The 30 Inspiring Entrepreneurs to watch in 2018

www.insightssuccess.in JUNE 2018

Entreprenuer of the Month

The Inspiring

ENTREPRENEURS To Watch In 2018

Priti Shah CEO & Co-founder Payswiff

Outstanding Entrepreneur

Priyanka Agrawal Co-founder, COO & CEO Fractal Ink Design Studio

Ajay Bohora

Co-founder & MD HDFC Credila

Ajay Bohora Empowering Students to Actualize their Dreams of Higher Education

Editorial

T

he most inspiring and successful businesspersons are those who don’t follow the herd but anticipate the needs of the market earlier than the competition. Such expectation is not without risk, but the payout can be considerable. After all, pivotal innovations, such as the Internet, the automobile, and the smartphone, were all observed with high degrees of skepticism when first introduced.

In today’s unpredictable world, the only thing that is constant is the cut-throat competition. With a world population of more than 7.6 billion, all of them competing to ace in the race of success, there are two kinds of people: followers and leaders.

Followers go along with the bandwagon, unlike the leaders who shape their own path, plan their own road and board on a journey of success.

There are plethora of resources like the wide-ranging internet availability which is easy access, innumerable software and programs available at the beck and call of an individual, global network conducive of viral exchange of information, knowledge, news, etc. It depends on the people, whether to put these resources to the best use or lose this opportunity and become stagnant.

Entrepreneurship tends to attract people with unique minds and strong personalities.

Startups are full of promises and excitement, but the flip side is, they're also full of risk and uncertainty. There are a lot of countless concepts out there that in some way never get off the ground, and, conversely, there are plenty of questionable ones that have become massive successes.

Building the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Inspiring entrepreneurs stimulate admiration and trusts through their actions, not just their words. Many influential people articulate that integrity is necessary to them, but inspiring and influential people walk their talk by demonstrating integrity every day.

The business world might seem buttoned-down from the outside - but in reality, it’s a lot more interesting than one might realize.

Entrepreneurship is about building a profession from scratch while managing limited resources including time, money and personal relationships, which requires planning. A small business or an entrepreneurial venture may not be interested in creating large plans that runs in pages, but they need to still create a plan. A plan may be small word document where specific goals that can be measured, are written. A good business plan not only helps entrepreneurs to focus on the specific steps which are necessary for their to make business ideas to succeed, but it also helps them to achieve both their shortterm and long-term objectives.

Business persons are known for being interesting characters, both at work and in their personal lives. Although government plays a vital role in enabling entrepreneurialism, it’s the private sector that has the most crucial part in developing entrepreneurs in India.

It does this by nurturing the entrepreneurial ecosystem: specifically, by providing access to markets, support systems, and funding.

Furthermore, the concept of entrepreneurialism should not be limited to growth-oriented companies rooted in India’s major urban centers. Entrepreneurialism must also percolate in smaller towns and districts throughout the country. As it does in other countries, the entrepreneurial sector in India will also spawn tomorrow’s multimillion-dollar companies.

Shweta Priyadarshini Shweta Priyadarshini

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Shraddha Deshpande Managing Editor Rajarshi Chatterjee Executive Editor Shweta Priyadarshini Contributors Ashwini Deshpande, Abhijeet, Apurva Rahul, Bhavithiran, Anmol Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Asha Bange Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Shweta Shinde Visualiser Savita Pandav Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Meera, Ashwini, Sapna Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Vivek Bangade Database Management Prashant Chevale Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com

June, 2018 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. th

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Cover Story

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Ajay Bohora Empowering Students to Actualize their Dreams of Higher Education

Articles 42

54

Technocentrism

Techknowledgy Train

Moving towards Data-Driven Entrepreneurship

The SigniďŹ cance of Technology for Entrepreneurs

32

24

Interview with Insights Success Ayush Lohia Developing and Implementing Strategies, and Managing the Overall Operations and Resources of Lohia Auto

20

Entrepreneur of the Month

Outstanding Entrepreneur

Priti Shah An Innovative Leader Redefining Payment Processes and Empowering People across India

Priyanka Agrawal Chasing Perfection through Ideation and Disruptive Solutions

CXO Standpoint Entrepreneur’s Tale

Expert’s View

How can Entrepreneurs Achieve Their Goals in Life

Importance of English Language in India

38

70

46

62

Nurturing Education

Market Change

Challenges of Setting Up an Education Enterprise

Here's what to do in a volatile stock market

Abhinand Kaseti Determined to Thrive through Innovation

28 Amith Srinivas Navigating a Successful Voyage towards Pinnacle

30 Anand Jha Lifting the Future of Gaming & Technology Service Provision to the Newer Heights

36

CredForce The Global Credentialing Behemoth – and the man behind one of modern businesses' greatest success stories

44 Kedar Sabne A Curious Entrepreneur DeďŹ ning the Boundaries of Innovation

50

Rahul Chawla A Trailblazer in Creating Landmarks in the RealEstate Industry

52 Shrinivas Rao Bringing Client Advocacy to the forefront in the Commercial Real Estate Services industry

58

Sid Naidu Ace of the Fashion Production Firm

60 Srikanth Muralidhara Choreographing the Industrial Intelligence Landscape

66 Swapan Rajdev An Entrepreneur Building Complex Application with Simple Design

68

Tushar Mittal An Ingenious Entrepreneur Modernizing the Era of Corporate Interior Market

74 Uma Shankar Bhardwaj Delivering Novelty and Quality in the Digital Advertising Industry

76

Vikas Owdhbal Ensuring Power Management, LED Lighting, Solar and Security Solutions

80

Zia Mody An Illustrious Corporate Lawyer Incredibly Transforming the Law Industry

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Unveiling the Clandestine of Success of Inspiring Businesspersons

E

ntrepreneurship has become a social movement with wider implications. In terms of wealth generation a significant characteristic of millennial enterprises is that they are less profit-driven. The success is measured as much in terms of the experience of running a business - what it brings people in terms of a sense of fulfillment, challenges met, and the chance to work with like-minded colleagues. They want to have fun with a business and then move on to something new rather than necessarily pushing on with relentless growth and up scaling.

Herein we take an opportunity to feature such prudent and competent companies in our special issue of The 30 Inspiring Entreprenuers to watch in 2018, in which we have signified 30 effective and the prominent business sectors.

The journey of our magazine begins with Cover story; Ajay Bohora Co-founder & MD of HDFC Credila is empowering students to actualize their dreams of higher education.

We have introduced Priti Shah, CEO of Payswiff, as Entrepreneur of the Month who is an innovative leader redefining payment processes and empowering people across India. Priyanka Agrawal is listed as an Outstanding Entreprenuer, the Co-founder, COO and Chief Experience Officer of Fractal Ink Design Studio. She is one such leader, who has come to the forefront of business with her hard work and dedication, which in turn molded her to be a best-fit in order to stand amongst the world’s top most talented entrepreneurs.

We have also encompassed Kedar Sabne, Director of Inteliment, a curious entrepreneur defining the boundaries of innovation, Abhinand Kaseti COO and Co-Founder of Unocoin Technologies, Rajiv Gupta President and CEO of Credforce, Swapan Rajdev Co-founder of Haptik, Rahul Chawla Founder and CEO of In4Velocity, Anand Jha, Nilee Games, Amith Srinivas CEO and Founder of RecoSense, Vikas Owdhbal and Rajesh Kumar Budhia Co-Founder and Director of Senaxus Technologies, Shrinivas Rao CEO of Vestian, Sid Naidu Entreprenuer of Sid Production, Srikanth Murlidhara Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of Flutura Business Solutions, Tushar Mittal Founder and Managing director of Studiokon Ventures, Uma Shankar Bharadwaj Founder and CEO of iAvatarZ Digital, Zia Mody Founder and Managing Partner at AZB & Partners amoung many others.

We have interviewed Ayush Lohia CEO of Lohia Auto Industries, developing and implementing strategies, and managing the overall operations and resources of Lohia Auto.

We have also encompassed some insightful CXO’s written by Abhishek Sharma, co-founder of Akkado, Anil Nagpal, Chairman And MD of Argyle HR Solutions, Bhakhtawat Krishnan Founder and Director of Inspirus Education, K.Ramalingam Chief Financial Planner of Holistic Investor Planners.

Entrepreneurship isn’t easy and certainly comes with its various hardships, but these incredible founders never gave up.

Do flip every single page to unveil the secret of the success of these inspiring business persons.

Cover Story

Ajay Bohora

Co-founder & MD HDFC Credila

Ajay Bohora Empowering Students to Actualize their Dreams of Higher Education

Being able to learn, unlearn and relearn as a corporate culture is the only way any organization can reinvent itself

Q

uality education is a must for a complete and successful life. For many, it is equivalent to graduating from a top institution. The cost of education is however increasing rapidly. In fact, the cost of studying at reputed institutions is already quite high.

Keeping this in mind, parents, who want to provide their children with the best possible education, invest their money in mutual funds, fixed deposits, unit-linked insurance plans, etc., for the long term.

But despite all this, one may still encounter a shortage of funds. An education loan, therefore, plays a vital role in such a scenario by helping to bridge the gap between the shortfall and the required amount.

But less than 3% students, mostly belonging to middle-income families in India avail of education loans, against 85% in the UK, 77% the US and 70% in Germany and France, according to a study.

The study also highlights, that though there are many schemes for providing financial aid to poor students, however the amount given is very low and procedure to avail the facility is very cumbersome. That is why the percentage for education loan seekers is extremely low.

Moreover, Education Loan is the second largest asset class in the USA, with over $ 1.2 Trillion worth of total student loans outstanding. Despite India’s population being four times that of the USA, all lenders put together, the total Education Loan portfolio outstanding is just about $12 Billion.

The test of a true entrepreneur is to do more with less, for more

Thus with an aim to pioneer the private education loan industry in India, Ajay Bohora & Anil Bohora launched India’s First Dedicated Education Loan Company,Credila, which focuses exclusively on funding students for their higher education in India and overseas.

What HDFC Ltd. is for Home Loans, Credila is for Education Loans.

Ajay Bohora is the Co-Founder & MD of HDFC Credila Financial Services, an HDFC Ltd. Company.

He has earned Bachelor of Engineering from VJTI, Bombay University and MBA from Hofstra University, New York.

He started his career with Tata Exports Ltd. and then went to New York to pursue his MBA. After that, he worked in the field of Finance at various positions for six years at MetLife in its New York offices.

After 8 years in the USA, he returned to India, to start a joint venture in partnership with a USA Company.

With a track record of success, in 2006, along with his brother Anil, he founded Credila, which provides Education Loans to students for their higher studies in India and abroad.

While he was pursuing this career, due to his immense passion for Education, he co-founded New Era English School in Nasik, along with his family. New Era English School has been recognized by The Week Magazine as one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Schools in India”.

Moreover, he has served as the Member of the Sub Committee on ‘Student Financial Aid’ of Government of India, Delhi. He has served as the member of the Senate of 125 years old prestigious Engineering Institute: VJTI, Mumbai. He has also served as a special invitee to one of the committees of the University Grants Commission UGC. He has also served as a member of Higher Education Network, FICCI, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Delhi. He is a recipient of “Engineering Achievement Award” by The Institute of Engineers (India) for the year 2007-08 and the “Emerging Leader of the Year Award” in 201213.

A Successful Partnership Ajay attributes his success to a lifetime partnership with his brother Anil. Anil Bohora is also the Cofounder and Managing Director of HDFC Credila. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of HDFC Credila. His professional experience includes diverse technological and managerial areas.

He has held senior management positions from start-up to large corporations including AOL Time Warner, Pitney Bowes, etc. where he

“HDFC Credila has created & engaged with the eco-system to add value at each touch point in the life cycle of students for higher education” was responsible for successfully managing the design, development, and implementation of large complex systems to reduce cost and increase efficiency by outsourcing critical business processes. At AOL Time Warner he was responsible for managing large business relationships.

He has received his Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering) from College of Engineering Poona, India and earned his Master of Science (Electrical and Computer Engineering) degree from Ohio University, USA. “We have been privileged to have a loyal, dedicated and hardworking team. Their future prospects while the value creation is done, keep me going through difficult times. What also motivates me is a quote I once read, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” shares Ajay.

An Epitome of Perseverance “The test of a true entrepreneur is to do more with less for more,” says Ajay. For his first entrepreneurial venture, the challenge was to get a joint venture partner in an industry he had no background in, no capital to invest and no track record. Even though it sounds unbelievable, with 6 months of passionate dedication and thousands of literal cold calls Ajay ended up with joint venture partner from Iowa, USA with 49% equity, which after scale up, he sold to WNS.

In the second venture, Credila, the challenge was to enter the education loan industry without any background, find a strategic partner, scale up, become profitable, and pioneer private education loan industry in India. It took at least 20 visits to the USA about one year of efforts, laser focus on the mission and depth of conviction to get over hearing hundreds of ‘Nos’, before Merrill Lynch of New York decided to invest from India to anchor Credila.

“Being partner with Merrill Lynch to becoming part of Bank of America to having Indian financial powerhouse, HDFC as our strategic investor worked out due to our sincerity, honesty & passion!” shares Ajay.

Credila (now called HDFC Credila) has achieved many milestones in its journey. It has so far, has funded tens of thousands of Indian students studying in over 2100 Institutes, across 35 countries around the world.

It has disbursed a cumulative of over INR 6,200 crore of Education Loans since inception.

“Our parents continue to be our role models. They have impacted our entrepreneurial journey. Their honesty, sincerity, hard work and loyalty lead the foundation of our lives,” says Ajay. Live life with goodness has been the philosophy with which they are setting examples.

Advice for Young Entrepreneurs “Entrepreneurial skill is a natural calling of the person! It’s the passion! The best part of being an

entrepreneur is the opportunity it presents to create jobs, transform lives and contribute towards the nation building!” asserts Ajay.

He strongly believes that for any and every entrepreneur, failure is a part of life. Failures teach the best lessons of life. Although there have been no major failures for him, setbacks have been quite frequent and huge! These days, disruptions are omnipresent across industries! Being able to learn, unlearn and relearn as a corporate culture is the only way any organization can reinvent itself to be able to leverage emerging opportunities presented with ongoing disruptions.

Ajay is highly inspired by the entrepreneurial journey of Steve Jobs, his struggles, his life, his failures and his accomplishments, despite extreme odds he faced all along since the time he was born!

“Like me, many budding entrepreneurs might find the biographical books around Steve Jobs and his life quite motivating,” advices Ajay.

Building Unique Attributes into Credila “Until the economies of scale come into play, remaining focused and leveraging resources is highly critical to contain the cost of operations,” asserts Ajay. Moreover, in the context of high defaults of education loan industry, with an absolute focus to carry on HDFC Ltd.’s’ legacy of building highquality portfolio of loans, HDFC Credila uses its domain expertise to ensure that NPAs remain quite low.

HDFC Credila has created & engaged with the eco-system to add value at each touch point in the life cycle of students for higher education. An unconventional approach was adopted & a value proposition matrix got created for the eco-system with Credila’s deep insights & domain expertise. A global network of partners got handcrafted with strategies & passion.

Students’ communities got created on mobile platforms. Special privileges and offers have been curated under the CredilaOneStop platform, as a value-added service for students.

At HDFC Credila, they revolve the corporate culture around three things: Co-creating products & services with the eco-system, value-added customer experience, and passionate Team HDFC Credila driving it!

Embarking towards the Future The pace of change in today’s world in mind-boggling! It’s extremely critical to learn, unlearn and relearn every day, to develop as an entrepreneur. Ajay reads for a cumulative period of about two hours a day. He also takes efforts to meet new people primarily from unrelated industries and unrelated organizations so that disruptions occurring in their fields and their learnings can be quite valuable for him to grow as an entrepreneur!

