PEOPLE’S TV is a popular English news channel in India with highest TRP in prime time slot (8pm -10.30pm). This slot contributes around 40% of the overall advertisement revenue for the channel. Recently, one of its news anchor (which was conducting a popular talk show during the prime time) has moved to a rival news channel PRIME NEWS.

The Anchor is now planning to host a similar talk show which he used to conduct in PEOPLE’S TV. Fearing, decline in talk show’s TRP, PEOPLE’S TV has roped in it’s another star presenter to host the show with a new branding, look & feel but audience response to the show’s new avatar is not much encouraging and even few advertisers has moved out of the show.

Question

If you are the COO of PEOPLE’S TV what steps you should take to limit revenue loss to the channel during the prime time slot (Note, you cannot replace the Talk Show with any other format / show but you can play with the show branding (online, offline), look & feel, anchor, content, PR etc

Suggest possible solution in the below comment box

Note : This case study is the IP of MBA STAR & any reproduction without prior permission is restricted

The post Case Study – TRP War between the English News Channels in India appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

“Power Plus” is a 10 years old enterprise which has been manufacturing & selling power banks through its offline retailer network in Delhi / NCR and was also making fair profit on each unit. But, in 2017, a company named “NewTech” entered the market with its economical range of power banks (imported from China / Taiwan) and started selling them through Amazon & Flipkart under its own brand name.

In less than 06 months of time span, “Power Plus” saw a steep decline in its monthly sales. Power Plus internal audit showed that “New Tech” low cost power banks have captured a big pie of its market share.

Power Plus sales team suggested the top management to lower down the power bank cost to compete with New Tech in the market but its manufacturing cost doesn’t allow big reduction in selling cost.

Question

Keeping 06 months strategy in mind , as a CEO of “Power Plus” how will you logically compete with the low cost power banks of “New Tech” (remember you are the manufacturer of high quality power bank with a good brand value).

Share your solution/s in the below comment section

Note : This case study is the IP of MBA STAR, any reproduction without prior permission is restricted

The post Case Study – Power Plus Vs New Tech – Fight to capture Power Bank market of Delhi / NCR appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

Most recently travel startup “Stayzilla” has shut down its operations after raising around $33 million in funding from investors like Nexus Venture Partners and Matrix Partners across multiple rounds. While addressing to employees & investors, Stayzilla CEO Yogendra Venugopal (Yogi) has said “The initial 07 years were all about having negative working capital, positive cash flow and a sustained ability to fund our own growth. Those were the only metrics we tracked. In the last 3–4 years, though, I can honestly state that somewhere I lost my path. I started treasuring GMV, room-nights and other ‘vanity’ metrics instead of the fundamentals of cash flow and working capital.” Shut down can be seen as a normal business practice but what more concerning is the logic given by the CEO of the startup to which Ratan Tata funded YOURSTORY once called “Godzilla of Travel”. (Till writing of this article, Stayzilla CEO was in Chennai Jail for non-payment of outstanding vendor invoices).

Stayzilla episode is not just a case of startup malfunctioning. Amid financial crisis, last month Snapdeal founders announced 100% salary cut for themselves to trim costs along with reduction in compensation for some other top brass of the “yet to make profit” billion dollar valued startup (on the day of writing this article, snapdeal major investor Japan’s Softbank was reportedly involved in orchestrating a possible merger between Snapdeal’s close rival Flipkart). In an email to Snapdeal employees, Co-Founder Kunal Bahl, has admitted the mistake of the business expansion much before “the right economic model and market fit was figured out” (In 2015 Snapdeal has acquired mobile recharge & bill payment website (now an e-wallet) Freecharge in $400 million and has invested Rs 200 Crore in 2016 on its own brand makeover). On the other hand, last year in December, Snapdeal’s rival & India’s largest ecommerce platform Flipkart has been devalued for the sixth time, pegging its worth at $9.9 billion (company reported a loss of Rs 5,768.8 crore in FY 16 & is reportedly in talks to acquire loss making Indian operation of eBay).

