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What Modern Entrepreneurs Need?

Direction & Inspiration

– Vision Milestone

– Periodic Motivation

– Business Couching

– Mentoring by Experts

Knowledge

– Market Trends & Impact

– Customer Trends & Impact

– Competitor Moves & Impact

– Political Trends & Impact

– Technological Trends & Impact

– Ecommerce Trends & Impact

– Taxes & Impact

Skill

– Using Technology for Business Efficiency

– Using Management Tools & Frameworks for Operation & Growth Efficiency

– Developing Leadership Skills

Funding

– Short Term funds for short term needs

– Long Term funds or investment for long term needs

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Share Holder Value Creation Is Not Everything

Most businesses, that have shareholders tend to focus on satisfying the investors only. And investors love profits. This means to improve profitability, return on investment and pay back periods- the management many a times have to compromise on their commitments to the employees, customers and environment.

Make no mistake, shareholders are very important. Without them, there is no capital and without capital there is no business. But the management strategy should not be entirely focused on them. Because many a times, the shareholders may not know what is good for them in the long run.

Shareholders usually invest in a commercial business for two reason. Immediate profitability or long term profitability / appreciation. For businesses with a vision, it is essential not to have investors who are short term focused. This will prevent business from investing in itself, its people and its relationship with the customers. As all these can be construed as “unnecessary expenses” that should otherwise have been shareholder’s profit.

But without investing in people, the organisation will not have the capable team to fight the competition nor grow. Without investing in building a relationship with the customers, the future customers will diminish. Without investing in the brand, will mean no value to the firm even after years of operation. Without investing into growth, diversification and research, the

business may not survive long.

Who does all this affect? The shareholders.

So the management has the difficult of job of ensuring that the right balance is maintained while creating value for all the stakeholders (and not just the shareholders).

This situation can be made easy, if the investors are rightly chosen in the first place. Choose investors who are long term, and who believe the firm should have a good brand value.

Promoters before targeting the “right customer segments” have to target the “right investor segment”.

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Future of Food Industry & How Kerala Can Benefit?

What are the major challenges that the Food & Beverage Industry players will face in the future?

Now is perhaps the most challenging time for food and beverage manufacturers. The rising cost of materials and manpower, customer experience sharing at a global scale, shrinking margins due to tough competition, the constant shift in consumer tastes, fluctuations in agricultural outputs- has all contributed to heavy challenges not just to F&B manufacturers in Kerala, but national and international players.

What are the major developments that the Food & Beverage Industry players will face in the future?

But these challenges are the opportunity for the real visionary businesses to beat competition, excel, and gain market shares. One of the important tools to be used by these visionary businesses will be technology, in its various forms, from sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain management, branding to end-customer experience.

According to a white paper by GE released at the “Gulfood Manufacturing 2018”, these technological changes can range from Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), connected industrial units,  proactive repair of machinery based on real data, smart asset management, low-cost effective sensors, usage of the “Cloud”, big data, artificial intelligence- and many more technologies that will help reduce drastically wastage of raw materials, damages to finished or semi-finished products, prevent overproduction or underproduction, reduce cost and increase margins, besides target marketing to target customers.

According to GE, their customers (business and manufacturers who opted for their technology) stated operational efficiencies such as up to 20% reduction in unplanned downtimes, 20% inventory reduction, more than 20% recovered capacity, up to 40% EH&S incident reduction, up to 20% reduction in maintenance, up to 10% inventory cost reduction, 8% decrease in field service cost, 9% increase in equipment uptime, 13% decrease in average time to repair and so on.

How does Kerala or Kerala-based Entrepreneurs Benefit?

There are several unconventional opportunities for adventurous daring forward-looking entrepreneurs in Kerala. Like,

Build and operate “modern” technology-oriented farms: Global consumer packaged foods manufacturers are facing the security of agricultural inputs. To overcome this, they are purchasing farmlands in other countries, to overcome any shortage of agricultural produce. Currently, they are looking at China and Africa. This is an opportunity for modern agro-entrepreneurs who can own, manage and bring agro-products of global standards. To be cost-effective and quality assured, these farms should be capital intensive than manpower intensive. It should use all the latest technologies to ensure maximum output, with minimal harmful chemical usage, and that too at a minimal cost. This will bring a new breath of life to the fertile lands of Kerala. This is an opportunity that Kerala-based entrepreneurs can do in other states of India as well, where farmland availability will not be an issue.

