Here is a funny incident that took place when I was exhibiting at CeBIT 2007 in Hanover.

I was in Hanover with my friend – Srish Agrawal for CeBIT 2007. After a tiring day at the exhibition hall, we were looking for a decent dinner. The only problem was our being vegetarian.

It was quite late and we were hunting for a restaurant near Kropke. We could not locate a restaurant which will serve a proper main course vegetarian dinner. Suddenly I spotted the famed golden arch down the road. We decided to compromise with a vegetarian fast food instead of a proper dinner. Something is better than nothing.

When I reached the counter,

I asked – "Do you have vegetarian burgers?"

The lady on the counter got puzzled. She rushed to consult her senior. There were murmurs and finally she came back to the counter.

She said – "Sorry Sir. We only serve normal food."

We could not stop laughing.
That day I learnt – There are two kinds of food – Normal & Vegetarian.

We finally managed to find a small mom-and-pop shop which baked us a pizza with toppings of our choice. The guy was really friendly. The pizza was fresh and his hospitality worth a mention.

Few more difference we experienced which is worth a mention –

1) Diet Coke is known as Lite Coke

2) Mineral spring water is not common. You generally get "gas water" or "sparkling water" which is equivalent to soda water.

If you had any funny experience hunting for vegetarian food or your-kind-of-food, feel free to post. I would love to know!

How many times have you heard?

• He is successful because he has the first mover advantage.
• I have a bright idea. I will seek venture funding and make it BIG!
• There are so many simmilar businesses around? There will be a lot of competition for my new business.

I bet, you must have come across a variant of one of these statements.

They all signify the general perception that a unique idea (or a first mover advantage, or an invention) is the core of a business. Actually this is not true.

Ideas are important. In fact, a business to keep its edge in the industry need to keep re-inventing itself and come up with new ideas, variance, reasons-to-do-business-with and disruptive trends to gain a leading position or maintain his leadership.

Ideas are the fundamental inputs for running a business. They are nothing special. If you cannot think out of the box, or come up with something unique on an ongoing basis, forget about succeeding in this cut-throat competitive economy. It is not for the light hearted ones.

But hold on. The process is execution! There cannot be an output without the process. The output will remain equal to the input if there is no process! It is a pity to see so many people burn midnight oil and hundreds of hours in defining, refining and protecting their idea, but they hardly take the first step forward to execute the same.

History is full of examples where visionary companies have emerged from innovation and smart execution of ideas which were conceived by someone else or invented by someone else.

• Microsoft didnt invented operating systems
• Apple didnt invented GUI
• Google was not the first search engine
• Dell was not the first desktop manufacturer
• Infosys was not the first outsourcing company
• Dhirubhai Ambani didnt set up the first polyster manufacturing unit in the world

The list is endless..

What these guys did and what is important is: See the Gap!

Nothing is perfect. Things happen in a given way which is good, may be better, but never the best. You can always better the effort by finding the gap what makes it imperfect. For a moment think of an "ideal scenario" and how it differs from what you are seeing today in a given context. Are you happy with everything? You cannot be. Its a utopian scenario.

If you see with a consumers' point of view, you will be able to see a gap almost everywhere, everytime and with everything! So if you want to really make the next big search engine – find the gap – find the pain – find the imperfection. And hey – you have an idea! It's so easy.

Now whats next!

• Validate your idea. See if it offers value to its stakeholders and create win-win synergy?
• Plan for the execution of the idea, but keep yourself flexible about its implementation and nitty-grittys.
• Plan for the risks. Risks can never be avoided. They can be managed.
• Set achievable targets and take youir first step.

All this really means – Take action!

So, when you can create idea at random (like an idea factory), you can always differenciate. And when you can differenciate and make things better – go ahead and do it. Take action.

Take baby steps. But try to walk. And soon you will be able to run.

Microsoft was a visionary company. It saw the potential in the business of operating systems. It harnessed its power and made it available for masses in form of DOS. They marketed it well and went on from becoming an innovator (mind you – not an inventor) to a world class company.

Google found that people are not getting the right results and they feel frustrated while searching for what they want on internet. They deviced algorithm which solved the problem. I bet when they started off, it was not a code as complex as you will have in spaceships! But they kept innovating, removing gaps as they saw them.

Social networking concept was initially mastered by a site called Friendster. However there are many more websites who have followed the same fundamental principle and improvised on that to achieve more fame and hiher valuation.

I am like a friend to most of my clients. When I speak to them, I always have this advice at the back of my mind. I advise them to do things differently to make it better in small increments based on those small ideas that you can generate at your will. To start taking the first steps towards a better web-application or a better business model. I am a strong advocate of compunding of small improvements done over a period of time to result in a considerable net effect.

So, its all about seeing the gap. Building small bridges and walking over them to leave your competition behind.