Last year, grocery startup PepperTap after raising almost $50 million shut down it shutters (PepparTap was once compared with US Instacart) whereas the closure of market place “Askme” has been considered as “most iconic and prolific shutdowns of the year 2016” as $300 million of VC funds evaporated into thin air, overnight. According to Mohan Kumar, ED, Norwest Venture Partners India “This is a natural progression,” “When you look at the ecosystem, not more than 20% of the startups succeed. Two to three years after a startup’s inception is a time when you see high mortality. There is too much competition, and only a few survive”.

Success is not sure even when sincere efforts have been given but such a coronation to declare fundraising as an entrepreneurship is a problem, creating unnecessary fuss. Today, every new entrepreneur wants to become either Bansal or Bahl, not to address the real world issue through sustainable products but to raise funds & enjoy a corporate stardom.

As somebody has said “profit is the only sanity while rest all is vanity”, I strongly feel Indian startups will realize this, sooner or later.

The post Honour in Hurry ! The Startup Case appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

Disclaimer – The characters in this story are very much real (may be with different names & entities) & its resembles with the real world people (Founders or Angel Investors), companies (Media Houses, Investors or VCs) will not be coincidental. 

Person-1 to Investors: Give me seed funding i want to start a business. Investors gave him money

Company established. Person-1 immediately starts getting huge media attention, starts giving lectures on Entrepreneurship, Business Values, Ethos, Vision, Growth, Chasing your passion etc…

Person-1 to Investors : Give me round-1 funding, i want to expand >>>> Money given

Person-1, wins “entrepreneurship award”, invited by B-Schools to deliver thoughts, newspaper titled him “change maker”, “icon”, “tycoon” blah blah….

Person-1 to Investors : See, people are downloading my app, give me more money; I want to diversify >>>> Money given

Person-1 is now a Business Leader, starts talking about country’s economic policies, REPO Rate, Trade deficit, US Visa rulings, Trump’s Victory, Chinese Economy etc on TV Channels & News Columns

Person-1 to Investors – Give me money, i want to do an acquisition, money given >>>> Acquisition done

Person-1 is now a part of industry lobby groups, government panels

Person-1 to Investors – Give me more money, I want to pay salaries & clear invoices

Investors to Person-1 “Show us Revenue”

Person-1: I am going for my salary cut, working on revamping business model, getting away with non-core businesses, firing employees, reducing agent commissions, moving to a co-working space & asking government support against foreign competitors.

Investors to Person-1: Move to the CHAIRMAN seat, let us appoint a professional COO

Person -1, Sells his entire stake to the investors & moves out. Become a full time Twitter centric “business thought leader”, philanthropist & an angel investor. Newspaper & TV Channels are now looking for new fundraisers for coverage.

Moral of the Story : Entrepreneurship is more than fundraising

The post [A True Story ] Entrepreneurship is more than Fundraising appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

“Today startups are built for investors not for consumers”

Recently I have seen many startup founders either with a seed or first round funding, been glorified by some prominent sections of media as “Top Entrepreneurs”, “Entrepreneurs with Impact” “Inspirational Stories” & similar headlines with “CAPS ON, Bold” fonts. Even some publishers have covered success mantra tips given by these “Top entrepreneurs”. So, was randomly wondering whether entrepreneurship is about generating revenue out of business or investment for the business.

Raising external funds in a competitive startup space is definitely an art. But, when we look into the list of “Startups That Shut Shop in 2016” where startups like “Pepper Tap” & others those who despite making millions of dollars (ofcourse not through sales) rolled down their shutters in just few years of their market debut, my understanding about the concept of Entrepreneurship goes into dilemma.

Entrepreneur India Magazine once compared Pepper Tap with US based hyper local player Instacart & called it as a “unique business model”. TechInAsia magazine has featured Rahul Yadav, the “bad boy” of Indian startup space in the list titled “India’s top 30 startup founders” much before his venture Housing.com made any remarkable market traction (even today Housing is nowhere & his second inning with Intelligent Interfaces also failed badly).The same list has also featured Pranay Chulet, founder of online classified website Quikr in the 5^th position. Need to mention here that Quikr has recorded a revenue of Rs. 95 crores against a loss of Rs. 534 crores in FY 15-16.(Source – Next Big What). In November 2015, Inc42 covered the story of Rashi Choudhary, co-founder of “abruptly closed” online supermarket store Localbanya.com in its article titled “Inspiring Stories of Some Amazing Women Entrepreneurs of the Indian Startup Ecosystem”.