Professionally, HDFC Credila looks forward to crossing US$1 Billion mark in the total disbursed amount of education loans by HDFC Credila in the next 12 months.

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Company Name

Management

Brief

HDFC Credila hdfccredila.com

Ajay Bohora Co-founder & MD

HDFC Credila is India’s First Dedicated Education Loan company and a pioneer in the field of education loan.

Acumen Financial Consultancy Private Limited acumenfc.co.in

Abhay Jain Manager CEO

Acumen specializes in mergers and acquisition (‘M&A’) transaction advisory. It advises client on matters relating to transactions be it buying/ selling of companies, determining value of business, doing due diligences, assisting clients prior to/ during due diligence by setting up data rooms, raising private equity finance and research requirements related to M&A transactions.

UnocoinTechnologies ariscapital.in

Abhinand Kaseti CMO & Co-founder

Unocoin is India’s leading Cryptoassets & Blockchain company with over a million customers. It is making easy to buy, sell, store, use & accept bitcoin securely in India.

RecoSense InfoSolutions Pvt Ltd recosenselabs.com

Amith Srinivas CEO

RecoSense offers data intelligence platform for Content & User Insight.

Nilee Games nileegames.com

Anand Jha CEO & founder

NGFT is one of the fastest growing gaming and technology service provider companies which provides services across the world.

Ashwin Bhadri CEO

Equinox Labs has become India’s Leading Testing and Compliance Organisation. FSSAI Notified, NABL Accredited and ISO 9001 Certified – The company is a game-changer in Food, Water, and Air Analysis, as well as FSSAI Compliance Consultation.

AXESTRACK axestrack.com

Harman Singh Arora CEO & Co-founder

AXESTRACK is a fast growing brand ventured by a passionate team from world’s most eminent institutions. We are dedicated to the field of GPS based vehicle tracking solutions and its exhaustive data analytics. Proficient in providing valuable solutions, it caters to diverse clients from all verticals.

ROX Trading & Systems rox.co.in

Jim Rakesh MD and CEO

ROX is a reliable IT system integrator and IT security solutions provider in the marketplace for more than 15 years.

Inteliment Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. inteliment.com

Kedar Sabne Director-Finance & Legal

Inteliment is recognized as a leading provider of Data Driven Analytical Solutions & Services in Visual & Predictive Analytics, Data Science, IoT, Mobility & Artificial Intelligence areas.

Electronics Payments & Services electronicpay.in

Mamallan Mani Founder

Electronic Payment and Services (P) Ltd. is a leading Retail Banking Technology Service Provider founded in 2011, by veterans with over 150 years of combined experience in the banking, technology and retail payments industry in India.

Equinox equinoxlab.com

Company Name

Management

Brief

Cloud4C cloud4c.com

Milind Kharkar Vice President

Cloud4C, An independant company (Previously Ctrl4C a subsidiary of CtrlS) world’s 1st Tier 4 cloud with a 4 Copy architecture that includes built in High Availability, Backup, and Disaster Recovery.

Payswiff payswiff.com

Priti Shah CEO & Co-founder

Payswiff is a channel payment solution provider which deals in providing GST solution, billing and retail software integrated with payments. Set to capitalize on the evolving dynamics by setting its business model on delivering technology services to the banks and acting as a Payment Service Provider (PSP).

Fractal Ink Design Studio fractalink.com

Priyanka Agrawal Co-founder, COO & Chief Experience Officer

Fractal Ink Design Studio is a leading design studio providing extraordinarily creative art and design solutions.

In4Velocity in4velocity.com

Rahul Chawla CEO & Founder

In4Velocity builds a vertical solution for the property development market to manage complex construction activities and customer related sales transactions.

CredForce Asia Limited credforce.com

Rajiv Gupta President & Group CEO

Credforce, largest credentialing ecosystem spanning more than 180 countries with more than 50 proprietary certification products and 18 knowledge standard frameworks is a multiaward winning conglomerate.

Riyaz Mohamed President

Letosys is a leading global business solutions & Information technology company and delivering, consulting, outsourcing solutions to clients 10* industries and has enhanced business efficiency at corporate companies across the globe.

Global Vox Populi globalvoxpopuli.com

Sadique Akhter CEO and President

Global Vox Populi achieves business success by enabling access to our research products and services including market research, competitive intelligence, market intelligence, and consultancy that provides businesses with reliable evidence as a solid base for making decision.

Bajaj Corp bajajcorp.com

Sandeep Verma President

Bajaj Corp Ltd is part of Bajaj Group which has interests in varied industries including Sugar, Consumer Goods, Power Generation and Infrastructure Development.

Vestian Global WorkPlace Services Pvt Ltd vestianglobal.com

Shrinivas Rao CEO-APAC

Vestian is an occupier-focused workplace solutions firm specializing in commercial, industrial, retail and hospitality sectors.

Sid Production Ltd

Sid Naidu Entrepreneur

Sid Productions is a venture that dabbles in fashion shoots, model grooming, art direction and brand building, Print ads, TV commercials, digital and feature films.

Leto Systems Private Limited letosys.com

Company Name

Management

Brief

Magnasoft Consulting India Pvt. Ltd magnasoft.com

Siddaramanna M B Senior Manager

Magnasoft is a technology company providing services, solutions, products and consulting to large global organizations. We are leaders in the arena of geospatial technologies, engineering services, “in-transit” safety, smart wearable technology, and IoT platforms.

Flutura Decision Sciences & Analytics

Srikanth Muralidhara Co-founder & Chief Customer Officer

Flutura is an AI solutions company focused on improving two core business objectives of “Asset uptime” and “Operation Efficiency” with Cerebra AI platform tuned for IIOT in Oil and Gas, Specialty Chemicals, and Heavy Machinery Manufacturing industries.

Haptik haptik.ai

Swapan Rajdev Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

Haptik is one of the world’s largest chatbot platforms, building applications for consumers, publishers, and enterprises.

Studionkon Ventures Pvt. Ltd skvindia.com

Tushar Mittal Founder & MD

Studiokon Ventures specializes in delivering end-to-end interior office design solutions for corporate infrastructure for corporate, retail, and hospitality spaces.

iAvatarZ Digital iavatarz.com

Uma Shankar Bhardwaj Founder & CEO

iAvatarZ Digital is a leading professional offering innovative integrated online marketing solutions.

Senaxus Technologies Private Limited senaxus.in

Vikas Owdhbal Co-founder & Director

Senaxus Technologies Private Limited (STPL) is committed to offer complete e2e (end to end) solutions in Power management and security solutions.It provides turnkey solutions for complete SITC (Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning) of all Power and security product lines.

Winspire Solutions winspiresolutions.com

Vinod Shinde General Manager

Winspire Solutions has been providing clients of every size with consultancy, customization, training and implementation of ERP, CRM, Supply chain Management and Business Intelligence solutions.

Appiness Interactive Pvt Ltd appinessworld.com

Visakh Viswambharan Founder & CEO

Appiness Interactive, a Bangalore based Product Development and UX firm specializing in Digital Services for the whole spectrum, from startups to fortune-500’s. We do not redefine anything or reinvent the wheel.

ACPL acpl.com

Vishal Bindra CEO

AZB & Partners azbpartners.com

Zia Mody Founder & Managing Partner

ACPL, a leading specialist provider of end-to-end Quality Solutions in the area of information security to customers across India – Products, Services, Training and Consultancy.

AZB & Partners is one of the prominent law firms in India providing value proposition and unique services to its clients.

Priyanka Agrawal Chasing Perfection through Ideation and Disruptive Solutions

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assion and hard work accompany success. Vince Lombardi quoted once, “Leaders are made, they are not born”. Priyanka Agrawal is one such leader, who has come to the forefront of business with her hard work and dedication, which in turn moulded her to be a best-fit in order to stand amongst top talented entrepreneurs.

Priyanka is the Co-founder, COO and Chief Experience Officer of Fractal Ink Design Studio–Linked by Isobar.

After graduating in 1999, as an architect from BIT Mesra, Priyanka started her own firm called ‘Ambiaance Designs’ in 2001 along with her life partner, Tanay. In 2006, they sold off that company and went to London, where she pursued her Master’s in Design. Later on, she worked with DMGT (The Daily Mail Group) in London where she got exposure to the field of User Experience in its full glory.

In 2010, she landed in India with high aspirations and big dreams of starting a new venture. That’s when the foundation for Fractal Ink Design Studio Pvt. Ltd. was laid with her fellow co-founders Geeta, Hemant and Tanay.

As a Founder and Chief Experience Officer, Priyanka aims to be a consultant and makes clients aware of the various possibilities in their domain. She tries to show them the vision of what they can do, rather than just look at the competition and trying to mimic them. “I think my biggest strength is ideation and looking out for disruptive solutions.

Diversifying their thoughts using design thinking principles and then converting them into the right solution is my prime goal,” asserts Priyanka.

Priyanka always tries to create a balance between Research and Analysis with proper science behind why and how they

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should be implementing solutions, at the same time push boundaries and build an innovation layer that might require a leap of faith to see if it succeeds. When it comes to honest opinions Priyanka’s clients always trust her. According to her, the biggest win is when they keep coming back for it.

Priyanka attributes her success to her biggest mentor and inspiration in life, her Dad, who has given a perspective to look at this world with an immense amount of optimism. In her journey, Priyanka relies on two other people as well, Geeta and Tanay, who are not only the Co-founders but also a great support system who help take the vision of Fractal Ink to greater heights with their amazing energy and talent.

Fractal Ink Design Studio Fractal Ink Design Studio has grown from an initial setup in a small garage like office with 6 people, to around a 100 people company, as seen now. The company has come a long way in establishing itself as one of the best in the craft of Experience Design.

Fractal Ink is built inside out on the philosophy of “User Centric Design” approach. The Experience Design studio focuses on understanding the clients’ business needs and the users’ objectives and addressing them with innovative ideas and solutions that are effective and engaging. The organization’s work spans over sectors from BFSI to ecommerce, enterprise to devices and everything in between.

The company works with top global consulting firms to provide digital design services to their clients. The underlying bedrock idea in establishing Fractal Ink is to push the boundaries of experience design and to be persistent in the efforts to look for ‘What next’ rather than ‘What is’.

|June 2018|

Outstanding Entrepreneur

Priyanka Agrawal

“

“

Co-founder, COO & Chief Experience Ofcer

My people are my strength. If I am able to make a difference in their lives, motivate them, laugh with them and have fun with them, I have had a meaningful day |June 2018|

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The Boxing Ring Priyanka believes in long-term partnerships and not on onetime clients. Fractal Ink has clients sticking with the company for the past six years, where it keeps innovating with them and adding value to their core business. This happens only because the company doesn’t think like entrepreneurs but as honest and passionate designers.

Fractal Ink’s process is not driven by change request and sign off closures but getting to the absolute right solution for the client.

“We also, fight a lot with our clients. Our premise is if we are not questioning and reasoning enough, we are giving you ‘what you want’ not necessarily ‘what you actually need’. For the very same reason, we have named our boardroom “THE BOXING RING”. If you are not fighting it out, you are not thinking enough,” says the COO.

All successful personalities etched in the entrepreneurial world history have great stories to tell. Priyanka, an outstanding entrepreneur of today’s age, also has an interesting life experience to share, which inspires many of the budding aspirants to take strong decisions that may turn their lives upside down. Both risk and success are the two faces of a coin. Priyanka has gone through all the ups and downs in her career, before creating Fractal Ink. She shares her experience here.

“

A Piece of Advice “I think a positive attitude is all that matters. A positive and happy mind creates wonderful solutions. ‘Failure is the pillar of success’ is what my advice to all my peers,” says Priyanka.

If you exist, you better endeavour towards being the best

“The biggest risk in my life was when I left my job one random day on the back of a freelance opportunity. I still remember, Tanay was completing his Masters in IIT Bombay and I was working for some 10,000 per month salary. One evening, on my way back home, I got a freelance offer over a call, for some 30,000 to execute a project. The only thought that came to my mind was that this will sustain me for the next 3 months and I am sure I will find something else too during this period. Next day, I walked up to my boss and put my resignation in.

That to me was the craziest thing I have done and since my husband is equally crazy there was no resistance. I am so glad today because there was no looking back from that moment. This set the momentum of taking risks in our lives

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Priyanka doesn’t call herself successful yet, instead, she gives all credits to the fantastic partnership between her and the fellow co-founders. “If we didn’t work well together as a team we would have failed miserably. We fought, we cried, we voiced our concerns openly. We resolved, we hugged and we moved forward with double vigour,” asserts Priyanka.

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The Ups and Downs

quite early in our career and we kept this randomness drive our lives. We did it the second time when we packed bags to move to London to start from ground zero and again the third time when we moved back from London to Mumbai to build something greater.”

Fractal Ink runs Friday sessions to motivate the teams, where they connect with each other as human beings and celebrate. It is a mix of talks, workshops, project sunset reviews, domain knowledge or just a fun activity.

The company also runs an experience lab where it encourages people to come and experiment with new technologies and create solutions.

Priyanka affirms that mediocracy shouldn’t be an option for success and honesty towards work should never be compromised. A book that greatly inspired her as a creator is Ayn Rand’s ‘Fountainhead’.

Small Step Taken Today “I really don’t have a set plan, but yes as of now we are ready to ride the wave of big data, internet of things, AI, Machine learning, AR, VR and the biggest of all, experiences created with voice or sound where we will see humans getting out of the black mirror and start engaging in real conversations with technology,” proclaims Priyanka.

More hard work and be more connected to all the people is the key mantra to success. Keeping clients happy and making them grow is the small step Priyanka takes today to foresee a big success tomorrow.

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Priti Shah

An Innovative Leader Redening Payment Processes and Empowering People across India

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ne of the most celebrated Brazilian lyricist and novelist Paulo Coelho had once said,“Be brave.

Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”

And, for entrepreneurs, life is nothing but a bag full of surprises where risk forms the foundation to monuments of success down the line.

Meet Priti Shah, the one who believes that the biggest risk is not taking any risk. The differene is to understand between daring and caution, While breaking all the stereotypical thoughts and odds of the society, Priti emerged as a businesswoman with an aim to be an extraordinary entrepreneur.

mode for correcting the wrong you increase your ability to embrace success.”

A Journey that Turned an Enthusiast into an Entrepreneur Priti, born and brought up in Mumbai, started her career early at a very young age of 17. It is then when she opted for a Diploma in Administration Services from Premlila Vithaldas Polytechnic, Juhu. Being passionate about entrepreneurship, Priti began her career as a trainee and pursued her graduation at parallel.

If one is driven by passion, focus and dedication, nothing can stop the person from achieving his/her milestone. Priti’s life validates this statement. Even after getting married at an early age of 21 and being blessed with a daughter at the age of 22; her urge towards learning new things took her acheive multiple landmarks in her career.

Let’s hear the inspiring story of Priti Shah, the CEO and, Co-founder of Payswiff, an Omni-channel payment solution provider which deals in providing GST solution, billing and retail software integrated with payments. It is one such company that is set to capitalize on the evolving dynamics by setting its business model on delivering technology services to the banks and acting as a Payment Service Provider (PSP). Most interestingly, Payswiff is also an enabler and plays its role in the cause of “Digital India”, majorly focused to Bharat part of India for financial inclusion.

Priti’s passion took her forward and that is what drove her to pursue teaching and also to be the visiting faculty at SNDT University for Travel & Tourism for Postgraduate students. She has a wealth of experiences topped with a doctorate in Management from the National institute of Management.