Build Consumer Brands to Sell: Global consumer brands face two types of hard competition that affect their survival and profitability. One is the usual competition they face from other global players. Other is competition faced from the local consumer brands (who have a better local knowledge about the local customers). As part of their inorganic growth strategy, the global players have a tendency to buy local brands. This is a good opportunity for new-age young entrepreneurs who wish to sell off their brand at a handsome price and start a new venture. This is especially ideal, when the local brands are suffering from the tough competition (despite having a good market share), and going ahead is not that easy. It’s a win-win situation for the buyer and the seller. So the opportunity is to build a great brand that you would sell at a high price when the competition gets really tough.

Technology Ventures: There exists the opportunity for specialized technology firms that will provide technology solutions (hardware, software, or platforms) to the F&B sectors. The opportunity is global, as these ventures can sell their products or services in the global market. This is the biggest opportunity for Kerala, as thousands of specialized technology ventures can be market players. And Kerala’s IT parks and IT professional pool can be a good resource. But the key is to specialize, as only when there is specialization they can invest in research, R&D and know the market needs better.

 

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The Go Jek Story. How a company identified a new opportunity and succeeded

Jakarta, a city with a population of 10 million, definitely has a growing problem- transportation. One of the biggest pains that people face is the ability to move from one place to another, due to heavy congestion on the roads.

So people resort to Paid bike taxis, called ‘Ojek’. Now ojek is thousands of bike riders who give you a lift. And they are unprofessional and unsafe. But the people do not have a choice.

Understanding this opportunity, a company started a mobile app named “Go Jek”. Through this app, it made people’s lives easier. They could book taxi bikes from their mobile, no need for haggling and price negotiation, safer experienced drivers, reduced waiting time, and interestingly, when there is an accident- Go Jek takes responsibility!

So what Customer Pain, can your business answer that nobody has ever thought of?

What new product or service can you introduce, that does not have competition now? What’s your next move?

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Why Hire Consultants?

Why Hire Consultants?

Most entrepreneurs do not know why they need the help of consultants. After all, they have been doing their business for many years and how can someone from outside, who has never done the same business help them?

Well, Consultants can help them. In fact help them in a big way. How?

Entrepreneurs get emotionally attached to their business, their staff, products, customers, environment etc. These emotions can be good and bad. The bad ones take the form of egos, arrogance, blindness (to truth and realty), complacency (the enough mentality), superiority complex, internal politics etc. Not only the entrepreneur, even his staff and managers can get affected and be part of these negative emotions. *And this is dangerous and deadly*. Many businesses fail, because these emotions becomes so hard in their business, like rock. And they may not even realise it. *Business begins to slowly fail*.

Consultants on the other hand, are outsiders. They are not emotionally attached to your business, hence free for the bad emotions harboured by the entrepreneur or his team.

This gives clarity of thought. Which helps consultants to be clear on the problems and solutions. Moreover, consultants are trained in identifying problems and finding solutions for it. Also, their experience spans across several different types of businesses. And as a result, can suggest means and measures that is new to his business and competitors.

The best companies in the world all hire consultants. Consultants help them in their growth. To explore how a consulting company can support your business in Kerala or in GCC, please call +91-7559-900-800 or visit www.aascglobal.com

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Start With The End In Mind

Start With The End In Mind

The 2nd Habit by Stephen Covey is about “Beginning with the End in Mind”. In short, it means, you should know what will be the end result of what you do, the end destination. Without knowing that, it’s like driving a car without knowing where you should reach.

There are people who believe that end result is not important as long as you enjoy the ride. It’s a good philosophy for the un-Visionary. The majority of people, are happy and satisfied if they can afford a decent life for their family, a trend that is visible irrespective of the income or the education of the person.

But for those with the “fire in the belly”, the end is what defines the accomplishment or the purpose of their life. It’s about spending whole life to solve a social problem, to create an alternative way of life, to build a brand that becomes a legacy, to do something that changes or touches the lives of millions.

For those, the real “entrepreneurs”, “The End” is very important. It is what makes them take up new challenges in life, while others run away from challenges. It is what makes them develop their employees, while other consider that as a threat. It is what makes them expand in scale and scope, while others rest of their accomplishments. It is what makes them continuously put their businesses on the rugged path of growth, when the others love the complement and saturated stage of peace and tranquility.

For the End to be realised, a dream is not enough. You need a vision milestone. What are the events that you hope to have or achieve or be, for the next 10-20 years? What milestones should be achieved each year? What plans do you have to achieve the milestones every year? Do you have the resources for it? If not, how do you make those resources? And more. It has to be planned, and it need to implemented.

So what is your “End” in mind? Is it worth it? What kind of impact does it have on society around you?

Author: Ameen Ahsan, is the Founder & CEO of Ameen Ahsan Strategy Consulting (AASC), a business strategy & management consulting firm.

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