Shutting down of these so called “game changers” startups may be because they were not been able to raise further investment to sustain or some issues with the business model itself. But, the question is why such a hurry to promote them as “game-changers”, “wave riders” etc. Reason may be because the new age entrepreneurs & their business investors relies more on PR activities than creating an impactful enterprise which can really solve consumer problems.

Biggies of Indian startup ecosystem like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Ola all have been making huge losses since inception & are solely surviving on the investors’ money even the latter two called for government protection against their foreign rivals.

My point here is by glorifying such early stage entrepreneurs & portraying them super successful is injustice with the entire ecosystem & with the people following them. Success of entrepreneurs should not judge by the funding received but the way they have sustained a business model.

Image Credit : Google / VCCircle

The post Entrepreneurship – Raising Investment or Making Revenue appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

The need for presentation skills starts right from school days till the highest level of corporate ladder. Whether it’s a Sales, Product Launch or a Funding Pitch, sound presentation skills is essential to draw the attention of the audience.

 Presentation skills can be developed through practice & by referring presentations styles of great speakers.

When talking about presentations, mentioning Apple Founder Steve Jobs comes naturally. Jobs was known for his unique style of engaging audience especially during Apple product launch & meets.

Take a look into the analysis of the presentation style of great Steve Jobs

The post Learn the Steve Jobs way of Presentation appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

More often than not, these words are misused. ”Their” refers to people whereas”there” is used to refer to places.

When spoken, these words sound almost the same and can be confusing to non-natives. ”Accept” means to agree to take something that’s being offered while ”Except” means with the exclusion of something.

“Career” means an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress while “Carrier” means a person or thing that carries, holds, or conveys something.

“Enquiry” means an act of asking for information whereas “Inquiry” represents an act of investigation

“Bole” is the trunk of a tree while “Bowl” is a dish

“Cheque” is an order to a bank to pay a stated sum from the drawer’s account, written on a specially printed form while “Check” is to examine (something) in order to determine its accuracy, quality, or condition, or to detect the presence of something.

“Berth” is a fixed bunk on a ship, train, or other means of transport while “Birth” is the emergence of a baby

“Band” is a flat, thin strip or loop of material, used as a fastener whereas “Banned” is officially or legally prohibited.

“Buy” is to purchase while “Bye” is farewell

“Meet” is to connect while “meat” is animal flesh

The post 10 Common English Mistakes done by Indians appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

The DO’s of Email at Work…

DO: Personalize

Personalization is the first point to remember while writing an email irrespective to whom it is intended. Address the recipient by his / her first name prefixing Mr./Mrs.

Tip: Make a habit to add “Dear” Mr. / Mrs [NAME], in all emails

DO: Adapt

Recognize the recipient through your past communication / old emails. Find out their tone & use words accordingly. In India, sometimes recipients feel offended when they receive straight forward email seeking some response / answer

Tip: You may look at the signature of the emails to find about the recipient

DO: Always Check Before Clicking Send

It is the mandatory point to remember before sending the email. Double check your email (spellings, attachments)

Tip: Do not include the recipient email address in the send line “To” until you’ve proofed.

DO: Keep Messages Short

Official emails are generally read during office hours, hence it is recommended to keep them short to save time of the reader/s, don’t repeat sentences

Tip: Use short sentences rather than long paragraphs

DO: Keep Your Inbox Clean

By keeping the “Inbox Clean” the intention is to read all the messages. But sometimes due to priorities emails could be skipped.

Tip: The best way to handle this is to create recipient specific Inbox folders & read emails as per priority.

The DON’Ts of Email at Work…

DON’T: Abbreviate

Sometimes our habit follows up everywhere. Use.of shortcut terms like “thx”, “lol” or “c u @ wrk l8r”. are very often in our daily life. Never use the stuff on professional emails, this reflect the casual behavior towards recipient

Tip: Use Skype for informal response

DON’T: !!!!!!!!!  CAPS LOCK ON

Over use of signs like exclamation points can raise unnecessary reader attention. Hence must be used in a right context, wherever actually required. Similarly use of smileys / emicons looks great on informal chat rather than professional emails.

Use of words in CAPITAL LETTERS represents anger & shouting thus should be avoided on professional emails.

Tip: Don’t immediately respond to messages that make you angry, think & then write.

