It is always best to get advice from someone who has been there and done that . Here are some tips from......

Prakash Gurbuxani, Founder and CEO of QVC realty

Excerpts:

I will put the idea in a perspective and talk from the point of view of a Start Up. Execution or "Getting it done" as per the dictionary is"The systematic process of rigorously discussing what's and how's, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability"

‘Getting it done' or ‘Execution' at the basic level is very simple, the key ingredient is leadership. Leadership is a very loosely used word, not easy to define as it depends on the situation or context. For example, a CEO who might be a turnaround expert may fail in a smoothly running operation, as there is no problem to solve. So I've taken a quote of General Collin Powell who says "Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible", it purely depends on the situation. Execution is about doing the basics right.

Passion is another key ingredient, the ability to be able to live the business, ability to build and drive a team etc. are the key ingredients to success. Once you build the team, believing in the team and fighting for them, supporting them to perform and inspire, in short the ability to lead and "walk the talk" are essential. Another very important aspect of executions is swift decision making ability.

Now let's look at the challenges a start up faces

In a startup it is important to have a long term perspective in the early days, it is easy to give up if clarity is missing. Any one can have hundreds of ideas, having fundamental belief in the feasibility of your idea is essential. The risk is that as soon as you start working on one idea, another seemingly better idea comes up; this is where the focus is required.

Once the goal is set, it is easy to think big in the long term, but absolutely realistic short term goals need to be set and executed meticulously. People confuse big opportunity and equate them for an easy opportunity, IT may be a 100 million dollar industry, you can't get .5% of the share just by ‘Being in that Space', it depends a lot on getting the execution right

Funding is very important for a start up. People get hung up on valuations; they waste a lot of time arguing and debating about the valuation that the market just changes. Of course it does not mean you should accept the first deal that comes your way without evaluating it.

Whatever the product or service may be, the ‘Ability to Deliver' is crucial. Take the example of the BPO industry, it sounds so simple, one has to just take the phone and talk. But if you have no idea of the product or service, language skills or getting the team to perform, how can you deliver? Usually the manpower is either fresh graduates or college drop-outs; no amount of business planning will help in execution, if the team is not trained.

Getting the infrastructure in place is the easy part, but if you don't find customers then the venture has failed. Any business that has lost the Customer acquisition focus has failed.  Brand identity is very crucial, it's not just the PR or the visibility but the ability to deliver is what makes a brand.

Don't postpone profitability, I don't understand a business plan that does not look at profitability in the first 5 years, the industry might just crumble after that. If you can make profit in the first quarter then so be it. If your business has too narrow a focus and if your niche goes out of fashion, then you run a risk of going bust.

Moving up the value chain - I've seen great businesses spend time and effort to move up the value chain, if you have a business going, look for diversification. All IT companies ignored BPO initially. During the IT boom moving up the value chain meant getting a better hourly rate, no one paid attention to a BPO. The earning opportunity in a BPO was only Rs. 10/- per hour, but the volume was huge. In other words diversify and offer new services, move down if required when you recognize bigger opportunities.

Most Investors ask for a differentiator; there is no need to come up with an imaginary differentiator, just to show the funding agency. If you are able to deliver on all your initial promises to your customer then that itself is a differentiator. In the long run your customers and the reputation will be your differentiator.

QVC is India's first venture funded Real Estate Development Company; Mr. Prakash has over 20 years of experience in a wide variety of industries, Real estate, and Construction and BPO industry. From 2005 to Jan, 2007, he was the CEO of TSI Ventures and prior to joining TSI Ventures he was CEO of TransworksBPO companies. He was recognized as one of the finalists of Entrepreneurs in 2001 awards.

He was speaking at a Panel Discussion organized by Businessgyan and TASMAC  on the topic ‘ Getting it done'.

Compiled by Ms. Mangal D Karnad for Businessgyan

Issue BG88 July 08

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