Inspired by many and motivated by self, Priti says, “There are a number of good ways that can have a ripple effect and enable one to move forward. It increases their sense of self -efficacy and the tendency to focus with a balanced perspective. With time, one learns to be more resilient and open to ideas. My failures were business I started young in travel and also some decisions that went wrong in business but I learnt taking the wrong decisions is the first step to take the right decisions. As long as you are in the faster

With a rich work experience of 13+ years in the Payment Industry, Priti is contributing extraordinarily to Payswiff.

Her first stint of the payment industry was with the startup called EBS, which is one of India’s largest online payment processing platforms. In the year 2005, Priti took efforts to take the company forward as one of the founding team members of the company. While talking about her experiences at EBS, she has shared that it was the place which offered her the opportunity to learn, handle and take

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|June 2018|

Entrepreneur of the Month

Priti Shah CEO & Co-founder

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ownership of sales, administration, and operations among many others.

values, she connects the dots to use her skill set to achieve the company’s objective.

Priti further adds, “I grew personally and professionally where I excelled from a Managerial position to Sales head, then Vice President and later on my exit I held position President of National Sales. The experience certainly did help me believe in myself.”

In a nutshell, Priti’s fast decision-making ability; disciplined, process-oriented and focused personality with high level of communication and team building skills, drives the company forward and helps it achieve milestones in the world of payments.

About the Company Revolutionizing the Payment industry Being an omni-channel payment solution provider, Payswiff enables merchants, ISOs, and even customers of banks to accept payments through POS/mPOS devices, apps or other new-age based payments solutions. The Payswiff merchant solution includes the POS & mPOS terminals, and Payswiff ONE the company’s flagship plug ‘n’ play payments solution app helps merchants, and business owners accept payments from a variety of cashless channels including UPI, net-banking, e-wallets, multi-bank EMI, etc.The solution helps merchants accept both contacts & contactless cards, with all leading debit & credit card brands such as MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Rupay and Maestro.

Additionally, it helps merchants provide value-added services to their customers to earn an extra revenue while the inbuilt tools help manage their business ecosystem better.

The Leader’s Sources of Inspiration Priti is married to Maulik Shah, the current Co-founder and Director of Payswiff and they have a daughter. She attributes her success to her husband and states that Maulik is the pillar of support that has encouraged her to pursue her dreams and scale a career graph for herself. She expresses her gratitude towards her family and even her young daughter and says, “My daughter being my critic has helped me grow personally & professionally too.”

The Payswiff Enterprise Solutions helps large-scale enterprises, banks & financial institutions build and operate a seamless, cashless, digital transactions infrastructure.

Such end-to-end, co-branded solutions are highly-customizable with a faster go-to-market capability. It also offers API’s and SDK’s for all types of businesses to effortlessly integrate payment solutions with their existing apps, systems and software.

Most interestingly, Payswiff is the only Indian company to combine tax-compliance with payment solutions. To businesses, it offers innovative and convenient services ranging from GST compliant invoicing to filing of tax returns with ease.

Priti further expresses gratitude towards her sisters & family and says, “I am thankful & fortunate to have a family that doesn’t compromise a bit on my aspirations… especially at times when your presence is needed most and you are not there!” Apart from a supportive family, Priti is grateful to her business partners along with the entire Payswiff team. She further talks about her sources of inspiration and says, “There are 2 people who have impacted my life to a great extent one is Mr Prabhu co-founder & Managing Director, Payswiff and second is Ms Varsha Jain who is the head of the department at Premilila Vithaldas Polytechinc and she has been my inspiration all time long.”

Being an energetic woman, Priti expressed her strong desire and will to see Payswiff as a globally recognized and preferred payment platform that generates immense value to its customers and stakeholders. She further shares, “Moreover, down the line I would like to have an incubator for startups especially women.”

The Entrepreneur’s Contribution towards the Company After gaining extraordinary experience at EBS, Priti took the charge and spearheaded the business of Payswiff in India. She personally ensured that all the values of the company, i.e., Integrity, Inclusiveness, Agility and Innovation are inculcated in every member of Payswiff. She shared her strategies and said that on the basis of these

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|June 2018|

Abhinand Kaseti Determined to Thrive through Innovation

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bhinand Kaseti, an eminent leader with welldefined goals, is set out to make a difference in the arena of Bitcoin trading. Abhinand studied Computer Science Engineering at R V College of Engineering and proceeded to work with i4 Communications Pvt Ltd. in a fast, upscale environment, assuring client delight on setting up data centers and IT infrastructure for most of the MNCs in the Asia Pacific region. In 2011, he worked as a preferred vendor to Google as an AV architect, who is passionate about the infra solutions.

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The Inception Story of Unocoin Abhinand has been keen to learn and explore new technologies that come to his notice. Bitcoin was one such, which sowed the seeds of curiosity in him and he was upfront in learning more about it. He started attending meet-ups regarding Bitcoin and it only kept on exuberating him and making him more determined to do something with Bitcoin.

Life is like a mirror.

If you smile at it, it will smile back at you

Regardless of the competition, Abhinand believes in sticking to and believing in his own plans even if he could see bad days coming with it. However, when it comes to completion, he always follows a quote which he has etched in his heart, ‘Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers’.

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Prior to the incorporation of Unocoin, Abhinand and the three co-founders of the company took part in a tech conference to understand more about Bitcoin, mining and so on. Then by 2013, they launched a Bitcoin trading platform named as Unocoin, for Indians to buy, sell, use and accept Bitcoin. Fast forwarding, today Unocoin serves 15 lakh customers and offers six crypto assets to be traded on its platform. The company has won multiple FinTech awards and has been funded $2.5million to date.

In July 2013, a few members met at the India Bitcoin meet-up group which was known as “Bangalore Bitcoin Progressive Thinkers” aiming to take Bitcoin to the masses. Since then, CoinMonk Ventures facilitated and hosted India’s first Global Bitcoin Conference in December 2013, where Unocoin was launched on a trial basis. Trade was open for users with a set buying and selling limits.

On February 1, 2014, Unocoin went off trial mode into full operations.

“While I was in a constant learning process, I and my other mates decided to start with a trading platform exclusively for Indians and the reason behind this was to make the masses aware of the advanced technology, which is possibly the future of a cashless economy,” asserts Abhinand.

Dedication and Innovation At the core of Unocoin lies its innovation and a dedicated team with a passion towards building world-class products

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centred on the Bitcoin ecosystem. It has built the world’s simplest Bitcoin PoS for offline merchants and in a first of its kind introduced SIP (Systematic Investment Planning) for Bitcoin. The merchant gateway service provided by Unocoin lets online businesses accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment and OTC (Over the Counter) Trade allows users to trade in bulk.

Unocoin is committed to and has single-handedly driven the Bitcoin awareness program in India. With a series of meetups, seminars, guest talks, college activities and other collaborations, the awareness of Bitcoin in India has skyrocketed in the recent times. The efforts put in by the team at Unocoin translate towards building a cashless Indian economy.

Journey till Date “It has been amazing ride for me so far with continuous challenges on and off”, says Abhinand. He adds that his journey as an entrepreneur so far has made him realize one thing— ‘if you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs’. The popular quote truly holds value in every entrepreneur’s journey towards success, prompting them to do more.

Abhinand reveals that in his journey, Mr. Grant Cardone, an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Sales Expert and Motivator, has greatly influenced him. Grant’s talks on positivity and great attitude act as a booster in down times. Another great personality Abhinand likes to mention is his mentor, Mr. Richard Branson. Abhinand enjoys reading a lot and his favourite book is ‘The Four-Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss.

Challenges and Risk Leading him towards Success “Our industry denies to follow tradition, it only respects innovation”, says Abhinand. Getting into the Bitcoin industry was indeed a risk followed by my firm belief. He says that his biggest failure so far is only when he is unable to take the best out of the employees.

Abhinand attributes his success to Bitcoin and the technology. He justifies the statement by explaining, “without Bitcoin, I wouldn’t be where I am now”. He adds that he has learnt one thing from difficult times, which is, people have to fight through some bad days in order to earn the best days of life.

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Abhinand Kaseti CMO & Co-founder Advising and Inspiring the Budding Entrepreneurs Budding entrepreneurs seek advice from successful personalities so that they could overcome the stumbling blocks in their ways. The only piece of advice that Abhinand likes to share is, ‘learn the rules of the game and then play better than anyone else’. Setting a trend is harder than following the trends. He urges others also to set trends in the industry, in their own ways, so that the industry would flourish with novel ideas and innovations. “For me, the mere idea of ‘thinking’ is what I always encourage in my organisation. I let them practice their idea if I see there is a slightest ray of achieving anything”, quotes Abhinand.

Footsteps Towards the Future Constant training and a will to win shape a perfect leader.

Abhinand is determined to learn new things, come up with new ideas and putting them into practice in the upcoming days. He plans himself to get better trained for the role that he is playing right now and build lasting client relationships meanwhile clawing his way to the top.

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Amith Srinivas Navigating a Successful Voyage towards Pinnacle “

haracter cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

C

initiative is very challenging, be it with a capitalistic value of entrepreneurship, championing new transformation within a big enterprise or bringing out a change within the society.

~ Hellen Keller, Renowned

He glances over his journey till date. His vision spreads far beyond capital generation or gaining applauds for himself.

In his own words, “My journey so far in establishing RecoSense has been a phenomenon of internal transformation of my own mindset about perceptions on problems / need of the market and society, people relationships and ways to leverage technology for a meaningful impact of value addition rather than just for capital generation.”

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A strong business value addition with a deep technology differentiator will deliver growth with the support of aligned sales & marketing strategies

This man of diligence and vigor derives almost 15 years of experience in the industry working in the roles of product engineering, product marketing and business development across the globe. After pursuing his engineering in Computer Science from Bangalore University, Amith started his career as a software engineer.

Later, he built experience in roles of global product marketing for deep technology products across startups to enterprise companies. Amith’s expertise lies in the business development for deep technology products across the globe.

“A strong business value addition with a deep technology differentiator will deliver growth with the support of aligned sales & marketing strategies,” asserts Amith.

The Journey that Shaped ‘The Brilliance’ According to Amith, any journey of pushing a new

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“

American Author Experience can be termed as the magic key of a successful life. The success story of Amith Srinivas, the dynamic CEO of RecoSense is a perfect example of such a glorified life.

Previously, Amith worked with two successful startups.

“Experience of working with the founders of those companies added a lot of learning to my journey”, he says.

Amith reflects about his father, who became a first generation entrepreneur building an independent traditional business. For Amith, his father still continues to be his guiding spirit and inspiration in the battle.

An avid reader, Amith was strongly influenced by the books like ‘Good to Great’ by James Colin, ‘In the Plex’ by Stephen Levy, ‘Zero to One’ by Peter Thiel etc. He recommends ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ which is a good movie

|June 2018|

for perseverance and ‘Silicon Valley’ TV series which is undoubtedly an inspiring one.

The Other Fortes of Success “Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.”

This saying by Roy T. Bennette, a renowned author, shows us one of the indispensable elements of success and excellence. Amith, as he claims, surpassed all the challenges in the way with his unshakeable self-belief. His robust self-belief always encourages him to stand up after encountering a catastrophe like situations and made him stand tall with gratification.

Beyond self- belief, the proper mindset is another problem solver that can help any individual to overcome all the obstacles. “In downtimes, I try to come up with micro-milestones to achieve for better optimistic results and help myself navigate through the falls.” His insights towards life and its problems are praiseworthy indeed.

About the Company RecoSense was incepted with a vision to enable enterprises to have better understanding of users based on their content data and user behavior. From the past experience of working with data led companies in the internet domain, it was most obvious for Amith that online companies should focused on marketing to acquire users, on operations for building content and on delivery but there is a big need of ROI on user acquisition for longer retention. The company’s focus is on pioneering user personalization for strong end user experience and more value added audience engagement.

RecoSense added value in the ecosystem by offering platform to digital enterprises with deep-tech automation for data intelligence. The company strives to equip its customers with data engineering expertise with low cost and faster time to market without sacrificing their own core focus areas.

NLP and Machine Learning- the Unique Features One of the key strength of RecoSense is an IP called Knowledge Graph which is built on advanced Natural Language Processing and Machine learning framework to interpret the content data across any domain in multiple formats. The RecoSense knowledge graph generates an automated Meta structure around the enterprise content by identifying the data patterns and by associating related content within the enterprise and also by constantly learning from open source data repositories online across multiple domains of Retail, Media, Travel, Finance, Healthcare etc.

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Amith Srinivas CEO & Founder Once the system independently understands the content, it will be able to associate with user behavioral data obtained from touch points of both online and offline for our customer with the offerings from our customer. The system at RecoSense does three dimensional mapping of User to User, Content to Content and User to Content.

The Roadmap for Future Amith believes in achieving the targets like meeting the daily milestones on customer relationships, product enhancements and issue resolutions and also with dedicated time allocation for learning macro aspects like – Industry Trends, Technology Updates, Market Movements, Strategy Innovations and more.

“I wish to see myself as impact driven leader in upcoming years to have built an organization where scale doesn’t just come by defined process but by multitude of teams across the geographies who would work towards delivering an impactful product in the work areas aligned to the organization,” concludes Amith

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AYUSH LOHIA

Developing and Implementing Strategies, and Managing the Overall Operations and Resources of Lohia Auto

1. How did your company’s journey as a preeminent brand begin? What was the underlying bedrock idea behind incorporating the company?

Lohia Global has diversified operation in various sectors like Automobile, Handicraft Export, Retail Warehousing, Real Estate, Brass coil manufacturing etc. Lohia Auto Industries is an automobile division of Lohia Global founded by visionary Late Mr. N.K. Lohia He was very much concerned about Fuel impact on environment and fuel dependency on imports and he wanted to explore alternative which is electric vehicles. With this vision Lohia Auto Industries was established in the year 2008 with an objective to provide clean, efficient, reliable and affordable inner-city & rural transportation.

2. What are the key aspects that demonstrate uniqueness of the company?

In the highly cluttered automobile market, company has carved a niche for itself with electric scooters. Keeping in mind the energy security of the country, Lohia Auto has been continuously working towards giving last mile connectivity solutions in personal & public transportation and launched different models in electric 2w and electric three wheelers in passenger and cargo both segment. Lohia Auto also launched with its brand of Diesel/CNG Three wheelers.

‘HUMSAFAR’ in both segment i.e. Passenger and Cargo for Domestic and Exports market. Diversified product portfolio is our uniqueness which gives last mile connectivity solution.

3. Tell us about yourself as a person, your educational background and as an entrepreneur. How do you use your skills to run your company above and beyond your competitors?

I started my entrepreneurial journey in the year 1999 with Design co- handicrafts export unit & part of Lohia Global. In Designco I had gained experience in marketing management. During this period I have also worked in export industry and developed an in-depth understanding of the market & industry trends. With an insight to the industry scenario, I have made a vital contribution in the multi-fold growth of Designco in my seven years of association. Later, I took-over the stainless steel manufacturing unit where I roped in an exposure to the production and development of the raw steel. With my vast experience in manufacturing, development and marketing, I introduced ‘automobile’ as a new vertical to group business. This is how we have established Lohia Auto Industries as an electric vehicle company.

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Interview with Insights Success

Ayush Lohia CEO Lohia Auto Industries

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4. How do you see your entrepreneurial journey till date? Could you name a person/mentor/book/ who has had a tremendous impact on your entrepreneurial journey?

I can safely call it as an absolutely incredible journey. I have learnt many things from my own experience. It has helped me in establishing Lohia Auto as a brand in highly cluttered automobile market. I have a habit of reading books which always impacts my decision making and working process. Some of my favourite books are – THE ONE THING, THE ANSWER, THE MILLIONIRE, CRITICAL CHAIN, THE CHOICE, EAT THAT FROG etc.