DON’T: Send the One Word “Okay” or “Thanks” Response

Not to counter the point above, but keeping messages short is ideal, sending the dreaded, non-descriptive one word email is not so ideal. Sending content for edits or emails that require a detailed answer can’t be answered with a simple “okay”, give the sender the courtesy of the answer or closure they need, as to not drag on the email chain with answers that don’t clarify what is being asked.

DON’T: Drag Irrelevant Readers

Don’t overuse carbon copies. Make sure if the recipients really need to see the information

Tip : Include people those who are part of the discussion. For information to others you may add them as “Bcc”.

DON’T : Excessively use Pronouns & Absolutes

Pronouns establish the tone. The most dangerous pronoun in an e-mail is “you.”. Avoid words such as: never, always, impossible, or cannot. Soften the absolutes if you want to be more credible in e-mails.

Tip: Keep the communication open & generic, never write negative on email

The post Living in a “MAIL” dominated industry appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

The seven seasons of famous American reality television series “Shark Tank” has witnessed business pitches from thousands of entrepreneurs looking to raise fund for their business ventures. Among these, majority are of new age entrepreneurs looking either to scale their business idea / beta product or expansion for an early stage venture. But out of these several pitches only few of them get success in convincing the “Sharks” & secure funding.

If we analyze the successful pitches closely, we can draw some common points among them, as

1. Big Market – Investor’s first point of consideration for a startup funding is its “scope”. For investors, startup should be addressing a common problem impacting a wider audience. This helps them to visualize the size of the market & growth opportunities.

2. Founders Fondness – A passionate founder/s is another trigger point for investors to consider the startup. Founder/s without the knowhow of the industry & business basics has less chance to secure funding. Founder’s background, education & work experience also plays a vital role during business pitches.

3. Show me Numbers – Investors love to hear about the business numbers like Production Cost, Net Profit , Gross Profit, Margins, Revenue estimate for next 12 months etc., hence should be at the fingertips of the founders.

4. Protection for Money – Another important aspect that investor considers while hearing pitches is the protection for their investment. Businesses with proprietary techniques, patents, have significant chances to grab the funding.

5. Value PLUS – Majority of investors like to hear about the pitches those can add value to their existing investment or business portfolio or sometimes based on their liking for a particular industry.

According to Robert Herjavec, Canadian businessman & an active Shark (investor) on the show, “there are also few parameters based on which he personally judges the entrepreneurs”, like

• Professional dressing

• Body Language & zeal
• Insights about own company & clear vision for growth

The above findings are applicable in all the business scenarios be it Shark Tank or other business pitches. Such shows are great opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to get motivated & learn cutting edge skills before approaching the investors.

The post 5 Lessons from Shark Tank for new Entrepreneurs appeared first on Education & Career Advice.

The turmoil was such, that in private sector, I literally had to rub off my feet to get in and seek experience. But, did I get the required experience? On the basis of my internship/ summer training at a private company during my MBA, and on a few more experiences of people, here is what you need to know about MBA summer training.

The myth and the truth behind MBA summer training/internships

1. First, the private companies will hardly hire you as interns or summer trainees. If at all, you manage to get training in a company, no one will have the patience to sit and explain things to you, or clarify your doubts, for that matter. The internship will only be through a reference, that too, someone who has good links in the company of your choice.

2. If you have specialization in Marketing, most of the private companies will require you to work on Sales, as an intern. Worse enough, they will ONLY provide you the much-needed Training Completion Certificate, provided you give them at least one conversion or lead that materializes.

3. The worse thing about MBA summer training is interns doing direct marketing for the company’s brand awareness. You may feel like doing nothing and acting as a slave of the company.

4. A lot of companies provide summer training or internship to the candidates, simply to clear off their pending work for free.

5. Myriad of private companies hire interns or summer trainees so as to assist their own people for point D).

In such a scenario, where internship seems to be such a tedious task, there are still a few good companies that offer value to the interns in terms of exposure, experience, money & sometimes even job offer.

In case, you do not feel valuable enough in an internship, it is important to realize that learning is in your own hands. You can always take charge to learn things by observing and asking a few questions from people around you, despite working on all the points mentioned above.

The post Myth & Reality behind Internship appeared first on Education & Career Advice.