Category: Kharcha paani

Categories
Become

“Mount Everest cannot be conquered…”

Says Zamling Tenzing Norgay, the legendary Tenzing Norgay’s son, who found his calling in business – and parallels with mountaineering.
by Subhasis Chatterjee

Tenzing Norgay is the world famous Nepalese Sherpa who was the first to climb Mount Everest along with Edmund Hillary of New Zealand in 1953. But his son, the famous mountaineer Zamling Tenzing Norgay is a highly sought-after personality in the business world. Taking a path away from mountaineering, he is a highly rated motivational speaker today.

Zamling was a famous mountaineer in his own right, and also managed to step out of his famous father’s shadow. He is part of a legacy of mountaineers who have successfully scaled Mount Everest – as many as 11 of his relatives have also achieved this feat! Today, he is a popular guide in demand for various expeditions groups and has led several novices as well as experts through the rugged Himalayas. He also has multiple philanthropic contributions to his name and has conducted various social service projects in the remote rural areas of the Himalayas.

Zamling’s philanthropic contributions include him being an active member of the Sherpa Trust, which was first founded by his late father, Tenzing Norgay and which works for the welfare and betterment of the local Sherpas residing in Darjeeling.

In a recent interview with The Metrognome, Zamling shed light on his view of the mountains and how he finds unique similarities between business and mountaineering. Excerpts from the interview:

Subhasis Chatterjee: You are a successful author, film star and an entrepreneur. Do you consider yourself a wealthy person?

Zamling Tenzing Norgay: Just because someone’s famous does not necessarily mean that he or she is rich. Take the example of my father. Although he was famous, he was not rich. The IMAX movie they made on his life did not make him rich. He was offered $25,000, but that was not important for him as he considered the movie to be merely the first step for the world to learn about the Sherpas. The film allowed more people to get a glimpse of this community and their people and livelihoods.

SC: Is there any similarity between conquering Mount Everest and successfully running a corporate firm?

ZTN: Just like climbing a mountain, starting and running a business is also a journey. Similar to mountaineering expeditions, businesses have targets and goals to be achieved and a team to help execute these goals. These are also the similar steps that mountaineers take when they climb Mount Everest or any other mountain in that case. It involves similar steps of planning, strategising and forming a suitable team for executing that plan. Climbing Mount Everest requires individual skills, in-depth knowledge and teamwork to successfully reach the summit of the tallest peak in the world.

I believe that the most important factor integral in whatever walk of life you are involved in is to be passionate about whatever you do. If you are passionate, you will enjoy it more and when getting involved in it, it doesn’t seem like a burden to you and you strive to make it better.

SC: The Sherpa view of mountain climbing is very different from the Western view…

ZTN: According to Sherpas, the mountains are the abode of the God, especially Everest. So prior to beginning the mountaineering expedition, we perform religious ceremonies and rites in order to seek God’s permission to allow us to climb and to ensure a safe journey ahead. Climbing mountains alone does not interest the Sherpas. They mostly climb because it is necessary for them to earn money through this profession. But Westerners possess a very different belief. They look at the majestic peaks of the Himalayas and say, ‘Wow, this is the highest mountain. Let’s go conquer it.” I am of the view that Mount Everest cannot be conquered but instead you climb it like climbing into your mother’s lap.

SC: You have a degree in Business Administration from an American University. Can anyone really learn things like teamwork, management and leadership by studying in a management school?

ZTN: My experiences from a business school education led to me to understand that a B-school simply teaches you the rules of the game. It is a guiding factor, but more than just a degree, experience is required which comes with the passage of time. You cannot become a CEO the moment you get out of business school. You need to work your way up, from being a manager, to a senior manager and then probably a CEO. This is exactly similar to climbing a mountain, one requires training. You become an expert after gathering experience for numerous years.

SC: Did your father ever encourage you to climb Everest?

ZTN: No, never. I even asked him once to pull some strings so that I could join an Indian expedition team for climbing Everest. But he refused. He climbed it because he had to, he himself did not have any education which was why he felt the need to give us a proper one. But surprisingly, after my first climb atop Mount Everest, my uncles revealed to me that my father had always told them that I would one day climb it too! Although he knew it within himself all along, he never encouraged me to climb.