5. What is the biggest risk you have ever taken? What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

The biggest risk which I had taken was entering into B2C business i.e Automobile as our all group companies were in B2B segment. I would not like to talk about failures as I take it as learning and experience which always ensures better working and results further.

6. To what do you attribute your success? What motivates you at difficult/down times?

I have gained lot of learning and experiences in business cycle & changing market scenario and faced down times also. I can say any success is only experience with best enjoyment, enthusiasm and motivation once you get it after difficult times.

7. How would you describe your entrepreneurial skill in a sentence? What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?

Fighter & Learner who never gives up and always learn from mistakes. Here, I would like to quote “I never make a right decision but I make them right”.

8. What would you advice to your fellow peers to successfully carry their work functionalities? How do you encourage creative thinking in your organization?

Team Motivation and team work is primary thing which I always recommend to every employee. Also I always suggest them to try both conventional & unconventional approaches to do any work. I always appreciate out of box thinking & new innovative ideas.

9. Is there any book or movie you would like to recommend to the budding entrepreneurs? What advice would you like to give them?

Yes, I would like to recommend the budding entrepreneurs to read and watch success stories of “Apple” and “McDonalds” and other inspiring people. Also some movies like Joy, office Space, The Pursuit of Happiness, Pirates of Silicon Valley etc. I would advise them to focus on their objective and to be clear on what they want.

Also, make clear goals for short term, medium and long term.

10. What measures do you take to ensure to grow and develop as an entrepreneur every day? How do you see yourself growing in the next five years?

Learning, experience and out of the box thinking are the three measures which I consider as basic requirements for growth & development. We are working on expanding our portfolio of EVs for last mile connectivity and we will also introduce new projects in the coming years which are in pipeline.

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|June 2018|

Anand Jha Lifting the Future of Gaming & Technology Service Provision to the Newer Heights

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nand Jha is the CEO and Founder of Nilee Game which was started in 2009 and was officially registered as Nilee Games in 2011. It was started as a flash gaming portal but later changed its entire identity of Nilee Games from online flash gaming portal to corporate game development service providing company.

Today in 2018, it is known as Nilee Games and Future Technologies Pvt. Ltd (NGFT).

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Rising above the competition

We enter into a corporate world where gamification is in high demand

Being a 360-degree service provider, NGFT is always in its front foot to work towards the never- ending future technologies. The company’s greatest strength lies in their vision. While everyone thinks of today, Nilee Games not only thinks about tomorrow, rather it thinks three years ahead of the emerging technologies.

NGFT's pillars of success rest on its three verticals that include Gaming, Future Technologies and Animation & VFX and each vertical has its own expertise in its core area of work.

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NGFT teamwork on product and services in Gaming, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Simulation, Motion Sensing, Robotics, Embedded Systems and Custom Made Technologies, which can be used in various sectors like Media, Publishing, Entertainment, Pharmaceutical Companies, Housing Company, Consumer Goods, Education, Banking, Engineering and Construction, Hi-Tech, Automobile Industries, Health Care, Futuristic Game Zone.

else, so he started exploring different ventures. Driven to make a difference on a global scale, Anand started learning to programme and then started working as a flash game developer. While witnessing the drastic change in the technologies over the years and after earning seven years of rich work-experience, he emerged with an out-of-the-box idea and founded Nilee Games.

Altering the Path to make a New Choice After completing B.Sc. in Maths and Physics, Anand started his career as a faculty in an institute. Soon he realized that teaching was not his goal and his passion lies somewhere

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· Gaming : NGFT provides game and application development solutions for online, offline, android, iOS, gaming consoles, handheld & desktop to game publishers and studios, e-Learning companies,

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advertising companies, film & series production houses and corporate companies globally. In recent times, NGFT witnessed corporate companies embracing gamification as a learning tool for their employees and marketing tool for their customers. Gamification for employees and customers work differently and require a deep understanding of their market segment and consumer behavior. NGFT have successfully gamified many brands and companies, few companies even reported some excellent growth with gamification in their business. · Future Technologies: Nilee Games’ well-knitted technology team constantly works on product and services in Virtual Reality (VR) – a computer technology that replicates an environment, real or imagined and simulates a user’s physical presence and environment to allow for user interaction, Augmented Reality (AR) – a cutting-edge technology that is used to superimpose information on the real world we see, motion sensing, robotics, embedded systems, simulation, and custom-made technologies. These technologies are used in several sectors which include entertainment, media, publishing, pharmaceutical, housing, manufacturing, consumer goods, education, retail, banking, engineering & construction, hi-tech, automobile, healthcare, theme parks and many more. · Animation and VFX: Nilee Games has a talented team of Animation and VFX, who plays a pivotal role in providing quality graphics and, VFX for all the projects they undertake. Also, they work on other 2D/3D Assets Development, Animation and VFX projects and provide services across the globe. Anand says, “There is huge competition in the game development domain. As we are an old company with a strong grip in the market, a team of qualified & experienced professionals and huge client base, we are supple enough to abreast with top-notch technologies and implement as per their demands.”

Anand Jha CEO & Founder

as well. Among the motivations that guided him on the path to success, he rates his Mom’s support somewhere at the top. Additionally, he considers motivational books and videos as a great helps in getting through the tough times of disparity. There were many failures he has been through and learned that one should always give a second thought while taking any financial decision.

Failure is the Pillar of Success Considering his entrepreneurial journey which is nothing less than a roller coaster ride, he is well prepared for the same in the future as well. He is a firm believer of the prudence that says one is always benefited by one’s experiences irrespective of whether it’s a good or bad one.

In his book, same theory is applicable to success and failure

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HOW CAN ENTREPRENEURS ACHIEVE THEIR “

Goals in Life

T

he only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

– Michelle Obama Most people have a romanticized version of who an entrepreneur is. But I guess it’s not their fault, they’re bombarded with Facebook humblebrags of entrepreneurs working from the comfort of a beach while sipping onto a pint of beer; they read excerpts about newly minted billionaires and don’t even get me started on the things that the TV shows.

Call it the pre-requisites of our job, it has never been easy for us to achieve our desired goals. But coupled with our gluttonous hunger for fulfilment and our yearning to run on the ostensibly endless epicurean treadmill – we have a track record of reaching for something better and bigger.

The biggest hurdle people face in the course of achieving their goals is that they fail to set them right or even if they do, their approach towards it is all wrong. The best and most acquired way to achieve any goal in life is to not only set them in the right way but also to plan and execute their actions in accordance.

NEW YEAR’S SYNDROME

One thing that we all as entrepreneurs have in common is the will to dream and a burning desire to achieve it. Being an entrepreneur is a way of life and not just a career choice.

It consumes most of our lives and changes our perspective and approach to different things in life.

Everything that comes at us, becomes subject to evaluation and this high-level perspective changes the way we tackle demanding circumstances. It’s genetically pre-dispositioned in our DNA to merely survive but thrive towards passion.

Our species has proved day by day, that we have more than just survived; we’ve quite literally thrived, achieving eccentric results with our wild-eyed innovations and outlook on life. Not only do we wish to get the moon, but we also shoot for the stars.

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For many people, New Year brings a fresh start to their life, however, for most these goals don’t see the light of the day.

In fact, according to one study by the University of Scranton, only eight percent of goals set on New Year’s Eve is actually achieved.

The speed at which people create their New Year resolutions is directly proportionate to the speed at which the urge to see them through mellows down.

5 STEPS FOR ACHIEVING ANY GOAL Achieving any goal comes with a statutory clause of being consciously aware of our actions and self-discipline. In our case, it requires an abiding determination to our actions and an implacable urge to want the desired goal.

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Entrepreneur’s Tale

Abhishek Sharma Chairman

Akkado (A Unit of Color Palette Pvt. Ltd.)

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Moreover, there is a proven system for achieving any goal which involves seven separate steps and a system called SMART goal setting. SMART goals, an acronym, allows us to break down the process and achieve our goals that the heart desires.

1 (S) -- Get Specific about your goals The first step in the SMART method of goal setting is to ensure that the goals you wish to achieve are specific and realistic. It should be measurable so that, you can track the success of your goal.

Are you thinking, how to pick relevant goals for your life?

The best way is to take a moment to write down your values and beliefs. For example, if honesty is a must in your value list, yet you think that all rich people are twisted and somehow get their way through, in some furtive or sneaky methods, you will definitely find it difficult to achieve those big money minting goals.

You’ll find that the entire journey of achieving your goals has suddenly become much more fluid when you pick and choose the ones that are relevant to you.

5 (T) – Make sure the goals are Time - Bound

If you want your goal to materialize, you NEED to be specific about it. It must move from your mind into the reality. You literally need to detail out all that you want to achieve.

When do you plan on achieving your goal? Don’t just have obscure goals for yourself by ensuring you set a rigid timeline for all your goals. Pick a date and mark it on the calendar to one particular date.

2 (M) – Ensure that your goals are Meaningful Take a deep breath and dig deep to think about the meaning behind your goals. It has to be profound and something big, that you’re willing to sacrifice everything for. Write this down somewhere as this is one of the most important steps in the process.

When the dreams and meanings involve things that are close to our heart, we go out of the way to make them turn into reality. We always do more to achieve goals that have a deep rooted meaning behind them.

When you allot a specific date to your goals, they are easy to track and you can break it down into monthly and weekly goals.

The goals of an entrepreneur are very much like an airplane journey. We are in the hurry of reaching our final destination and making that smooth landing. But for that we need to be clear of where our destination is and how much time is it going to take us to reach there.

Isn’t all this very simple sounding? But clearly far rigid to implement.

3 (A) – Pick goals that are Achievable Pick goals that are achievable, or else wait for the longest time to achieve them. For most entrepreneurs, it is very exhilarating to have goals that are hard to achieve. Once you have set your goals right, you’re fuelled with eagerness of achieving them.

Goals that are big have a higher rate of achievement. Plan your goals in advance so that they act as milestones for you to achieve. Last but not the least, chalk out the action plan that will help you get through the process.

www.akkado.in

4 (R) – Pick goals that are Relevant How relevant are the goals that you’ve selected? Do they resonate with your beliefs and life values?

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Moving towards

Data-Driven

Entrepreneurship E

very day it seems that the technology is pushing the boundaries of what entrepreneurship can deliver to the society. Recent developments in technology are shaping the future of the entrepreneurship. The current approach towards entrepreneurship in India has gone through a great change.

We are living in a data-driven society where numerous tools are available to 42

track customer habits, preferences, and purchases. Today, entrepreneurs have access to this entire customer’s data.

This data is used as the foundation of new business ventures. It is interesting to imagine the power that entrepreneurs are going to have when so many dierent sorts of data are available.

In India, data science domain has a |June 2018|

Technocentrism great potential and opportunity to drive change in the society. As per the alarming trend, India is in need of as many as 45,000 data scientists at this moment. Institute of product leadership recently hosted data science summit 2018 in Bangalore. The motto of this summit was to skill professionals to become a data-driven entrepreneur and create newer entrepreneurship models.

Every professional who is engaged in customer and business-driven innovation should become a datadriven entrepreneur for better business growth.

Social Problems Signifying an Opportunity In India, social problems have huge potential to encourage the data-driven entrepreneurship. Recognition of problems in a correct manner is the most important factor for data-driven models. Traffic management shows a great opportunity for data-driven models as data generated in this sector is immense. The placement of sensors on traffic signals and roads to monitor the vehicle density at given time creates a large amount of data and it is possible to control traffic signal through IoT by using this data system.

Many startups in India are eager to collaborate with the government to resolve traffic problems and emerge with innovative ideas.

Other sectors which could get maximum benefits from data-driven models are Healthcare and Agriculture.

Data-driven entrepreneurship has the ability to transform the healthcare sector. Healthcare sector has the large amount of medical data which is helpful to predict and prevent the disease, reduce medical cost and improve personal healthcare. In this sector, numerous organizations are using this data to personalize and increase the healthcare of their

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patients. This data is gathered in the form of digital data as a result patients are using personal digital health tracking devices to take care of their health.

Apart from above sectors, agriculture could also get maximum benefit from data-driven models. Data-driven models help to resolve issues such as determine the correct market price for crops, weather conditions & correct method to cultivate crops.

The rise of Data-Driven Entrepreneurship in India Introduction of new data centers by Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are accepted by traditional companies. Various companies in India are using data to gather insights of the organization. The access to this data helps organization to maximize security with minimum governance.

Due to digital India campaign, there is a huge opportunity for data-driven models. Easy access to mobile internet makes data faster and cheaper than ever before. A large amount of data is generated by mobile companies which operate across entertainment, shopping, banking, and traveling etc.

Recently, Uber launched ‘Movement’ in India to support data-driven urban planning in four cities. These cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. The Uber tool uses data from millions of trips to help planners and peoples to analyze transportation patterns and make a wise investment in a future infrastructure project. This tool can also help people to discover patterns, rush hours, road closures and the impact of events to help optimize travel time.

Use of Data for Better Governance Quality data if analyzed properly, it can be helpful for programmatic decision making, proactive policy revisions and efficient delivery of schemes.

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) launched Centre for Data Management and analytics to analyses relevant data for auditing process. The main purpose is to create a data-rich environment in union and state government to build capacity in audit and account department.

The Indian government is working on an open data policy under the department of information and technology (DIT) to encourage a sharing of information between various departments and across ministries. In many states, municipal corporations have tie-ups with entrepreneurs to standardize city data. The government encouraged startups and technology companies which offer a data-driven model. These data-driven models will help the government to increase efficiency in its working.

With the improvement in the entrepreneurship system, many things have changed. The credit for this change in mindset goes to entrepreneurs, startups, government, and industry. They have shown a strong desire to take India towards data-driven models. Data-driven entrepreneurship is taking an extraordinary shape in India. Though more has to be done, there is a definite hunger to support data-driven entrepreneurship. This is the best time to support entrepreneurs, startups, government, and industries to build a data-driven entrepreneurship.

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CredForce The Global Credentialing Behemoth – and the man behind one of modern businesses’ greatest success stories

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eet Rajiv Gupta, the man who has elevated the gigantic credentialing ecosystem to more than 180 countries in just six years.

What do you get when you cross an insatiable ambition to dominate the knowledge industry with a world class education from the crème de la crème of management schools, and top it off with multiple awards and accolades? If you were to personify all of the above, the answer would be the man who has singlehandedly led the establishment and global footprint of what today is the world’s largest credentialing consortium with a presence in literally every region.

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CredForce has achieved, in its short life, what is mostly a dream for most startups. It has consistently been honored by some of the most prestigious publications in business, including Silicon India, CIO Review, The CEO Magazine to name just a few. CredForce has grown at a scorching pace since its inception and the speed of its expansion and subsequent domination, in emerging verticals and markets has only ticked higher with each passing year. It is already the single largest unified ecosystem in global credentialing with offices in Austin, Palo Alto, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Glasgow, Singapore and Cape Town.

This runs parallel to its vast strategic partner network and technology platforms which also provide last-mile reach. Its growth numbers speak for themselves, perhaps louder than the awards they have received in a short span.

We work for everybody whose business and success hinge on the credibility and trust they can inspire for their customers, investors and partners

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CredForce, the world’s largest credentialing ecosystem spanning in more than 180 countries with more than 50 proprietary certification products and 18 knowledge standard frameworks is a multi-award winning conglomerate. If that’s too much to take in a single sentence, also consider that they have consistently ranked among the BRICS 100 fastest growing companies, and Rajiv has earned multiple awards ranging from the Entrepreneur of the year by prestigious publications to the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2018 felicitation for professional and business services.

