8 gems for entrepreneurs: Ranganathan
| By K. Sreedevi
|
It was a day of advice for the entrepreneurs who had gathered at the TiECon 2009 meet in Chennai. While it was a lesson on the seven key traits of an entrepreneur in the morning, the afternoon session saw successful stalwarts sharing their learnings and mistakes.
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Sharing his entrepreneurial experience at a session titled 'Yesterday's basics for tomorrow's entrepreneurs', C.K. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director of CavinKare Pvt Ltd, put forth eight basic common mistakes, which most new start-ups do.
The first and foremost advice was do not copy. "Be unique and do not imitate. Conscious differentiation is the key to the success of any enterprise," he said.
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Connect with customer was the second word of advice from the CavinKare chief. "Being grounded and interacting with people will give a lot of insight about how our product is perceived in the market," Ranganathan said. Quoting a personal experience, he attributed the success of all his personal business strategies to his customers, consumers and intermediaries.
Pointing out the most common and grave mistake that most start-ups do, Ranganathan urged entrepreneurs not to depute the job to their close confidantes. Get right men for right job to be successful, he advised.
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In an advice that could cheer up the employees of any entrepreneurial firm, Ranganathan asked the start-ups to pay market rates for its staff. "If we pay our people good salaries, there will be constant flow of new talent and it will be easier to retain the existing ones too."
Dismissing the constant entrepreneurial grouse of lack of funds or money as a non-issue, Ranganathan said, " Money is never a problem. It is a problem of ideas. It is not the money power that has won but only ideas, talent and its execution."
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Another heartening advice from Ranganathan that could bring cheer to the government was his insistence to pay taxes regularly. “Don't evade tax. While evading tax could only benefit a little, the advantage of paying proper taxes by smaller firms are aplenty," he said.
Urging entrepreneurs to differentiate between themselves and their company, Ranganathan advised to place the organisation's interest above self-interest to succeed. "If your organisation wins, you would win too."
His last word of advice was to empower people in the company to stand up and voice their opinions. "Create a suitable environment for your people to voice their views. This would stem most issues at the root level," he said.
"Whatever you vividly imagine, passionately plan, sincerely desire, must inevitably come true."