SC: How should one tackle slow learners in a team of mountain climbers? Are there any lessons that can also be used in terms of businesses?

ZTN: During a mountain climb, everyone has to pull each other’s weight. Even though you might be a slow learner, you may have a good understanding of the terrain which can also be a significant contribution to the team. And on similar lines, even if you are the fastest learner, you might have no understanding of how to fix lines or logistics. For a successful climb to the mountain summit, a good team is required and not just one fast learner. This is also similar in case of business. You often have weak or slow learners in your team, but you need to support each other. One should always try and get a back-up for them, when climbing a mountain everybody is watching each other’s back and supporting each other.

SC: Did your father talk much about his 1953 climb with Edmund Hillary?

ZTN: Most of his stories happened on treks. My father would take clients from Western countries into the Everest Base Camp and then tell his stories during dinner time. Many people paid him extra to listen to his stories. I was very young at that time, may be around only 10. So I did not pay much heed to his stories. But now I wish I had paid more attention!

SC: What is your observation as a motivational expert interacting with people?

ZTN: Currently, there isn’t much sense of adventure amongst the people and they do not take time off for going out on an adventure. A few hundred kilometers away from Delhi there is a range of beautiful mountains. But children nowadays are handed with a TV remote or a play station for playing games on the couch. We need to change this way of thinking.

Categories
Trends

India’s digital commerce market to touch $128 bn in 2017?

ASSOCHAM’s research report pits the growth of the digital commerce space at a staggering $128 billion by the year 2017.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The digital commerce market in India is likely to touch $128 billion in 2017 from the current level of $42 billion in 2015 due to increase in mobile and Internet penetration, m-commerce sales, different payment options, exciting discounts, according to the joint study brought out by ASSOCHAM and Deloitte.

With an increasing mobile and internet penetration, m-commerce sales, advanced shipping and payment options, exciting discounts, and the push into new international markets by e-businesses are the major drivers of this unprecedented growth.

The digital commerce market in India has grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $13.6 billion in 2014, according to a study on ‘Future of e-Commerce: Uncovering Innovation’, jointly conducted by The Associated chamber of commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Deloitte.

The M&A deals (Softbank’s $627 million deal with Snapdeal, Flipkart acquired Myntra for $370 million, Ola Cabs acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million) and sky-rocket valuation of these e-commerce giants rising in last one year shows that the sector is heating up. The question would be whether these valuations are sustainable despite showing no signs of profitability. The global players like Amazon and Alibaba have deep pockets to rely on their parent companies for continuous funding support. The homegrown players would definitely need different metrics to preserve the investor confidence build in the sector.

Big retailers are increasingly focussing on their digital strategies in order to gain the obvious benefits of online platforms – wider reach, always on, personalisation, to name a few. E-commerce companies are concentrating their efforts on increasing the penetration of their mobile apps for higher growth. Big players in this space claim to have more than 50% of their revenue coming from mobile apps.

While releasing the paper, DS Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM said, “The supply chain and logistics in e-commerce business are highly complex to manage in a vast country like India where infrastructure is not well-developed to reach every remote and rural area. The taxation policies for the e-businesses are not well-defined depending on different business models and transaction types. The complexity has further amplified with transactions happening across borders for online selling of goods and services. Moreover, e-businesses do not take sufficient steps to deploy a security solution, which is hindering the consumer from transacting online.”

Newer technologies that could significantly bring a paradigm shift in the online businesses are analytics, autonomous vehicles, social commerce, and 3D printing. Companies have started to invest in data analytics to gain real-time insights into customer buying behavior and thus offer personalized user experience. The e-commerce companies are building communities on social media networks to better understand customer needs and to drive effective marketing strategies, noted study.

The future of e-commerce is bright and growth will come from mobile platforms, personalisation, social media analytics, omni-channel service, and sharing economy business models. The e-commerce industry is in an exciting place with the interplay of social, mobility, analytics, cloud (SMAC), digital, 3D and, virtualisation. The current high valuations, in spite of losses, perhaps, are indicative of the future potential.