An Ardent Leader The founder of CredForce, Rajiv Gupta is a prominent ranker in various media publications has always been a believer in the power of knowledge and growth. Being a world leader and global influencer in education and credentialing is but just a natural outcome of his persona; a

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fact demonstrated by the high degree of loyalty and motivation that he inspires among his employees across the world. It would not be an exaggeration to call Rajiv a phenomenon all by himself, either. After completing his master’s in Human Resource Management, he went on to earn an MBA from the internationally renowned Indian School of Business. And if that wasn’t enough, the next few years saw him complete his Fellow program from the Wharton School in multiple disciplines and rise in the ranks in corporate people management, from head of Human Resources for Asia Pacific, to the head of People Development in a large-scale enterprise like Moser Baer.

Always an entrepreneur at heart, he had already been an angel investor in several startups and communities right from the early stages of his career.

Having founded the BPO Certification Institute, the gold standard for BPO employment in more than 75 countries, its founder, President and CEO, Rajiv conceived the idea of a massive ecosystem that would be unprecedented and unparalleled in its sheer breadth and reach. The humble beginnings of what would become the world’s largest unified certifications platform ecosystem had begun – CredForce.

“I didn’t realize the growth that we would achieve, but deep inside, I never doubted that it would be nothing short of stupendous. I had faith in the team and the vision. These two pillars held us together”, says the President and Group CEO of CredForce today, merely 6 years into its existence, a time frame where most entrepreneurs are struggling to stabilize or scale up. Rajiv has achieved both, not to mention several awards and accolades along the way. He has won several awards including the Entrepreneurial Role Model- Top Rankers Excellence Award at the 16th National Management Summit, Entrepreneur of the Year – Thought Leaders International, Organization Psychologist of the Year – Psycholinguistic Association of India and most recently, the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards in 2018 under Professional and Business Services category.

Setting Benchmarks

Rajiv Gupta President & Group CEO organic growth even as we partner with the world’s best,” says Rajiv. Prestigious partnerships such as the one with the Wharton School are setting the benchmarks higher worldwide and stand testimony to their rapid rise up the global credentialing value chain. “We will make this happen even as we diversify into other verticals where capability validation is still a grey area. Vendor neutral capability validation is a transparency mechanism that just cannot be rivalled”, reiterates the man who has proved his words over and over again. “We will be affecting the careers of more than a quarter million aspirants worldwide by 2020, and two thousand companies across our regions of operation”, and it looks like they are already on the way to make it happen, with their trademark panache.

We did mention insatiable – and so is this wonder of a company. Already on a massive vertical expansion plan, CredForce is not just happy with growing its customer base which today includes some of the world’s largest corporations, governments and thousands of professionals.

“We are looking to turn even more aggressive in our

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CHALLENGES O F S E T T I N G U P A N

Education Enterprise E

ducation and education allied services, like International education advisory and prep, are businesses built on trust. Impressionable, young adults entrust you with their dreams, at a very crucial stage of their lives. The first thing that I said to my team when I acquired the business and began defining Inspirus almost a year ago was that “You are in the business of setting the future on course, you need to know every turn, every cross road ahead. Dreams might not always turn into fairytales but they certainly cannot end in nightmares.”

It is that passion, that honesty and that earnestness that anybody stepping into the education space must commit themselves to.

And in that commitment lies the greatest business truth too.

Education allied entities cannot sell on an individualized USP. The only game changer in the space is “experience”.

Word of mouth and repeat referrals are where 90% sales come from.

While nurturing young futures the greatest challenge lies in keeping a few steps ahead of them always. With a dynamic environment, it isn’t enough to keep abreast with changing international policies that impact students and placement opportunities. The challenge is to keep the students’ confidence in your abilities to identify their strengths and then guide and prepare them to achieve the perfect admit that fits their end goals.

As such my biggest investment is my team of teachers, counselors and content developers. This is a team that has the ability to put the student first. Who believe in increasing profitability by putting the child’s welfare before business.

The team ensures each child gets focused attention at every stage, including staying in touch with students in the initial days in the new university.

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Becoming an entrepreneur in the current environment in India seems easy. From positive policy interventions; encouraging tax laws to VCs and angel investors, we seem to have it all. But in the education space the big challenge is coming from scalability and sustainability. Weak IP laws and easy accessibility to the technology challenge the stickiness of these businesses. But building a strong network of best practices that define the service quality across branches and franchise partnerships can go a long way. Strong internal processes and checks ensure quality delivery is consistent and constant.

At Inspirus, we’ve tried to keep the focus on building a strong brand that goes beyond providing test-prep content.

A brand that works with all stakeholders from students and parents to teachers and industry leaders. A brand that is youthful and agile in approach yet rooted and in-depth in know-how. A brand that can be established a thought leader in the space of International education advisory and prep.

Developing a brand for young adults in a technology enabled environment does make the task simpler and the reach faster and wider. It makes marketing direct, distinct and cost effective. While measuring ROI is made simpler by digital marketing tools that can track campaign performance on regular basis enabling quick action that can optimize effectiveness and minimize spends.

The way forward in today’s world is collaboration.

Competitiveness is passé. Working together in the greater interest of the student is the only way forward as today there are several apps available which will help the student achieve his score and his choice of university. However, what can never be replaced is the human touch and the sensitivity with which each student has to be dealt with.

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Nurturing Education

Bakhtawar Krishnan Founder & Director

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ms. Bakhtawar Krishnan, Founder, Director at Inspirus Education, India’s premier coaching and test preparation institute. When it comes to coaching for the SAT®, GRE®, GMAT® and other standardized tests, Inspirus is second to none Ms. Bakhtawar Krishnan is an accomplished professional in the field of higher education related to the overseas study. She brings with her 30 years of diverse experience, both at the national and international levels, in different roles across industries. Over the last 5 years, she has carved a niche for herself and earned a solid reputation in the field of international education.

In her wide-ranging career, Bakhtawar has helped hundreds of students realize their dreams of studying in prestigious international universities. She has several stories of successful top placements to her credit, at the core of which lies her deep sense of love and commitment for students and an unflinching passion foreducation.

Bakhtawar believes in providing personalized student attention and actively engages with students to help them select the most appropriate university and courses, in line with their aspirations. Her innate ability to relate with students is supported by an enthusiastic and dedicated team of expert counselors and teachers at Inspirus. The unparalleled dedication of this team enables the highest quality of educational coaching and counseling to be imparted to students to enable them to realize their vision of an international education.

She recently bagged the award for Femina World Women Leadership Congress Award 2018.

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Kedar Sabne A Curious Entrepreneur Dening the Boundaries of Innovation

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ntrepreneurship is a demanding and exciting field, Jumping off the Toxic Ship one which brings forward new challenges, a sense of satisfaction, and adds spark to your ambitions.

For Kedar, leaving the corporate landscape and associating But jumping from the mundane 9-5 corporate job to being with Inteliment was the boldest decision that he ever made. an entrepreneur is by no means a small feat to accomplish.

He realized that the road ahead would be full of obstacles, but he wasn’t entirely prepared for the challenge. He always It requires a positive mind-frame, effective planning, wanted to get associated with such unwavering courage, and longorganization to which he can say term vision to survive the it’s his own company and use all entrepreneurial bandwagon. his years of experience in Kedar Sabne, Director of I firmly believe that shaping up that organization Inteliment, is one such for great heights, he wanted to individual who took off his you can make mistake while play a role of a catalyst and be corporate hat to put on his performing your duties, you impactful. That’s where Kedar entrepreneurial hat and led his got associated with Inteliment company to what it is known should take decisions to ensure through Prashant the CEO. as today. performance, don't worry about the Though, they knew each other as professionals, working with Boasting years of Corporate consequences as long as you had the founding team is has been Experience taken decisions with a clear intent a different feeling altogether.

The freedom to take a decision Kedar grew up in a corporate and keeping organization goals is what matters the most. environment, one which he in mind. This shall give you the liked but felt the lack of Being a finance and legal freedom to get involved in freedom to face board and bounce professional and handled things where he had an back with corrective actions to business set up in more than inherent capability to make 20 countries, extensively things work better, efficient keep your moral high worked on international and and simple. Born and brought domestic arrangements and in Pune in a middle-class family, agreements, managed Kedar took up Company Secretary IP/trademarks, helped in filing and deciding patent strategy, Course along with graduation and immediately after that he raising finance and handling mergers and acquisitions helps completed Chartered Accountancy from one of the big 4s, him in pivoting the corporate strategy at Inteliment and Deloitte (erstwhile AFF& Co). It was a good start of a CS perform his finance and legal role effectively. Every & CA career, handling audit, finance including legal function works on data, KPIs and a qualified charted aspects. Kedar had the privilege of working in larger accountant is the best professional to add value. Inteliment organization since the inception of his career and had rose is an EFQM Business Excellence accredited company for to level where things were streamed lined and growth was their quality of work and the way in which they do it, they basically counting additional zeros either in numbers or geographies in which they were operating. have a process in place and always aims to benchmark the

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best practices, and once that is achieved, it translates into winning over competition.

Turning a Perceived Risk into Success Kedar compares risk with a dream, to dare to dream is the most significant risk and being an entrepreneur is one such risk. Difficult times are bound to be there and withdrawing without trying enough is a “failure.” Kedar believes that just being passionate and dedicated towards work is not enough to convert the failure to success but the time to market is extremely crucial.

He further explains that one has to apply the rule of 80:20 in life, where one can give 80% as per the third party’s expectation, while 20% one should always be ready to work upon; only this will ensure that one doesn’t miss the opportunity.

There are times when things are beyond control, Complicated and frustrating, overriding that situation and remaining afloat is “success.” Kedar feels privileged when he compares himself with the underprivileged class of society. In the past 18 years, he has been working for the betterment of the lives of underprivileged kids. He likes to spend his weekends with such kids studying in nearby Municipal Schools to make a positive impact on these kids.

Understanding of their problems with their life situations puts him into a comfort zone, his worries become subdued.

He says that this is the best way to be grounded in life and keep oneself motivated. At Inteliment too, they have their CSR initiatives on the same philosophy.

Delivering Data Science Solutions at an Affordable Price is his Company’s New Mantra The data science platform that Inteliment has developed and productized will make data science a phenomenon for masses. The aim is to provide tools to enhance better decisions to everyone involved in the process; one need not be a data scientist to achieve the decision analytics. The pre trained and structured algorithm using machine learning techniques can process the structured, unstructured, sensors and social data in a very effective manner thereby making this product the most efficient one. The affordable SAAS based licensing price point is the USP of the product apart from its intuitive UI / UX capabilities. Inteliment seeks to target enterprises and innovators, who aspire to disrupt with data about anything, be it IoT, Mobile Devices, Applications, Networks, Smart Products, Digitized Services with optimal cost efficiency, increased productivity and elastic scalability.

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Kedar Sabne Director-Finance & Legal A Future of Continual Growth Life teaches us many things, every day is different, being a student always will lead to success, maintaining relationships with all stakeholders will not only get their support in difficult times but also their blessings for growth. They have a collective dream at Inteliment, they have their vision and mission and the company aims to achieve that in next 5 years to come. They dream to be a unicorn in data science and Kedar sees himself with the team celebrating success and also solving bigger problems of growth … that’s Life!!

Kedar’s Sound Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs Follow you dream till it becomes a reality, be in charge of finances from day one, build passionate team even if you cannot afford fat salaries at the start.”

“Don’t invest half-heartedly, do everything that it takes, attract right partners to grow and always be compliant.”

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Rahul Chawla A Trailblazer in Creating Landmarks in the Real-Estate Industry

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uthentic leaders have the genuine capability to serve others through their leadership. They are more interested in empowering the people rather than being at the centre stage. They lead to make a difference with the purpose, meaning, & values and build enduring relationships with people. Here is the story of such an authentic and sporty leader, who is bringing innovative solutions in the real estate industry.

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Being an entrepreneur is incredibly liberating, exhilarating and unbelievably rewarding

The Journey from an Employee to an Entrepreneur The legendary personalities like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, motivated and inspired Rahul, who dared to do something different. Rahul is born and brought up in Kolkata and is an avid sports person. After completing his schooling from St. Xaviers, Kolkata, he went to the Modern School Barakhamba in New Delhi for his HSC and then he graduated in Computer Science. While in college, he did several part-time jobs that work experience was much inspirational which made him a multi-tasking person.

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Rahul Chawla, the Founder and CEO of In4Velocity is committed to build a vertical solution for the property development market to manage complex construction activities and customer related sales transactions, with his focused efforts.

Rahul started his journey as an employer with a start-up called Cambrige Technology Partners (CTP). With his strong technical skills and interpersonal skills, he became a key member of the leadership team. He helped in establishing CTP’s presence across several countries.

Eventually, to establish CTP India, he moved back to India from Europe, by dropping his very lucrative salary package. With the strong belief, he is working dedicatedly, to build the CTP’s Indian organization.

“This opportunity of working at CTP, gave me a platform to develop my already in-bred entrepreneurial skills.

It gave me an opportunity to grow, take chances and helps to build a super-fast growing company” asserts Rahul.

Over the time, Rahul realized that it was the right time to establish his own company and since then, he began his journey as an entrepreneur.

The risk-taking ability is what made him different from the others. He left the CTP in the year 2000 and started Orbit-e consulting and merged it into a Bain-funded company. In the year 2004, he established In4Velocity, which is India’s largest Real Estate ERP Company for the Property Developers and Infrastructure players. The company continues to grow its roots into Asia. Further, he established ArrowPS®, and conceptualizes In4Sourcing®.

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Besides, he has also been a part of a global organization called the YEO (Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization), and now is a part of the YPO (Young Presidents Organization).

In4Velocity: Handling Complex Activities in the Real Estate Industry Being a techie and an optimistic leader, Rahul identified the need for a Real Estate software platform that would work towards unifying a real estate developer’s workforce. While dealing with real estate developers, he observed that a single platform product was missing for this industry. That was cost effective and easy to use, making the overall operations efficient. This led to the conceptualization of the product idea for building In4Suite® (as in - “Information Suite”) and over the time, the product enhanced customer experience.

Unique Key Aspects of In4Velocity Rahul builds an integrated information chain across the organization thereby inherently building transparency in communication, cutting down lag time, increasing the speed of execution and providing real-time information for decision making. However, this concept itself was unique in its time. As In4 believes that the core of high performing organization is its expert team members, the company keeps its team challenging, interesting and motivating which ultimately bring a sense of professional fulfillment. At the same time, In4 ponders on -Making time for brainstorming, stressing the importance of creativity, actively solicit ideas, cross-fertilize, tolerating mistakes, rewarding creativity, and Acting on ideas.

People behind Rahul’s Entrepreneurial Journey “I am very grateful to have an understanding and supportive wife! And believe me, this is a key ingredient of a successful ‘married’ entrepreneur”, stated Rahul. He has a group of 8 mentors, friends, and personal advisors, out of which one is his dad, who helped him along the journey to grow personally and professionally.

Rahul’s Enthralling Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs

Rahul Chawla Founder & CEO

age to truly grow into the successful and effective entrepreneurs” states Rahul. Further, he said- “Being an optimist, keeps us going and the realist inside us keeps one successful and sane!”

Rahul also shared some traits that he believes in, which are needed to develop for business and life too. Today, by nurturing the skills such as Learning from failure and getting back up, Ingenuity, creativity, and critical thinking, Dedication and commitment to productivity, Curiosity and an appetite for knowledge, Confidence and conviction, Compassion and emotional intelligence, Positivity, and optimism, Engaging the community, can create more capable and effective entrepreneurs, leaders, and responsible citizens.

