very few companies from…
What Sachin Pilot Can Learn From Margaret Thatcher
I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand, “I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!” or “I have a problem, I will go…
The Genesis Of Jobs
Speculating whether India can spawn innovative companies like Apple and Google is a favourite parlor game among venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. It’s clear that there is staggering talent and creativity in the country, and it seems more a question of…
Not Just Luck By Chance
This is Part 2 in a two-part series on Bollywood and Entrepreneurship. Read the first part here. Conviction: In recent times, one of the best films about the film business was Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance, released in 2009. It…
Guru, Deewar and My Lessons From Bollywood
I’ve written earlier about the parallels between film-making and entrepreneurship. Much like management guru Philip Kotler’s 4 Cs for marketing, we can also define 4 Cs for entrepreneurship, and these can be illustrated with scenes from Bollywood movies. Clarity Intellectual…
Choosing Expediency Over Principle
“This Budget belongs to ‘Aam Aadmi’. It belongs to the farmer, the agriculturist, the entrepreneur and the investor. The opportunity is great. The time is right. I have placed my faith in the hands of the people who, I know,…