Increasing Internet and mobile penetration, growing acceptability of online payments and favourable demographics has provided the e-commerce sector in India the unique opportunity to fundamentally alter the way companies connect with their customers.

Online travel, one of the key drivers of India’s e-commerce market, accounts for nearly 71% of e-commerce business in India. Though the online retail market in India, currently at $1.6 billion, is a miniscule fraction of India’s overall $500 billion retail industry; retail e-commerce has recorded a three-fold growth since 2011, predominantly driven by million dollar investments by domestic and foreign investors.

On the other hand, mobile commerce (m-commerce) is growing rapidly as a stable and secure supplement to the e-commerce industry. Shopping online through smart phones is proving to be a game changer, and industry leaders believe that m-commerce could contribute up to 70% of their total revenues.

Categories
Kharcha paani

Why India needs OPD insurance

Most Indians avoid doctor visits due to prohibitive costs of health care, thus leading to eventual hospitalisation. OPD insurance can help.
Sourced from the FICCI Feedback Report, ‘A Guiding Framework for OPD and Preventive Health Insurance in India- Supply and Demand Analysis’

The working population in India spends about 60% on the out-patient healthcare treatment annually from their pockets due to the skewed primary care system in India. Despite this, India has the lowest number of Primary Care visits by individuals, hence leading to hospitalisation cases. This is as per the FICCI-Feedback Consulting report titled ‘A Guiding Framework for OPD and Preventive Health Insurance in India; Supply and Demand Analysis’.

The objective of the report is to analyse the demand and supply needs for primary and preventive care insurance and suggest the business potential for the insurers and government stakeholders by introducing OPD insurance covers for primary care. At present, this has not been an area of focus for the insurance companies, leading to various issues that as discussed in the report.

As per the findings, about 16% of the urban population with a paying capacity and existing policy holders would be potential target group to purchase OPD covers if the primary care system is framed in a proportionate way with the right Government intervention.

Insurers suggest that the biggest barrier for offering OPD covers in India is the lack of data for pricing the covers and unorganised regulatory guidelines for primary healthcare. As per the report, early detection, regular health check-ups and preventive methods, could result in preventing a proportion of 44% of hospitalisation cases.

The IRDAI recently launched the report in a function in New Delhi. As per a release, “While the need to include primary and preventive elements in health insurance products is undisputable, it has not made much headway given the concerns relating to likely misuse and overuse. This paper has come at an opportune moment giving scope for discussions not only regarding the supply and demand side aspects of primary and preventive care but also the environment within which these aspects operate.”

The paper, produced by Feedback Consulting in partnership with FICCI’s task force on ‘Primary and Preventive Care’ provides the international big picture framework and a detailed local market opportunity with actionable solutions.

The report analyses the primary care practices of select countries like Brazil, China, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa to draw learnings from an India perspective. The report also highlights local case studies about healthcare start-ups such as Practo Technologies, Qikwell Technologies and Portea Medical for insurers to galvanise the potential of the primary care market.

Three major actionables can enable the OPD insurance market in India – Capitation-based products to allow risk sharing with aggregators and health administrators; electronic health records for frictionless platforms to administer OPD claims, and closed provider networks to align providers and insurer’s interests.

Read the entire report here.

(Picture courtesy www.kokilabenhospital.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Trends

41% children in Mumbai slums are underweight

Study reveals shocking levels of malnutrition, lack of optimum weight and low access to nutrition among city’s slum dwelling children.
by Child Relief and You (CRY)

As many as 41 per cent of children below the age of six years in the slums of Mumbai are underweight, according to a study conducted by volunteers of CRY- Child Rights and You (CRY) for children below the age of 6 years. The children do not fare any better with respect to the other indicators of malnutrition. The percentage of children found to be suffering from stunting stands at 71 per cent and is significantly higher than what has been found in the NFHS figure of 47 per cent in 2005-06.

