Quarter 11 - Week 8

Camels are very interesting creatures. They are called the ships of the desert, but they come with their own humps... that's like a conflict of interest (you know, the vehicle and the road?). But irrespective of hare-brained meanderings at 1 AM, the funny thing is this particular creature came up quite often in this week's sessions. Oddly enough, it was repeatedly spoken about by our guest speakers, both entrepreneurs from different courses. It was the standard line of 'the camel and the man in the tent' (about how you slowly inch your way into the tent and force out of the 'incumbent'). The other camel incident is related to the 'one straw that broke the camel's back'. More on this below...

New Enterprise Financing

This week started off with a guest lecture by Kiran Nadkarni. He's well acquainted with our prof, and is also currently an entrepreneur... you probably know his current venture, if not him.. it's a not-so-small enterprise called Kaati Zone. So our man takes us through his journey and how he came to be in this business. Apparently he's a hardcore numbers driven guy, but he likes to fly off the seat of his pants once in a while. He used to work in the financing domain, and one of his last activities as an employee was to start and lead the ICICI Ventures endeavour. After a while, he had done his time, and so decided to quit and shift to the US. Somewhere in the next few years, he began to get THE itch. And so, he decides to face the world from the opposite side of the table - as an entrepreneur.

He walks us through the business that he's built up, and how he came to today's state. He also describes how he made a few nutty mistakes, which as a prior investor he should have known better. He went on to elaborate on the importance of team work, and how its good to have people with diverse experience along with you to make the journey a little less disconcerting. Not too much finance-related takeaway, but quite a bit of realistic advice for potential venture creators.

The next session was on a case about an investment firm which has just found that one of its investees is choosing to hide critical elements in his updates, which they should be concerned about. And we come to the understanding that providing for means of control is always an important aspect of financing. To keep entrepreneurs/investors in line. and not to run towards their own selfish end goals, certain checks and balances should be enforced.

We had a couple more theory papers to discuss in an extra set of classes that were scheduled on Sunday, where the prof takes us through understanding what goes into deciding the right moment to approach the markets for an IPO, and about whether or not an entrepreneur should go along with investors who he doesn't trust. We ended by discussing the fundas of one of our assignments, that was supposed to help us get a hold on the concept of DCF for valuation.

Reinvention through Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Learning

The prof walks in with total enthusiasm to discuss the day's cases, and asks out in a cheerful voice 'How many of you have read cases x, y and z'.Slowly, hands start popping into the air, and the prof looks confused as he asked why approximately half the class hadn't. The smile becomes a little less sure now, and then he asks 'I really don't know how to proceed... you guys have to help me out here. How do I discuss this case?!'. Then the serene, yet impish smile we all know comes out and he says... well, I told you I'll not keep unnecessary expectations from you. So here goes, for the next two weeks, you guys will prepare presentations on the day's case, and describe it to the class. I'll sit where you're sitting now, and mark this as part of your class participation.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this looks like that one straw that finally broke the camel's back. I'll reserve my comments on the matter, all I will say is that I was quite disappointed with my class' attitude. This is my last quarter, and a course as important as REIL did not deserve this end.

The prof takes on the day's cases anyway... they're about Dainik Bhaskar, Titan Edge and CavinKare. The underlying concept of all of them appeared to be the same, in the face of adversity, how does one find innovative means to come out at the front... and how! All these cases were about bearing down on the unsurmountable, and just making things work. How Dainik Bhaskar got into every new geography as No.1 or No.2 on day 1 due to their innovative market research methods, or about CavinKare's sly guerilla attacks on the traditional and large FMCG brands, again through interaction with the customer, gives you the feeling that anything can be done, if you really believe in it. Titan Edge was more on how to break technological barriers and challenge incumbent wisdom, thereby giving you a place in history. Just because leading experts in watches couldn't find a way to make watches very slim, Titan found a way. One that pleasantly surprised many of the large watch players into having renewed respect for India's innovation capabilities.

The second session was a guest lecture, where we were taken through the entrepreneur's journey from idea to execution. There's a lot of customer interaction that seems to happen, not to mention strong changes to a business model depending on its viability. Here too we are made to understand the important of teamwork in a venture, and that of hard work.

The assignments are now piling on faster, and harder. This week had our teams staying up late nights to crunch the forecast numbers of the venture. Next week we have two assignments, and the week after... there are some very critical submissions. Finally, we have exams... but meh... who really cares about exams when you have periodic supervision and grading.

P.S. 2 weeks left.