“I believe that everyone is born as an entrepreneur. They just need to develop certain skills and behaviors at an early

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The

of SIGNIFICANCE

TECHNOLOGY

for ENTREPRENEURS

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Techknowledgy Train

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lot has changed for entrepreneurs from the previous decades. Majority of these changes are brought by the advancements in the technology.

These technology tools are used to achieve more profit with fewer investments. In terms of electronics, the competition in today’s world has paved the way for less-expensive hardware and software. Furthermore, there is a rise in open source software. Communities prefer to use open source software that provides availability and the ability to modify the software as per requirement. Such digital investments have aided in digitizing the major popular terms and now it has created a new term called ‘digital entrepreneurship’.

Operations like conference calls, video calls, and webinars have simplified the process and have saved numerous costs.

Easy access to educational resources, website development, app development, and communities has brought entrepreneurs together. All these technological advancements are making it easy for new entrepreneurs to start new businesses. Entrepreneurs, who started their businesses in the 70s or 80s, did not have these opportunities nor had such tools. However, still today many entrepreneurs are hesitant to embrace these tools that can be very powerful in mounting the ladder of success.

The Impact of Information Technology

Technology advancements have resulted in better communication, maintenance, supervising and performance enhancements. Customers are now connected without any hassles with blogs, websites, and social media.

The internet and global networking have enabled the corporations to reach out to the whole world with ease.

Information Technology aid in analyzing various parameters economic conditions like firm’s financial position, technology trends, customers future mindset, and a number of competitors in the market. It is also possible to predict the future growth of the company using such tools.

Using such information, young entrepreneurs can make tough decisions in difficult situations. Extreme research and in-depth knowledge of data will help them in penetrating the market seamlessly. Entrepreneurs will know the current market trends and will render out products and services relevant to these trends. Startups will be able to track data and meet deadlines efficiently. These technological tools help both small and big start-ups all around the world.

Virtual offices and twenty-four-seven work from home processes have eased up the operations and have reduced operational costs. Moreover, these tools are affordable, easy to use, and intuitive. These tools have made the communication safe, secure and flexible. The two-way communication has become easy improving overall results in precise delivery of product and services. Such types of communications are necessary for the efficient flow of information between business conducting parties. The technology advancement has opened new channels of communication both internally and externally. It has streamlined the flow of all the information, which can be used to analyze for improved communications.

Technological outlets have been created to gauge feedback for the interaction with customers improving and altering services according to their needs. Such communications has increased the customization, which is a key to success in startups. Using all these availabilities and easy accessibility, anyone can start any venture at any time.

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The Support from Indian Government Indian Government encourages and promotes digital India projects. These projects aid in the advancement of technologies for start-ups and motivate entrepreneurs to use them in their relevant business. The big initiative Make in India aims at developing easy procedures, quality infrastructure, and easy rules for the establishment of the startups. Indian Government’s E-B12 portal is one stop shop providing G2B services aiding the entrepreneurs in easy access to approvals, licenses, permits, clearances, no objection certificate and many more services.

Age is Just a Number The age of smartphones & laptops have made it easy for people to record photos and videos, and music. People have converted their smartphones, laptops into studios, sound booths, and digital stores. Adding to the fact that these young people have lived their life in technological advancements and therefore it is their second nature. On the contrary, such advancements have made it easier for veterans to supervise, create their own new business, passionate projects etc. from their residential’ sofas.

Social Advantage Social profile aids new and young entrepreneurs to promote their business online. These are not as powerful as corporations providing digital marketing, however, it helps in spreading the name. Engagements with customers using LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp can really skyrocket the popularity of any startup. These further aid in gauging the feedback via comments, likes, responses that can definitely be used to the advantage.

An Overall Summary Technological trends have made the world so open that any startup can be established in form of website, application, and that too without any physical infrastructure. Entrepreneurs are evolving into the digital entrepreneurs due to such trends.

Moreover, to join this digital playing field, entrepreneurs must embrace and use these technological aids to run new ventures effectively and efficiently. Monitoring customer ’s strength and weakness, providing solutions at affordable costs, innovative ideas, and bringing transparency will be the success mantra for entrepreneurs in the upcoming digital age.

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Shrinivas Rao Bringing Client Advocacy to the forefront in the Commercial Real Estate Services industry

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ver the last decade, the business world has undergone a paradigm shift. Entrepreneurs can no longer just choose to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors but have to carve out a niche for themselves. They need to stand-out, have an opinion, and bring new “innovations” to set themselves apart.

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One such leader, having the vision and determination to realise his ambition is Shrinivas Rao, the CEO of Vestian. Shrinivas is a huge part of shaping the current workplace solutions environment, as we know it today. Starting his career at a stage when the industry was still in an incipient phase, he witnessed the anxiety and the many challenges corporates faced due to the lack of infrastructure, systems and professionalism. He then went on to play an active role when organized real estate teams started venturing into India and was a key contributor in establishing professional commercial real estate services.

He was involved in setting up of several global IPC operations in South India, such as Colliers International and Cushman & Wakefield.

spanning over two decades. Post his tenure with Cushman, he went on to lead Equis as the country manager with a primary focus on establishing conflict-free occupier services business. During his tenure, he was able to successfully establish Equis amongst the top four organizations in the country from a corporate real estate services business perspective. In the year 2006, UGL, a large Australian conglomerate bought over Equis. Shrinivas was required to relocate to Singapore as the COO – APAC and manage the business. However, after successfully running the business for many years, he realised that the current parent company UGL was diluting the focus from occupier solutions business model towards a more landlord related business model through various mergers and acquisition across the region.

We deliver workplace and portfolio services to help the world's leading companies create dynamic workplaces and mission-critical facilities

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A management graduate with a civil engineering background, Shrinivas has a rich professional experience

It was at this juncture that he collaborated with Michael Silver, former owner of Equis, to form a real estate services company, with a core focus on tenant representation. The desire to create a conflict free occupier solutions business and to fill the gap between what was available in the market vis a vis the corporate requirement, led to the launch of Vestian in 2010, headquartered in Chicago. With an underlying philosophy

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of transparency and accountability, Shrinivas sought to bring about a change in the regular workings of the real estate environment.

He spent the next eight years setting up the foundation of the company and then going on to build a platform to become a niche leader in the space. Being hands on till date, he oversees every aspect from recruitment to business development to project management, while ensuring the company achieves its revenue targets.

A Stellar Performer One of its kind, Vestian is a contemporary workplace solutions firm that specializes in providing occupier-focused solutions to corporate end-users across emerging markets. As the only tenant representation firm in India, Vestian represents the interests of the clients alone.

The benefit can be gauged through the revenue saving in terms of operation cost of the organization.

Vestian is a member of the Indian Green Building Council and is the only workplace solutions firm that is certified in both quality management systems & environmental health & safety standards - ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001: 2015 and OHSAS 18001: 2007. Over the past eight years, Vestian has brought the concept of client advocacy to the forefront, while introducing technology-driven solutions for better productivity.

His Inspiration Shrinivas draws his inspiration from the famed architect, late Ms. Zaha Hadid. Her innovative approach, as reflected in all her designs, is a lesson that he learnt to apply in his day to day functioning and in every project. He believes that, “failure is a stepping stone to success” and one should learn from it, rather than shy away from it.

His Journey Like any other profession, a career in commercial real estate, also has its ups and downs. What works is commitment, focus, attention to details and a persevering attitude. The industry is going through a sea of change and what has worked previously, need not be relevant in today’s context. One should never lose sight of the end-goal and constantly invest in oneself to stay ahead in the field. Look at it this way, every experience is a learning - the trick is not to get carried away by success or be bogged down by setbacks.

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Shrinivas Rao CEO-APAC To all Real Estate Professionals His advice to the budding entrepreneurs is, “Being passionate and committed is the key to success in this industry. Success does not come overnight, so it’s imperative to be patient and persistent.” Knowledge and leadership are essential to each other. Hence, one should learn from the past and be positive about the future.

Exploring a New Direction As the saying goes “Change is the only constant”, Shrinivas constantly strives to keep abreast of the latest trends and industry offerings. His dedication, contribution and innovative approach has led the company on a path of steady progress both in national and international markets.

Sharing his future plans Shrinivas said, “Currently, Vestian is a trusted name in South East Asia, but we are still at an early phase of our journey. We want to expand our reach to other major markets such as the United States and Europe and establish ourselves as a globally respected integrated workplace solutions firm.”

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Sid Naidu Ace of the Fashion Production Firm

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ntrepreneurship is a game of patience, persistence, and diligence. While every idea finds its way through the initial issues pertaining to space, expansion, and investments. Startups today are immensely blessed to have amazing entrepreneurs and opportunities to network.

Stories of entrepreneur’s success are inspiring the youth to act and work to bring their own ideas to fruition. India’s entrepreneurial scene seems to be better than ever.

Government and international organizations alike are investing in innovative ideas. The ideas of co-working spaces or incubators, to accelerate the start-ups by providing monetary and infrastructure support are given a good push to the system. Start-ups entrepreneurs are also making good use of the facilities available and are showing a sign of good times.

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define his people management skills. He poses a plethora of positive vibes and impeccable sense of style that reflects in his demeanors.

The Elite Firm and its Multitasking Achievements

Amidst the struggle of materialism in Fashion Industry, one chooses to stick by his rules and that defines his cult!

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A man of talents, who comes from a humble background is Sid Naidu, Entrepreneur of Sid Production Ltd. Born to a close knit family of Naidu’s, the young boy grew up to be a fashion aficionado. Sid runs a production firm under the brand name of Sid Productions. He has the charm to outwit people or how else would a person

Established in the year 2017, Sid production is packed with young crew of various creative and art background.

They have strong backend team, who are strong in art and creative in fashion industry which helps them to understand every aspect of the client. Working as the stalwarts of the fashion industry, the production house is rapidly proving its mettle.

Sid Productions is his venture that dabbles in fashion shoots, model grooming, art direction and brand building, Print ads, TV commercials, digital and feature films. Sid production is carving its niche in the fashion industry with its unique concepts and a strong sense of high fashion. Having worked with some of the industry’s best people, he shares a strong professional bond with his clients. The company holds clientele which includes the Colston Julian, Leading fashion photographer in India; Ami Patel, Celebrity Stylist; Jolie Wernette-Horn, Creative director of Vogue; Carla Ruth |June 2018|

Denis, Elena Fernandes & Hollywood Actress Priyanka Bose are the Super-Models.

Hurdles Faced by the Enigmatic Professional Sid faced a constant void in his life, since the time he lost his father, who was his greatest inspiration, his superhero, his drive for as long as Sid can remember.

There have been thousands of incidents that have moved Sid in ways that cannot be fathomed, yet he did not stop chasing his dream. Sid also faced so much financial pressure back home during 2012 when he decided to start his production house. In 2017, Sid came back strongly with Multi-tasking ideas to begin his dream journey.

The shoots styled by this professional have been featured in elite international fashion magazines like Chiiz Magazine, Vogue India and Elements of New York, Hug Magazine. Being a regular in the Indian Fashion Circle, Sid has built his brand cell by cell working on projects and multitasking. In the last six years, he has shaped the face of Fashion shoot and has produced some of the biggest Campaign Shoots. The reason he is adored equally by critiques and clients.

Sid says “Next time someone tells you 26 is a young age you might just want to counter question him!” Sid knows how to turn the tables or flip the age coin and make marvels.

Inspiration and Advices of the Fashion Aficionado Building a business is super difficult, Sid has been trying to launch one for the last twelve months but watching a lot of ‘Jack Ma’ videos especially ‘The House That Jack Ma Built’ which boosted and motivated him a lot.

Sid feels amazing to be a leader of the company; at the same time he has so much responsibility to take care of.

Being in the production industry, he would always look at Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is the all-time guru of him.

Sid Naidu Entrepreneur their ideas. When we follow through all our ideas, even if we ‘fail’and nothing works out as we hoped. If we are smart, we would quickly realize that there are lessons to be learned that could help us propel our next project or idea.”

Expansion of the Production House Sid wants to make his Sid Productions a powerful brand in Indian advertising and in fashion industry. They are planning to create partnership and collaboration with as much as creative people as they can. In next five years, Sid Production team is aiming to start functioning in European countries like France and Italy; Bangkok, Thailand and Cape Town, South Africa.

Sid mentions “I’d advise anyone trying to do what I do, not to let failure deter them and to follow through all

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Here’s what to do in a volatile stock market P

erception: Market that did well is a good market;

Reality: Market that did well is a more expensive market.

Perception: Market that did badly is a worse market; Reality: Market that did badly is a cheaper market.

Because of the gap between the perception of the investor and the reality in the stock market, we may tend to REACT to the market volatility emotionally. The following points will help you to RESPOND to the market volatility rationally.

Define: Why do you invest If you have a strong and specific “why”, you will have a clear “how”.

If you have a stronger financial goal which is not vague but well defined, you will be clear on how to respond to the market volatility.

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Having a financial goal as “Want to retire early” or “want to accumulate 5 crores” is a vague goal. I would like to retire at the age of 55 with a corpus that can generate Rs.75000 per month income is a precise goal.

When you are clear with your goals, you know when you want to achieve it and how much money you need to achieve it. Then it will be easier for you to understand how this volatility will affect this goal in the short term and long term. You can take course correction if it is really required.

You may decide to rebalance at the end of every financial year or you may decide to rebalance it whenever market goes up or comes down by 20%.

As you have set a rebalancing mechanism, you will not emotionally react to the market volatility; you will respond to the market volatility rationally.

Don’t Panic

Set a pre-defined rebalancing mechanism

“Volatility scares enough people out of the market to generate superior returns for those who stay in.”

- Jeremy Siegel

Based on the required rate of return and risk taking appetite, you can fix an asset allocation ratio.

Please remember that equity investors get additional returns only if they tolerate volatility.

Let us say you have fixed an asset allocation ratio of 70 (equity): 30 (debt)

Don’t Panic. Selling now means selling low. Temporary declines in the stock market are only a notional loss. It will become an actual loss only if you sell.

You can pre-define when you have to rebalance.

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Market Change

Don’t alter your long term investment decisions based on the temporary short term market volatility.

Remember: This too shall pass: During the market correction or crash we may think, “Good times will never come”. But remember ‘This too shall pass’.

Morgan Housel says “Over time, the investor willing to endure the steepest emotional roller coaster will win.”

Regardless of market correction, don’t give up on your stock market investments. You go up on your stock market investments.

K. Ramalingam Chief Financial Planner

Don’t pay over-attention to your portfolio balance

About the Author

When you watch the portfolio balance more frequently during market volatility, you will get financial anxiety.

You can reduce the financial stress by watching your portfolio balance just once in a month or once in a quarter.

K. Ramalingam is the Chief Financial Planner at holisticinvestment.in, a leading financial planning and wealth management company. He is a Financial Planner and Investment Advisor to Senior Corporate Executives and NRIs. He help the company’s clients identify financial goals, develop strategic investment plans for creating, preserving and managing wealth, and achieve results in their wealth management. The company clients make significant improvements in their investment strategy and unique customized wealth management approach that enables them to take right financial and investment decisions.

This will help you switch off the noise in the financial market. Otherwise this will lead you to emotional decision making. Fear-driven responses and impulsive decision will affect the long term performance of your portfolio negatively.

So you need to consciously avoid paying over-attention to your portfolio balance. Otherwise, your smart phone may trigger you to check the portfolio balance frequently.

Bottomline: When the stock market is volatile, you need to focus on these basics. Battles are not won by the army but mind.

So be strong and stay the course.

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Omnichannel Agent and Customer Engagement Solutions Simplify and personalize the customer experience, empower agents and achieve business success with one workspace for all channel interactions, application integrations, and CX reporting.