Nutrition and immunisation are most critical for a child’s survival in the first six years of his or her life. Shockingly, even the immunization coverage in the slums in Mumbai is much worse than expected. Only half of the children, 49 per cent under the age of three years, have received any vaccination at all (at least one vaccine).

These children dwelling in the most underprivileged sections of the city, most of them belonging to migrant families bear the maximum impact of urban poverty; especially in the absence of caregivers, who are mostly engaged in informal economic roles.

This household survey on early childhood was conducted in slums across five major metropolitans in India namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. The slums in the five metros do not show a positive trend with respect to child nutrition. Chennai has the most number of children battling malnutrition in its slums, with 62.2 per cent being underweight; Kolkata and Delhi slums have 49 and 50 per cent underweight children, according to this study. Bangalore fares slightly better, with 33 per cent children found to be underweight.

Even as Aanganwadi Centres (AWCs) remain one of the most important institutions for ensuring nutrition, health and early education of children below 6 years, only 46 per cent children dwelling in slums are enrolled. In Mumbai, the enrollment in AWCs in slum children stood at a despondent figure of 62 per cent.

Only 36 per cent of parents whose children were enrolled in AWCs reported that the growth monitoring was happening on a monthly basis.

The ICDS scheme also provides for health services including de-worming, IFA (Iron tablets) and Vitamin A dosage. More than a third of the children in the 5 cities surveyed had not been de-wormed. In Mumbai, 19% children did not receive the Vitamin A, 40% do not receive IFA supplement and about 27 % had not been de-wormed.

A significant proportion of parents whose children are going to private pre-schools and other institutions do not believe that their children are receiving essential services for their health and survival. So far you can infer that, while the Aanganwadi worker is providing the services within the institution, provisioning services through community outreach continues to remain a challenge. An indicator that substantiates the gap between the service and the community is the fact that though growth monitoring was done for 70 per cent of children, only 48 per cent of parents were informed. In Mumbai, for instance, 62 per cent of parents were not informed that their child is malnourished.

While there is an evident need for improvement, the study shows significant positive perception of parents towards Aanganwadi centres. 89 percent of parents feel safe in sending their child to AWCs and 98 percent perceive the Aanganwadi to be child friendly.

(Picture courtesy www.wsj.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Kharcha paani

Start ups: Plan small, reap big

Start ups should not be too ambitious in scope, despite regular funding. Keep your goal large but your scope small.
by Reyna Mathur

Jignesh Parikh runs a web solutions company in Mumbai with his college friend and partner, Ketan Joshi. The duo currently caters to about 20 national clients, and is in talks to increase their office space and staff strength this fiscal. “We have been in business for 10 years now, and it is this year that we are going to increase our office size for the first time. Till now we have been operating from a 10×20 space, which has a low rent and maintenance costs. We have been fortunate to receive so much business despite only five staff members for so long,” Jignesh says.

Despite the modest nature of their office, their business is experiencing a turnover of Rs 6 crore for the last two years. “We realised early on that we were in the digital business, which does not require a posh office. It requires a robust computer and Internet setup, so we invested our initial money in them.” Low overheads and only a minimal staff – all of them web developers, two of them freelance staffers – ensured that of the hefty profits made, only a small portion went towards payments every month. Eventually, the duo has now made enough money to move into a bigger office and hire two more full-time staff.

It is quite easy to run your own start-up provided you are clear in your mind about not wasting your resources for any reason, and are prepared to not even have the money to afford the rent on an office in the initial period. If you get a few basics right and change your approach, you can start small but have big returns on your initial investment.

You are there to do business, not to impress others. No business person in the world, unless backed by a strong funding model, has the means to have a huge staff and a posh office on ownership basis. When you start your enterprise, realise that you are starting it to realise a personal goal, and not to impress people with how big and well-equipped your office is. Many start-ups insist on putting in all their money to keep up appearances, which ultimately leads to huge losses (especially if the expected turnover doesn’t happen). For example, if you have just opened a café, don’t invest in too much imported equipment and staff. As more and more customers begin to trickle in, you can look at investing more money.