I look forward to see you all at the top at the game – ahead of the guys who invented the same.

Best of luck!

Recently I was trying to make a payment for a company purchase online using my MasterCard. Inspite of having a positive balance the transaction did not get through. I tried my sisters card (which again is a MasterCard) and it still wont go through.

Then one of my collegue volunteered to help me by trying his card.

It worked!

I asked him which card did you used – He said Visa.

I felt the "Visa Power". I also realized that "Something money cant buy. For that you have MasterCard"

Abhishek

I am not a very stock market savvy person. But in recent months, I did some stock investments. I made good investments and bad investments. I learnt few basics from my mistakes (I may be still wrong, IMHO) which I would love to share with anyone who cares. My opinion may change with time as I learn more. If you feel like contributing or contradicting, feel free to do so:

1. Do not listen to your "Investment Managers" or so called "Investment Experts" appointed by banks and brokers. They may get you some quick profits, but you will ultimately loose what you earned if you trade on their tips. In the current scenario, you get any guy with a MBA in Finance becoming a stock market expert in a reputed stock brokering firm. They use you to make their own money. If you really need advise, check out business channels like CNBC, etc. Listen to opinions aired by various experts and take your pick.

2. As Robert t. Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame says – People make profit when they "buy". This means it is very important when you buy. Most people run away from markets when it crashes. But if you see from a positive perspective, the stock market is on a SALE! So it is the best time to buy, just as you rush to the shopping mall when there is a sale. So buy when the SALE is ON!

3. If you are a small time investor who is investing for long term capital gains, look for established companies with proven management. Try to keep your investment in blue-chip companies. Before you choose the blue-chip, look at the sector it works in and its near-term and long-term possibilities. Look how they have performed in past and what kind of guidance their management have given for future. Monitor selected companies and know how they behave with market dynamics. Your investment is safe and will multiply with time.

4. If you do not have time to manage your money, mutual funds are the way to go. Mutual funds has major entry load (as much as 2-3%). Sometime they also have exit load (0.5-2%) and minimum lock-in period. If you are investing in a mutual fund, do not forget to ask about the debt-equity ratio. You should try to understand the kind of portfolio the mutual fund will hold. Convince yourself with past performance of that mutual fund. Dont rush. Your broker earns up to 4% commission on sale and is highly motivated to give you wrong advise to sell the scheme. Be very cautious and make sure that you understand everything before you invest anything.

5. Average out your purchase. You may see volatility in the market. If you buy in one go, you might enter in a high price or a lower price. To smooth out the risk, buy at regular interval at various price levels.

6. Take a long term view. Dont indulge yourself in day trading and short selling. Do not go for short term capital gains. It only makes your broker rich and you remain where you were. 

7. Do not hesitate to negotiate. You will be amazed that you will get cash-back-discounts on your mutual fund investment from your broker (afterall he earns upto 4% of the total investment). You can also negotiate the brokerage rates and service charges.

I will keep updating this list as I learn more.

Abhishek

I recently came across a signup form. It was not bad, but could have been much better. Here is an evaluation of the same so that others can avoid the mistakes that has occured in this signup form.

It was a quick review. If you can find out something notable, feel free to post.

PS: Excuse the poor image quality. My Adobe Photoshop elements got stuck. This was the best I could salvage out Did not had enough courage to do the entire review again.

Abhishek

I came across a Web2.0 website called ProjectStat.us (Trying to express that it has something to do with project status – a nice cool trick). I liked the overall concept and was curious to find out how it works. So I decided to sign up.

I filled up the Signup form and clicked on "Create Account" with great expectations and this is what I got!

So, I can only provide a five digit zip code and a two digit state code. I do not have the right to submit my country! The product / service seems to be targetting the global audience. Then why considering only US data set?

I again pressed "Create Account" with much anticipation..
And I got..

Now it says that the login name that I chose is already in use. It is poor form validation which does not show unavailability of login name in the first check and when you correct the remaining information, it talks about unavailability of login name.

I took another chance and typed in my full name abhishekrungta as the desired login name.
And I got this…

Now it says that my Login name is too long. phew..

BTW, I didnt give up. I tried one last time with a different Login name which is short and "should have been available". I got an error screen showing "

I do not understand the rational behind such checks when they are not going to make a big difference in the application. They just harass a user and causes confusion. This is truly a usability nightmare and deserves a position in this column.

In my opinion a form should be short and simple, with minimum validation (validate only those data which is absolutely important) and a flexible data structure to accomodate cultural and geographical diversity.

It happens to me every time..
I am in an elevator which is going up, and it will stop at a floor in transit and a guy will peep in his head asking if the elevator is going down!

10 seconds wasted!
Think of the frustration if it happens five times during one ascent.