Srikanth Muralidhara Choreographing the Industrial Intelligence Landscape

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n unexpected journey of experiments that helps a person to discover the unknowns is what we call it as entrepreneurship. It’s like a cricket match with lots of practice and learning, simultaneously the ending of both the scenario is unpredictable. One such person who is travelling in an unknown path by creating a benchmark for industrial IoT platforms is Srikanth Muralidhara, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer at Flutura.

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At an early stage of his career, he was exposed to customer facing roles. Involved in several wild life conservation initiatives, Srikanth said “My most fascinating experience was a week- long Tiger census in one of the largest tiger reserves in Southern India at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.”

We will always live in a world of constraints; so don’t be afraid to make mistakes and experiment

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For more than a decade, along with his partners Derick and Krishnan, Srikanth played a key role in building the analytics business unit for their erstwhile company. They have been involved in more than 400 transformational projects with fortune 500 companies. He has also been an inspiration to all of them with almost twenty years of experience in the analytics space. The latest event he addressed was the 93rd annual meeting at ISHM, Oklahoma City.

Government Science College Bangalore and mother used to work for the Reserve Bank of India.

The greatest moments of joy was when the customers placed their trust in him to make them successful.

Srikanth believes trust is the highest form of human motivation which brings out the best human values in people and everlasting relationships. This simple principle has helped him as an entrepreneur in several ways and continuing to do so every single day. His first investors and first set of customers were his friends and former customers of Krishnan,

Derick.

A Wild Life Enthusiast’s Greatest Moments of Joy Reflecting back on his own career across twenty years, Srikanth came from a regular middle class family who has done his computer science engineering from RVCE Bangalore His dad was a Professor in Bio Chemistry at the

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Transforming Industrial IoT Solutions with World Class Multi- Disciplinary Team Flutura is a niche engineering data science company offering industrial IoT solutions with a vision to transform operational outcomes with its main offices located in |June 2018|

Houston and Palo Alto, USA; Bangalore, India. It is one of the very few companies in the world to have unique insights into last mile issues in engineering operations for the Oil and Gas, Specialty Chemicals, Heavy Machinery Manufacturing and adjacent sectors.

Another aspect about Flutura is, it has a world class multi- disciplinary team of petroleum engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers & computer science folks who are shaping Cerebra with over 400+ features. This Product is the most comprehensive in the industry for an Industrial IoT platform. Recently Gartner published their inaugural version of the industrial IoT magic quadrant and Flutura’s Cerebra is part of this elite list.

Today, it has specific digital assistants addressing super surgical engineering issues and they are proud to have some great engineering companies with category leaders in their respective industries as their customers.

Experimenting the Challenges Srikanth has a different take on risks, since he views everything as experiments. A lot of learning in his journey has happened on the market front. This is the most trickiest issue to tackle as lot of people still don’t understand how fragmented the industrial IoT market is and the buyer’s mental model within this space.

From thereon, they have zeroed the unplanned downtime of heavy machinery and machine influenced process deviations as an area which is vastly underserved. And they also believe this space will continue to evolve in every step from now on and will be towards Large Scale Autonomous Operations which will become all pervasive.

The good thing about having co-founders in the entrepreneurial journey is that a person can have what they call ‘Core Dump’ sessions. In this session, they let their emotions out and get into a more objective mode of assessing ‘why our experiment failed’. This helps them to get back to a super objective way of assessing failures and designing the next experiment better.

Srikanth’s Advice for Successful Peers Srikanth said that the world’s economic forum has done a numerous studies and predicts that almost sixty-five percentage of children entering primary school today will

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Srikanth Muralidhara Co-founder & Chief Customer Ofcer end up working in new jobs that don’t yet exist which tells, how the world is changing.

Though with 90% of his learning across all spheres includes understanding himself from the past five years he yet believes there is so much to learn. Sriknth states “See everything as experiments and seek help, there is plenty available. Articulate your product or service in the buyer’s language and make it tangible.”

Assessing the North Pole and Fine Tuning to Stay on Track Sriknth views the increasing opportunity to take their products that they are serving by immersing himself into the industries and sectors. Further, he is discovering the next moon shot idea / product features and finding better ways to sell their product by continuously assessing the top friction points which exists for their business today. He is also planning to get into the uncharted territories to explore and expand.

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Swapan Rajdev An Entrepreneur Building Complex Application with Simple Design

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One such successful entrepreneur is Swapan Rajdev, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer, at Haptik which is one of the world’s largest conversational AI platforms. He oversees the entire engineering function at Haptik which includes product development, scalability, and future vision from a technology and product perspective. Apart from this, he is consistently working on new and innovative ways to make Haptik one of the best places to work at.

Being truly passionate and believing in what you are building is the only way anyone can achieve meaningful success

An Entrepreneurial Journey Like every other entrepreneur’s journey, Swapan’s journey has been a roller coaster ride filled with up and downs.

From being featured in the app store as one of the best app in the country to running out of money, he has experienced all kind of high and lows. He truly believes that to become

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a successful entrepreneur one needs to have a mentor or an advisor who can guide through the challenges that entrepreneurship throws. Apart from mentors, podcasts and books have helped him to learn a lot over the years. “The hard things about hard things” by Ben Horowitz is one such book that helped him to become a better leader.

Swapan holds B.Tech degree in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He started his career with Accenture where he worked for three years as the technology consultant. Later he left the coveted job for a startup called Radius intelligence in SiliconValley.

He was one of the first few who was involved in building business tools for marketing and sales professional. Swapan also develops indie mobile apps as a passion. His biggest success so far has been snake classic which was ranked fourth on the app store in 2010.

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ntrepreneurship is an impressive word, a word filled with optimism and the prospect of joy. It is the persistent progression towards an innovative solution to a key problem. Also, it is the constant hunger for making things better than before. To be a successful entrepreneur one must have a passion for learning from a customer, employee and failures. A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work to become a successful entrepreneur.

The Start of Something Big

Swapan has been building Chatbots before the term was officially coined. He scaled them to handle more than two to three million requests a month, at a time when the concept was novel across the world. Swapan decided to start Haptik by leaving his job in one of the best cities in the world.

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‘While talent can win games, teamwork wins the championships’ The main reason behind Haptik’s success is its dedicated employees and that’s what differentiates the entity from any other company. He has invested every ounce of energy into Haptik, to convert his dreams into a reality.

One Stop Shop for all Needs Under Swapan’s leadership, Haptik has been able to distinguish itself from any other player in the market because of its underlying tech backbone. Haptik is one of the world’s largest chatbot platforms, building applications for consumers, publishers, and enterprises. The company has worked across various chatbots use cases such as commerce, customer service, utility and lead generation.

Haptik’s partners and clients in India are Coca-Cola, HDFC Life, Samsung, Sharekhan, Edelweiss Tokio, Goibibo, Amazon Pay and among many others.

The company recently received the AWS Mobility Award for Deep Tech in Mobility. The company has been able to build a complete end-to-end platform that helps with building bots, getting key insights into how bots can take over a chat through the use of an analytics tool and a chat interface for humans.

Swapan Rajdev Co-founder & Chief Technology Ofcer

Some Valuable Insights from Swapan’s Desk Swapan believes that money, success, and status as motivating factors can only take far but there will come a time when none of these will feel exciting enough compared to the challenges which he had to go through.

The only way a person can keep himself motivated on this journey is to build something he is passionate about. He further says, “Being truly passionate and believing in what you are building is the only way anyone can achieve meaningful success”. The ability to accept failure, learn from it and move on is what has helped him to grow.

Self-introspection is one exercise that has helped him to grow into a better person and a far more tenacious entrepreneur. It is the small steps he took every day that leaded his path to become a successful entrepreneur.

Wise Words for Budding Entrepreneurs While advising to the budding entrepreneurs Swapan says,

|June 2018|

“Surround yourself with smart people, at work, and in your personal life. Ensure that you have people in your life whom you enjoy being around. Read and have conversations around multiple domains and subjects”. He further says that being able to bring in concepts from different domains into core area of expertise is how most of the best companies in the world have distinguished themselves.

Moving towards Bright Future Talking about the future Swapan says. “In five years, I hope that Haptik, along with me, grows into a global player and we build things that help make someone’s life easier each day. The impact of what we are building is what I want to see grow, and as that grows I know I will have to grow along with it”. Swapan believes that technology will play an immense role in the company achieving its mission of becoming the world’s largest chatbot player in the next five years.

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ntroduction: English is one of the most important Global language.

Most of the international transactions of recent times were concluded in English. The language has contributed significantly in bringing people and their culture closer.

The benefits of learning English can be seen in the economic, social and political life of the people of the country.

Anil Nagpal Chairman & MD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anil’s biggest passion is providing training to the aspirants. This passion reflects in their training modules which holistically focused on quality. Their training programs are highly engaging making it experiential learning where they use amalgamation of various methodologies for imparting training. Besides quality of training delivery, Argyle offers a wide network of more than 350 hand-picked experienced trainers at PAN India level which makes their training programs highly appealing and sought-after. Anil’s biggest passion is providing training to the aspirants. This passion reflects in their training modules which holistically focused on quality. Their training programs are highly engaging making it experiential learning where they use amalgamation of various methodologies for imparting training. Besides quality of training delivery, Argyle offers a wide network of more than 350 hand-picked experienced trainers at PAN India level which makes their training programs highly appealing and sought-after.

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India has undertaken the gigantic task of rapidly developing its economy, and becoming a powerful country. To fulfil this, people must have up-to-date knowledge of the different branches of science. Without expert technicians, mechanics and engineers much progress is not possible. We need them in increasing numbers. In fact, in Medical Science countries like China & Japan are 3-4 years behind India.

The very reason for this is that these countries are giving very low importance to English language learning.

Besides this, a growing nation has also to guard her against various internal dangers. Under such conditions, the selection of language to be studied by the youth of the country becomes very significant. English is the store-house of scientific knowledge. Hence, its study is of great importance for a developing country like India.

Importance of English Language in India’s international affairs: India’s foreign policy is the focus of attention of all the countries of the world. The whole of the world expects to quench its thirst for peace with this policy.

India wants to be friendly with all countries. She has to explain and convince others that her point of views is correct. This cannot be done without

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Expert’s View

IMPORTANCE OF

E N G L I S H LANGUAGE IN INDIA an effective medium for the exchange of ideas. English provides us with such a medium. This is the language which enjoys the status of an International language. In the U.N.O., the discussions are carried on in this language. In fact, the majority of the countries of the world conduct their business in this tongue. If India wants to play her role in international matters effectively, her people must study English language.

Importance of English in internal matter: India is a country in which people living in different parts having their own languages. The regional languages are quite different from one another. Every few kilometres language changes in India. The leaders and the administrators of the country cannot remain in contact with all these regions without a common language. It is not possible for everyone to know ten or fourteen languages. We do not have any common language at present, except English.

During the English rule, all tried to learn this language. We can feel at home in any corner of the country, if we know this language. English is the language best suited for maintaining internal unity. If we want to crush the provincial, communal and separatist tendencies of our people, we must continue to study it. English is the most important means of national integration with terrorism raising its, ugly head in different parts of the country. We must study English.

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Importance of English in Technological and Scientific advancement: Major technological and scientific advancements have been written in English language. This is the age of science. The world is changing at a terrific speed. This is all due to the scientific and technological progress which the other countries have made. If we want to keep pace with these fast moving countries, scientific and technological research must be made in our own land. We can advance only through knowledge of these subjects.

Ultimately, we have to depend upon English. To produce first rate scientists and technicians, English must be taught to our people as good and useful books on these subjects are available in this language only.

Importance of English for higher studies: For proper mental development it is essential that we study the best literature. If we want to shed the feeling of false superiority and to broaden our minds, we must be ever-ready to take the best from others. Now, the literatures of other counties and of our own different languages can be easily obtained in English. In our own languages, modern up-to-date literature is not available. This makes it essential that our young men continue to learn English. Moreover, many a young men go to foreign countries for advanced studies. They need good knowledge of English. Its importance for such scholars is indeed very great.

Use of English for Seeking Job: Even after the completion of their studies, the students of engineering need to have

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CXO 4

suďŹƒcient proďŹ ciency in English for getting involved in the process of Job seeking. The vacancies for the jobs are often found announced in English. For understanding the announcements also, they need to possess the capability to perceive what information the vacancy announcements contain.

After being able to understand what the announcement of job vacancy means what requirements they need to meet for being legible for the vacant post. Furthermore, they have to apply for the post lying vacant in the concerned company. As they prepare themselves for applying for the job, they need to write a very impressive letter of job application. At this moment also, the quality and standard of their English language that they have used in their letter of job applications matters much.

After the submission of the letter of job applications also, they are required to attend both written examination and interview or group discussion. The qualities of their performance in both the examinations are often gauged on the basis of the quality of English proďŹ ciency.

Conclusion: English must be studied as an important foreign language. It must also continue to be the medium of instruction, at least in science and technology, and in other subjects also in higher classes. At the same time, our national language Hindi & other regional languages should not be ignored.

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|June 2018|

Tushar Mittal An Ingenious Entrepreneur Modernizing the Era of Corporate Interior Market

Studiokon Ventures Private Limited

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is one such prominent company which carries the true essence of an entrepreneurial venture and has evolved as a matured player in the interior design market. Studiokon is a leading provider of end-to-end corporate infrastructure solutions for the corporate, retail, and the hospitality spaces.

conviction in the team is the four pillars that form the bedrock of Tushar. Along with his pragmatic approach to the business, his futuristic vision has assisted the company to reinforce itself as one of the leading innovators in the corporate design segment. An alumni from Harvard University, PGDM from NICMAR and B.E in Civil, Tushar perfectly understands the importance of innovation and customization. His deep business acumen has assisted him to steer the company from its humble beginning to a promising future.

Passion, perseverance, and persistence are the key attributes which keep Tushar motivated. Right from his early days, he was ambitious and had the determination to turn his dreams into a reality. He founded SKV in 2009 with a little investment of twelve thousand with just two employees. Today, the business has reached new heights with over two hundred dedicated professionals and over hundred fifty professional relationships nurtured over the years.

SKV has had the privilege to have worked for some of the biggest and finest brands like Google, Amazon, Adidas, and PepsiCo to name a few.

Create with the heart, build with the mind

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eing an entrepreneur can be easily said than done.

It’s a journey of a lifetime where everyone goes through it a little bit differently. While the lucky few stumble into success in a matter of weeks after executing an innovative idea, others might spend a decade of their lives perfecting the art of entrepreneurship. It’s like filling a canvas with possibilities and then tapping the dreams which allow them to stay ahead of others, avoid mediocrity, and inspire others to outshine themselves.

In India, entrepreneurial ventures are the centers of innovations which help to enhance the employment creation opportunities in the economy.

Insightful Leader at SKV His sheer grit, determination, and with a never-say-die attitude, Tushar Mittal has flawlessly managed to create a niche for himself and his organization in just a small span of nine years. As the Founder and Managing Director of Studiokon, he has led the company to be a leading fit-out and workspace-integrator entity. A belief to excel, a desire to be successful, an urge to push the boundaries, and a 74

A Humble Beginning of an Astounding Professional Odyssey After completing his primary studies in a small village – Rudawal, in Rajasthan, he shifted to Kota to study Engineering and supported himself by working with an architectural firm. Despite going through trying financial

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times, he never left his dream of founding an interior design company. His first placement was at DLF where he worked for a span of 1.5 years and later moved to work with an independent contractor for two years. Much later in 2009, he commenced on his entrepreneurial journey with SKV and never looked back. As a leader, Tushar acknowledges the importance of teamwork and hence he was very selective in choosing his stakeholders, partners, vendors, and his core team members. He emphasizes team building activities, providing friendly environments, and implementing positive learning’s to motivate his workforce.

