Thursday, October 6, 2011
iSad - In the memory of Steve Jobs
The world lost a great innovator and visionary today - Steve Jobs, who once said:
"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do".
One of the greatest, most inspiring speeches of our times, from the great innovator himself:
Steve Jobs' Stanford speech in 2005
And, a bit about his life:
About Steve Jobs
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tete-a-tete with fellow entrepreneur- Ms. Shweta Sahjwani (CO2012) @ ISB
Friend’s wedding this weekend? Decided on the wedding gift yet? Not even after two trips to the mall? And let me guess, you are still as clueless as you were when you started to think about it! Enter wishberry.in, co-founded by ISB CO2012 student Shweta Sahjwani, in July 2010, with two friends, Priyanka Agarwal and Aditya Agarwal, she went to middle school with.
I can (almost) read your mind! “What is wishberry.in?” you’re pondering. To quote Shweta, “It’s an online gift registry service”. And she goes on to add candidly “it eliminates wasteful gifting and gift recycling. We offer registries for weddings, baby showers, anniversaries and all such special occasions”. In other words, gone are the days when your friend would receive 20 toasters, 15 dinner sets and 5 tea sets as a wedding gift; or as in my case, vouchers worth Rs. 19,000 for Lifestyle :)
Anyhow, let’s not steal Shweta’s thunder! Shweta and her friends started wishberry.in using their personal savings. Shweta was heading the Business Development at wishberry.in at inception. She was responsible for getting retailers to sign up with their portal, which proved to be a daunting task. She had to contact retailers, convince them to listen to their proposition, surpass gatekeepers to get to the decision-makers. Today, wishberry.in lists retailers including Croma, Guess, Esprit, Mango, Charles & Keith, Nine West, Vera Moda, Jean Claude Biguine, etc. After the launch of the portal, she led Operations Management while managing web-development outsourced to a team based in Kolkata. The co-founders started the business by convincing family and friends to try their service. Today, their promotion channels include facebook, google and viral marketing amongst others. It made staggering revenues through the first year of operations from July, 2010 to July, 2011.
Now, it was time to apply lessons from the “Management of Organizations” course. So my gray cells prompted me to ask Shweta about the wishberry.in team. Currently, their team has 8 people. They usually hire fresh college graduates. Now, reminiscing lessons from the “Competitive Strategy” course, I wondered, what was the competitive advantage wishberry.in offered to customers? Shweta’s eyes almost lit up when I asked her, and she went on to explain “Ever since we launched wishberry.in, multiple competitors have cropped up. This only validated our business model further, and encouraged us even more. The internet usage in India is surging higher than ever; e-commerce is climbing new heights. But we are confident, we offer a customized experience. We strove to get the best and most recognizable brands onto wishberry.in, and to avoid the clutter that normally comes with other big e-commerce websites. We also continue to make functional and operational improvements regularly to keep up with changing trends and preferences. When you register for a wedding with us, you can put up the venue details and pictures. People can enlist as contributors to your gifts. They can even create a gift fund for your enlisted honeymoon to Paris. In fact, one can even send gifts to your friends and family from overseas”.
Excited by her enthusiasm, I, then, tip-toed and tried to peek into the portal’s future. “What next? Do you see wishberry.in being bought by another retail giant or the like sometime later?” I blurted out. “Not in the near future, but obviously we will consider it if a good opportunity comes our way. Valuations of other e-startups are very encouraging. However, I believe that’s still 4 or 5 years down the line. It would take that much time for this market to truly blossom”, responded Shweta.
Finally, a message for our WIB members from Shweta: “If you have a dream. Go for it. There’s no better time than now! “What to do” is the most important element to achievement. Once you have that figured out, find out the “how to”. People love talking and advising; just find the right people to talk to! You’d be surprised how much people are willing to share with someone who is keen to learn”.
I can (almost) read your mind! “What is wishberry.in?” you’re pondering. To quote Shweta, “It’s an online gift registry service”. And she goes on to add candidly “it eliminates wasteful gifting and gift recycling. We offer registries for weddings, baby showers, anniversaries and all such special occasions”. In other words, gone are the days when your friend would receive 20 toasters, 15 dinner sets and 5 tea sets as a wedding gift; or as in my case, vouchers worth Rs. 19,000 for Lifestyle :)
Anyhow, let’s not steal Shweta’s thunder! Shweta and her friends started wishberry.in using their personal savings. Shweta was heading the Business Development at wishberry.in at inception. She was responsible for getting retailers to sign up with their portal, which proved to be a daunting task. She had to contact retailers, convince them to listen to their proposition, surpass gatekeepers to get to the decision-makers. Today, wishberry.in lists retailers including Croma, Guess, Esprit, Mango, Charles & Keith, Nine West, Vera Moda, Jean Claude Biguine, etc. After the launch of the portal, she led Operations Management while managing web-development outsourced to a team based in Kolkata. The co-founders started the business by convincing family and friends to try their service. Today, their promotion channels include facebook, google and viral marketing amongst others. It made staggering revenues through the first year of operations from July, 2010 to July, 2011.
Now, it was time to apply lessons from the “Management of Organizations” course. So my gray cells prompted me to ask Shweta about the wishberry.in team. Currently, their team has 8 people. They usually hire fresh college graduates. Now, reminiscing lessons from the “Competitive Strategy” course, I wondered, what was the competitive advantage wishberry.in offered to customers? Shweta’s eyes almost lit up when I asked her, and she went on to explain “Ever since we launched wishberry.in, multiple competitors have cropped up. This only validated our business model further, and encouraged us even more. The internet usage in India is surging higher than ever; e-commerce is climbing new heights. But we are confident, we offer a customized experience. We strove to get the best and most recognizable brands onto wishberry.in, and to avoid the clutter that normally comes with other big e-commerce websites. We also continue to make functional and operational improvements regularly to keep up with changing trends and preferences. When you register for a wedding with us, you can put up the venue details and pictures. People can enlist as contributors to your gifts. They can even create a gift fund for your enlisted honeymoon to Paris. In fact, one can even send gifts to your friends and family from overseas”.
Excited by her enthusiasm, I, then, tip-toed and tried to peek into the portal’s future. “What next? Do you see wishberry.in being bought by another retail giant or the like sometime later?” I blurted out. “Not in the near future, but obviously we will consider it if a good opportunity comes our way. Valuations of other e-startups are very encouraging. However, I believe that’s still 4 or 5 years down the line. It would take that much time for this market to truly blossom”, responded Shweta.
Finally, a message for our WIB members from Shweta: “If you have a dream. Go for it. There’s no better time than now! “What to do” is the most important element to achievement. Once you have that figured out, find out the “how to”. People love talking and advising; just find the right people to talk to! You’d be surprised how much people are willing to share with someone who is keen to learn”.
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