Don’t take an office if you don’t need one. Some businesses, especially freelance ones, don’t need an office set up at all. If your work requires you to travel often and take in business via meetings, you might not need a permanent office but a space to keep your computers, phones, printers etc. For a few days, try operating from your home or take up a storage space for rent. In case you need to conduct meetings, you can call them to a café. The overheads you save will help you invest in an office in the future.

Use communal office spaces. Many cities in the country are now offering start-ups and new businesses the use of ‘communal working spaces’, where a lot of entrepreneurs converge at one spot to carry out their daily work and even conduct meetings with clients. The working spaces offer a fixed spot with a computer and Internet connection for a month or longer, depending on the payment plan you select, apart from free use of the facility’s conference rooms and tea/coffee dispensers. Certain places also offer a courier service for your packages at a separate charge. At a monthly rental of not more than Rs 2,000, you get a complete office set up without any overheads.

Replicate, replicate. It is a good idea to maintain a team of experienced freelancers to do all the tasks that a full time staff can do. You will save the money you would spend on their salaries, plus they will each have their own set-up for completing the tasks. You might only have to pay for transporting certain paperwork and equipment, based on your businesses, to and from the freelancers’ postal address. If your work entails the same set of tasks to be done repeatedly (like editing technical papers), pay five freelancers to do it. The work will be replicated five times over at lower costs to you.

(Picture courtesy knowstartup.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Kharcha paani

How to make money as a self-employed person

Don’t let the pressures of being in business for yourself bog you down. Strategise carefully to manage your business finances.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Nobody expects business to be an easy affair to handle, but some people make a difficult task impossible by reckless and foolish behaviour. You can’t predict when your next big contract will be signed or when you can announce that you are breaking even, but with the help of cautious spending and common sense habits, self-employed persons can make sufficient money out of their work to lead quite comfortable lives.

Make a list of all expenses. Since your business is going to pay for your household expenses, you need to have a clear idea of what your home expenses are every month, and the times they are likely to increase (like in the case of a family wedding coming up in a few months, or fees for a new course for your child). Once this list is made, preferably with a month-by-month projection, you will be in a better position to devote a minimum percentage of your income to the home. Keep this sum of money fixed till such time inflation or necessary expenses necessitate reallocating more money.

Minimise overheads and expenses. If you are finding the going tough on the business front, causing stress at home, you might consider scaling down your operations, at least for a little while. If you can make do with three full-time staff instead of five, relieve the extra staff and save on their salary. You might even cut down your own salary for a while. Also, make sure that there are no wasteful expenses taking place in the office – air conditioners being left on when nobody is there, printouts being taken repeatedly when only once will suffice, employees leaving computers on even after they leave office, etc. All of these unnecessary expenses can be easily done away with by careful monitoring.

Accept that there will not be fixed income. Being a self-employed professional, whether on a freelance or a business basis, means that your income will be different every month. Some months will be a financial windfall, while others will be very lean. For the times when money is low, anticipate the reduction in business much before you hit a troublesome patch, and set aside funds to help you keep the office running even when there is no business. Business or not, you still have to shell out money for salaries, overhead, water and electricity, etc. so be on the guard before trouble actually comes knocking.

Never make the home finance the business. A mistake that most businesses in the red make is to use up all their assets to keep the office running. They forget why they went into business in the first place – to give a comfortable life to themselves and their families. Hence, the ideal business model is one in which the money flow is one way: from office to home, and never the reverse. People make the mistake of selling off personal assets like jewellery or mortgaging their homes to raise money. Still others take heavy loans against property and insurance policies, hoping to replace all the sold or borrowed assets when money comes later. Your office and home and two separate entities, so you cannot use your home to fund your office.

Invest wisely. You will need to secure your and your family’s life by timely investment in suitable insurance policies, equity bonds, mutual funds, etc. However, don’t opt for the first savings instrument you come across. Take professional help in planning for your family and your business. Your accountant will tell you how much income you will lose by way of paying taxes based on a projection of your business, so make sure you set aside this sum months in advance. Also, your spending should be the same, irrespective of how much money your business gives you. Never be tempted to splurge recklessly when you have surplus funds on hand.

(Picture courtesy www.wordlypost.in. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Exit mobile version