He further adds that credibility, trust, and self-belief are the keys principals along with honesty and commitment which he has learned and continues to carry in his professional journey.

Studiokon Ventures – The Complete Solution Providers Tushar realized it long ago that there was a ‘supply-demand’ gap in the market and the professional approach while providing the services were minimal. This thought was the platform through which Tushar started his journey with a mindset to deliver optimum services to the clients. From crafting the office environments, creating commercial office premises, SKV has evolved as a complete solution provider rather than offering standalone services. Superior quality, timely delivery, unmatched innovations, and dynamic excellence are the elements which make the company stand ahead of their competitors.

Offering turnkey interior designs, general contracting, office refurbishment and post-project assistance are some of the mentionable services offered under the SKV brand. As a premier business interior company, SKV is maximizing the use of automation and technology to reduce the delivery time and increase the existing quality of services. The company has cemented its space in the market and is poised to be a major constituent of the industry over the coming years.

Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs in the Industry For the aspiring entrepreneurs, Tushar advises them to start believing in themselves and trusting their own dreams and capability. He asserts that “Unless you believe in your dreams and aspirations, you cannot persuade others to trust your dreams”. He also suggests that taking risk is one of the biggest factors which can ‘make or break’ the future of an entrepreneur.

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Tushar Mittal Founder & Managing Director

The Future Bioscope Located at Gurgaon, India, SKV is a well-known brand in the northern fringes of the country. The company plans to have a PAN India presence with an ultimate objective to be the supreme leader in providing corporate designing solutions and make their presence felt even into the unchartered territory. It also plans to rationalize the industry by offering modular and time-driven solutions. Tushar strongly feels that the current generation has a strong inclination towards the western world and that mindset has to be changed by developing ‘home-grown’ world-class solutions. Further, he states that SKV should be known for its work-culture along with its unique solutions and services. With such big strides taken forward, Studiokon Ventures is all set to outshine all the previous milestones and create a benchmark of its own.

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Uma Shankar Bhardwaj Delivering Novelty and Quality in the Digital Advertising Industry

A man with such cocktail of skills, painted the canvas with his own selected colors and has successfully reached the top of his career pyramid is Uma Shankar Bhardwaj.

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About the Bootstrap Project iAvatarZ

We always tried to learn from our mistakes and keep calm on our emotions to grow the business

While working with a multinational software development company and handling their projects in US, he planned to start a Digital Advertising Project in India with his colleagues from the UK. Unlocking a higher potential by merging technology and digital media approach under one roof, he along with is colleagues brought an UK based company ‘Adrevenue’ to India. The business successfully ran for two years with Uma Shankar being the CEO and Managing Director of the Indian operations. In 2008, the arising irregular payment

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conditions in Indian market motivated him to be the Founder and CEO of the entrepreneurial project iAvatarZ Digital.

With the fluctuations in the digital advertising market, the company transformed itself into a leading Ad-network having a strong presence in India, Middle East & South East Asia. Under the leadership of Uma iAvatarZ is adopting the cutting-edge technology and working with the client-masses worldwide.

It is engaging automation in its operations and offering innovative integrated online marketing solutions efficiently.

It focuses on delivering quality resulting in generation of competent traffic to meet its objectives.

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ntrepreneurship is nothing less than an art. It is about creating something novel, formulating the strategic plan, representing the organization in business and the media, and motivating the company in the right direction. Establishing the ability to thrive under pressure, juggle multiple demands, grasp new concepts quickly, and recognize potential opportunities are the stepping stones that contribute to the bottom line of the Entrepreneurship. In order to become a successful entrepreneur one must have a considerable amount of intelligence, focus, determination and flair for the business.

Today, the unique advertising qualities of iAvatarZ working to its core have made it a brand.

“We are a passionate team with strong expertise in media optimization and technology usage in digital platforms supported by firm relationship with large base of quality publishers and innovative technology developed in-house.” says Uma.

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A Visionary Creative Leader Uma is a Software engineer with a strong background in Computer Science and Management. He started his career working as a software engineer with a German MNC and developed multiple applications and automation software for big MNCs to small-scale startups in his entrepreneurial project. This helped him to gain management skills and run his campaigns with profitability. His dedication and vision to understand the best has kept the company a forerunner in the digital advertising market even after a decade.

The entrepreneurial journey of Uma at iAvatarZ has paved a creative way through the growing digital world and cherished each and every opportunity. He always believes in keeping calm and learning from the mistakes to withstand the market complexities. Making himself better every day, Uma never looked back powering the company to expand beyond the horizons.

He has made sure that the employees will get full freedom to deliver their responsibilities. Due to open work culture they feel comfortable and are encouraged for better decision-making. This leads to generation of new ideas for a successful business model.

Uma states that “We make sure our aspirations are in sync with our vision to remain profitable even in tough times”.

The Helping Hands Vish Bajaj the Founder and CEO of Value First has been a prime mentor in Uma’s early stages of entrepreneurship.

His guidance helped Uma to achieve the title of a successful businessman and also lended a hand towards gathering critical insights about the industry. Uma was also motivated about the development in the digital industry by the Founder & CEO of Adrevenue, UK, Paul Quarterman.

Besides, he attributes the success of iAvatarZ to its employees for putting their hard work, time, dedication. He is proud of his team iAvatarZ who embraced constant changes, reassessed strategies and goals for the long term sustainability. This is the key motivation for Uma making him a successful leader in the digital advertising market.

Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs Uma believes that people learn from their mistakes. He suggests the new-age business entrepreneurs to be the

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Uma Shankar Bharadwaj Founder & CEO leaders in their respective domains and take necessary actions which help them in growing their business. His advice to them is to be patient and always have micro management with respect to their objectives. He puts forth his idea of breaking the goals in small pieces and reassessing them from time-to-time.

He proclaims that “If one is invested in any business for a long term then only you can unlock a greater profitability out of the same”.

The Futuristic Approach Uma understand the business better and always make sure that his team is here for a long term value enhancement. He commits to opening a multiple other businesses and make them scalable and profitable in the coming future. He will continue to share responsibilities and vision with is team.

He ensures that his management team will take more control of iAvatarZ operations and take successful elevations in the future.

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Vikas Owdhbal Ensuring Power Management, LED Lighting, Solar and Security Solutions

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Senaxus Technologies Pvt. Limited, Vikas Owdhbal’s dream project is a very young and dynamic company. It is a team of over twenty young Engineers and Management graduates, who are working with the agendas of making STPL a strong platform with stronger augmenting. The team has been working on integrated projects, especially in the corporate sector.

Vikas Owdhbal has successfully delved into the project with the strong support of Rajesh Kumar Budia, his friend for 27 years! Both have a profound experience of more than two decades in the core of Power, Solar, LED Lighting, electrical and security solutions industry. They both are the Co-founders and Directors who have their fair share in making Senaxus Technologies Private Limited (STPL), a colossal success.

While Vikas spearheads the marketing, business development, customersupport portfolios and strategic tie-ups in Senaxus, Rajesh handles the supply chain/sourcing and project execution part. At the beginning of 2014, the duo came up with a panacea to all these hassles in the form of an organization –which offers quality, comprehensive and end-to-end Power Management and Solar, LED Lighting & Security solutions.

During our difficult times, we sail through by our passion to excel

Vikas very passionately has taken care of the work culture and shared the practice, and he says “We have a very open and unique work culture. We have no bosses, only colleagues. We all respect each other’s point of view and suggestions. We work cohesively as a family with only one aim “CUSTOMER SATISFACTION”. We believe that if we keep our customers happy, they will keep us in business”.

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The Outstanding Duo

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tepping into the digital era, the importance of power management has increased trmendously. As a matter of fact, the earth is offering millions of its inhabitants with the natural resources of its power. While the world is trying to find innovative solutions, to deal the situation, Vikas Owdhbal has offered his bit of contribution, by coming up with his cutting edge solution in Power Management and LED Lighting, Solar and Security Solutions.

The Brand with a Multi-Dimensional approach The things around the world are changing every second and the two major things which are affecting the most are Power and Security. STPL is probably one of the very few |June 2018|

companies in India who are into designing and execution of Customized Product Solutions for the both these domains.

In Power management they offer highly efficient state of the art Online UPS systems, Complete LED Lighting Solutions, Grid Connected Solar Solutions with complete EPC. In the security solution, they are designing complete IP based CCTV network for the corporate clients as per their requirements and complete SITC (Supply, Installation, Testing & Commissioning).

At the beginning of the Financial Year 2018, STPL proudly launched its flagship brand “DIVAINE” LED Lighting solution, and the team is confirming: “We are providing all types of indoor, outdoor and Solar based Lighting solutions.”

Phenomenal Services Today’s dynamic market is flooded with mediocre and unreliable Chinese products and even the large suppliers for quality products end up high and dry with lack of timely after-sale services. In such a dynamic market condition, Senaxus Technologies offers quality, comprehensive and end-to-end Power Management, Solar, LED Lighting & Security solutions with utmost gravity on 24x7 after-sale services. It allows its customers to sit back and relax during the installation, along and even after the warranty period. In other words, with STPL, the commitment only gets bigger after the product installation.

Risks and Journey so Far There is a beautiful saying “Eat the ugly frog first” and Vikas goes by that. Thus he prefers to do the most difficult task first. “This will give you a peace of mind and you would be more productive. We actually follow this principle and attribute our success (which we feel is yet to come) to our continuous efforts for excellence in whatever we do.”

Every day is a new beginning and one can learn so much from it. The biggest risk that Senaxus Technologies have ever taken so far is launching their own Brand DIVAINE for LED Lighting solutions at the beginning of 2018 financial year. Vikas shares his experience: “It is a big risk as this market is already densely populated by branded and even Chinese products. But, we are trying to create a narrow path for ourselves by concentrating on niche quality product market demands. We would say that our entrepreneurial journey has been phenomenal so far.”

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Rajesh Kumar Budia

Vikas Owdhbal

Co-founder & Director Vikas is very open about his journey so far and states: “During the last four years of our journey, we have seen many highs and lows. We lost many strategic projects in spite of being Techno – Commercially superior to our competitors, just because we were a startup company and client wanted more experienced people. The learning has been that we regrouped ourselves are presented ourselves more strongly with more zeal for all our future projects.”

Marching towards Eminence Commenced its operations with a humble seed funding, the company has grown by leaps and bounds doubling its size each passing year. When the company started its operations, the first year's revenue was around Rs.5 Millions, which scaled up to Rs.15 Million in the second year and Rs.30 Million in the third year. Thus the team of Vikas and Rajesh are too hopeful about their blooming future and declares: “Currently growing at a CAGR of 100 percent, we aspire to be around Rs.100 Million by the end of this year and around Rs.1000 Million by 2022.”

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Zia Mody An Illustrious Corporate Lawyer Incredibly Transforming the Law Industry

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Corporate lawyers are involved in advising businesses on their numerous legal rights, responsibilities, and obligations, right from negotiating the acquisition of a multibillion dollar company to assisting a small start-up company. They hold a niche expertise on a specific limb of corporate law such as mergers, private equity, venture capital, etc.

uniquely responsive and thoughtful nature. She has been hugely contributing to the law industry with her substantial expertise in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, securities law, private equity, and project finance.

A Kick-Start of Zia’s Amazing Entrepreneurial Journey Zia is a law graduate from the renowned Cambridge & Masters of Laws at Harvard. She returned from Harvard and started her career in India as a junior counsel and practiced at the bar for almost a decade.

While completing her extensive practice, Zia got a rich experience of the law segment with which she established her own boutique law firm called ‘Chambers of Zia Mody’, after finishing her practice. This was a beginning of her joyous entrepreneurial journey.

Entrepreneur’s goal should comprise of moral leadership which is imperative to be a leader

One such renowned Indian corporate lawyer and a female business icon, who has substantial expertise in the corporate law, is Zia Mody, the Founder & Managing Partner of AZB & Partners; which is a prominent law firm in the country, providing precise and practical advice based on the deep-neck knowledge of the legal, regulatory, and commercial environment.

Zia and her colleagues would place a non-stop debate about legal propositions at a time when India was rising which became the wind beneath their seals. “I think my own skill was in running the firm is to be fair, transparent and communicate as much as I can. I think the goal is to have moral leadership which is the imperative to be a leader”, articulates Zia. She believes that her journey as an entrepreneur has not come to an end, and is still continuing. For Zia, her father is the only person who has had great impact on ensuring her value system in the profession. Also, her husband stood as a rock-support and ensured the success of her profession.

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ndia being one of the biggest avenues for business has been a suitable place for billion dollar investments.

Business environment being conducive has also provided proper opportunities to various business models alike. In the present scenario, legal environment has developed by leaps and bounds and has also garnered much-touted attention by investors. There is growth in mergers and amalgamations which evolved various business opportunities and that there is a paradigm shift from dispute resolution mechanism to more impetus on dispute prevention techniques.

Zia’s bedrock idea of starting a boutique law firm was to create a value proposition and provide services of a

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AZB & Partners Rendering its Unique Services The key aspect that makes AZB unique is the average high quality of its lawyers, the nuanced expertise and domain of the partners, and a strong ability to be facilitative transactional lawyers. The uniqueness of the company’s proposition is also its superb skills set in litigation, competition, and forensic investigation.

AZB & Partners was established almost twenty-five years back as a small boutique which was named as the Chambers of Zia Mody consisting of about twelve people. Since then, the firm is accomplishing greater heights with each passing year and is proudly waving its flag as a Pan India Law Firm with over 400 lawyers.

Overcoming the Stumbling Blocks with Sanguinity Risk-taking and entrepreneurship are inseparable from each other. To initiate own business, one has to put his/her career, finances, and mental as well as physical health at stake; which results into developing a successful entrepreneur.

Zia, too, took several risks to withstand the adverse situations and speaking upon that she asserts, “The biggest career risk I have ever taken is to leave my job as a corporate associate in New York and come back to India to get married not knowing whether I will succeed in this profession, which was at that time clearly male- dominated.”

As we all know, life is not always easy. It is all about experiencing a tough fight between our hope and despair, optimism and frustration, and victory and defeat. The way we choose to think, feel, and act to the life’s challenges can often make a big difference. Likely, Zia sharply navigated her life by confidently surpassing every failure that came her way. “Some of my failures have been the inability to think long-term, to react negatively to situations which were partly caused by me and to not listen enough to some people who gave me advice were for my own good. What I have learned is to listen to people who genuinely have my interest at heart”, utters Zia. Success-Tips from Zia Zia is a hard-working entrepreneur, who strongly believes in her ability to see and remember numerous things at a time, and the intensity to stay perfect at every single step.

She is a highly dedicated personality whose focus has always been on providing the best-of-the class advice to her clients. Asking her about what keeps her motivated all the time, Zia says, “The only thing that motivates me in difficult or down times is the assurance that things have to get better. As my mother says ‘God only tests those that He loves’.”

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Zia Mody Founder & Managing Partner While sharing the success-tips with the young entrepreneurs, Zia advices them to successfully carry out their work, to create the window for people to walk into the room for different reasons and to continue to be the mentors. She deeply encourages the power of creative thinking and believes that it can be only enhanced when one is challenged positively and allow the space in the eco-system to do so.

Foreseeing a Future Full of Development and Contentment While enquiring her about the measures she takes to ensure growth and development as an entrepreneur, Zia says, “I do delight daily in some learning that comes my way and any big challenge that a matter throws. I still take a lot of joy in new practices, new talent coming to AZB and lifting us to even higher levels.”

In the next five years, Zia not only aspires to expand her horizon as a leading entrepreneur but also hope to become a better grandmother and to spend more time with her grandchildren, which would add more colors to her life.

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