I am not sure, who is at fault?
- the guys who press both the [up] and the [down] buttons near the elevator OR
- the company which designed the elevator

If this is about the guys, then they must not be "software engineers" (90% of the companies are software companies in the building in which we are housed). I am very much worried about the quality of code based on their understanding of "how things work"

If this is about the company and the designer of the elevator (which Don Norman will generally like to say because he says in his "Design of Everyday Things" that users are not stupid and it is normally the fault of the designer of the product) then why did we adopted such a flawed design and have standardized it all over the world!

I am confused. Do you have an answer?
Or this only happens in India? Or worse, Does it only happens with me?

A quick tip for budding entrepreneurs:

If your business starts at the right time, you can extract maximum growth by getting ready when the industry segment gets the peak demand. I strongly suggest that a new business should be started during the "low-tide", i.e. when markets are not doing well and industry sentiments are not positive. It helps in many ways:

1. You can get the best talent available in the industry due to lay off by major players.

2. You will not have major competition and you can prepare your competitive edge "in hiding" to give surprise to your competitors.

3. Tough times results in innovation. It is highly probable that your company will have the "innovation" advantage as you try to come up the adversities of a low-lying market. This innovation can become a catalyst when the markets are strong and can become the deciding factor.

4. You can concentrate in building the right processes, measurements, quality control systems and genetic-composition of your company which will result in its rapid growth when the right time comes.

5. Your expenses will be lower in building the fundamental framework for the company.

It will well known that markets have both the ups and downs. I feel "downs" should be well utilized to prepare the company for taking maximum advantage of the "ups". It makes much more business sense and also keep your spirits up!

Note: It is important to be patient. It is very important to know that you are preparing for the "good days" and, it is most important to know that you should not blow up all your money, since capital is another thing that you need to scale up your company fast when the right time comes.

Gautam Ghosh has tagged me to write about eight random things about me! So here it goes -

1. I am a trekking addict. I have travelled extensively in the Himalayas. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to peek across the mighty Himalayan range. I will love to explore Tibet on foot. I am scared of the Chinese army though! The closest I have been to adventure in last few years was when I got stuck in snow at midnight in Sikkim in December 2003.

2. I cannot resist myself when I see an opportunity and an unfulfilled demand, especially if it is around Internet service domain. Sometime I feel, I could have been a consultant or an investor instead of an entrepreneur.

3. I feel sorry to see people who are deprived of quality education. I firmly believe that India cannot progress unless we have a better education system and a system comprising of selfless teachers, who live with a purpose in their life – to build a better India. I am working on a project in this direction. I wish I can make it happen.

4. I wish I can make my vision / thought broader and can think and care about global issues. At this point, I find myself very much centered on my family, company, work, clients and country. I hope it will happen with time.

5. I run a company called Indus Net Technologies. It takes up more than 2/3rd of my time. I wish I can make it 100% self sustaining and professionally managed. I have been reading Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrangle by Robert T. Kiyosaki and want to move to the "B" quadrangle!

6. One day, I was out on my morning walk. I saw a cab hit a man and his feet (below hi ankle) was literally cut off from his leg. This happened because the cab driver steered his taxi sharply in one direction to save a guy on a cycle who was day-dreaming! I got an opportunity to help this person in a small way. However the strange thing is that, you cannot blame anyone "directly" for the accident? Who should be blamed?

7. I recently (September 2006) bought a Hyundai Santro Xing. It is a true driving pleasure. Unfortunately, I had to hire a chauffer to drive it so that everyone at home can make use of the car! So I am at the backseat – which I hate.

8. In March 2007, I went to Ecademy Blackstar Meet and met several wonderful people. It is such a wonderful club and you meet really nice people. I will like to travel to UK again sometime this year to meet and network with Blackstars of Ecademy.

I am passing this on the tag to eight of my friends – Arun, Sundeep, Nicholas, Ajay, David, Jim, Kath and Mike

Just like the above listed thoughts the eight names are in purely random order!

 The rules….
-Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
-People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.

So go ahead and post your Eight Random Things!

Today, I was browsing through and stumbled across a website called Kiva.org

Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, individuals like you provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty. 

It's a new, direct and sustainable way to fight global poverty, and the way I see it, I get a higher return on $25 helping someone build a future than the interest my checking account pays. 

Anyways, if you have a minute, please check out the site: http://kiva.org.  If you need more "reputable" validation than my recommendation , know that they have received great press in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to NPR to BusinessWeek.

I have signed up with them and am already doing my bit. Why dont you also contribute and help create a self sustaining society? It is much better than giving a donation which only work for once. By helping someone create a business, we are helping them to help themselves or life. This is the same reason, I believe that money should be spent towards education, which helps in creating educated members in the society who can earn.

Here is my Kiva.org page: http://www.kiva.org/lender/abhishekrungta

And here you can start helping someone NOW!