'The Journey of an Entrepreneur'- A stroll through the launch of MapMyIndia

Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, continues to feast its students on the knowledge to bridge the gap between Industry and Academia through a series of guest lectures. In line with the custom, Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee organized a session on the 'The Journey of an Entrepreneur'. The students of the Department of Management Studies were addressed by Mr. Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, Chairman and Co-Founder at MapmyIndia (CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.) and Mrs. Rashmi Verma, Executive Director at MapMyIndia.

The eminent speakers shared their experience of stepping into the world of Entrepreneurship back in time during 1990's, when very few people had the courage to do something out of the box. When no one else was thinking of entrepreneurship, MapMyIndia was being built up from the scratch. 

It all started with a thought of doing something for the welfare of the people of our country. A thought which manifested in the mind of a person who was well settled in US. All the perks and benefits of US could not allay the desire to do something for their own country. With a wish to contribute to the society, they returned to India. At the time when women and child safety were the issues of utmost concern, to appease the problem, MapMyIndia was launched and the journey to entrepreneurship took off with the sole mission of making the world better through maps and location technologies.

Despite having first movers advantage in the field of digital maps, MapMyIndia faced a lot of challenges but the passion and conviction was what pulled it together all through the while. As a result, MapMyIndia today is Market Leader in digital maps, GPS and GIS also holding 80% market share in the automotive industry of India.

The session was filled with deep insights for the students specially for upcoming entrepreneurs. It was highly interactive which motivated students to live up to their passions and work diligently towards the path of their dreams with sheer conviction.

The session on 'The Journey of an Entrepreneur' added one more feather to the cap of the Department of Management Studies which  has continuously lived up to its promise of delivering quality education to its students with regular industry interactions. The Department of Management Studies dissolved the session with a promise to uphold the tradition hereafter.

Guest Lecture on 'Mergers and Acquisition in a Global Scenario' by Mr. Niranjan Chintam

The changing global scenario has focused the need for change in policies of our country. It was globalization when the economic liberalization took place in 1991 during the tenure of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao with the help of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. That was a big time change which can be counted as the most significant change in the Indian economy. From 1991 until now there were lots of promising changes brought by Indian government, unfortunately most of them are still left as a drop of ink on papers. It seems as if government is sitting on policies there are much important to be implemented for the success of the business world.

A wide view in all this challenges of need in change of business world was discussed on Saturday morning. On 12^th September, 2015, management students of IIT Roorkee had a wonderful opportunity to interact with one of the most important leader of corporate world, Mr. Niranjan Chintam – the Chairman & Co- Founder of Kellton Tech. With over 1000 member strong team, Mr. Niranjan Chintam led Kellton Tech to be the leading enterprise solution provider, serving the complete spectrum of IT needs. Under the leadership of Mr. Niranjan Chintam’s, Kellton tech was ranked 21^st among all the companies 'The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2014'. He nourished Kellton Tech from 2009 and diversified it by his strategies to reach this feat. His deep understanding of technical and financial aspects of the business world was shared with the students with the help of well descriptive slides. He has also created and implemented strategies for different Fortune 500 companies and Government agencies in both US and India. Mr. Niranjan Chintam has received his MBA from Wharton Business School and holds an engineering degree from India. Over his years of experience, Mr. Niranjan Chintam has received many honors and awards, which includes government technical achievements award, leadership award and sales awards for his service. He has a wide experience in the real life challenges in merger and acquisition of different companies as a serial entrepreneur.

Mr. Niranjan Chintam’s visit to the management department of IIT Roorkee was a great opportunity for the management students to know about the real life challenges of the business world. The topic chosen for the day was ‘Mergers and Acquisition in a Global Scenario’. Mr. Niranjan Chintam started with the current global scenario, showing the process included in reality check of the market. The current state of Indian economic scenario was widely discussed. A realization took place, which made one thing clear that the changes in Indian Economy – policies of the Government towards the business world needs a vast change to keep up with the global scenario. How can the ‘Make in India’ campaign can succeed when it takes years of paper work to set up a business? Our India as of now is one the fastest growing nation of the world, is still ranked below countries like Pakistan and Nepal in ease of business ranking. The Guest lecture on ‘Merger and Acquisition in Global Scenario’ had put us in shock to know that, it takes 28 steps to complete a merger of two companies in India, as compared to a four step process in US. And this is obviously a big challenge as this counts in all those reasons which have put India at 142th rank in Ease of Doing Business list.

Mr. Niranjan Chintam also gave a brief detail of his tenure in Kellton Tech and shared his experiences and challenges faced during entrepreneurship tenure. He also gave students a view on the dangling nature and future of E-commerce industries. Due diligence was explained deeply with examples of real world. He also discussed cross-border transition and the advantages and challenges of it.

Management students of IIT Roorkee showed gratitude, for; the knowledge that they gained in just 2 hours of guest lecture, is worth a million times for their future career in business world. Students of Department of Management Studies of IIT Roorkee had shared a valuable time, with Mr. Niranjan Chintam, who had found space between his busy schedule and motivated and enlightened the students for achieving success in their career in business world.

Internship Diaries #16

Shaveta Banda

Webenza India Private Limited

Summer internship provides us an opportunity to get the gist of how is it like to work in a particular domain of the industry. Having tremendous inclination towards digital marketing, I consider myself lucky on getting an opportunity to work with a digital marketing agency, as part of my summer internship. I wanted to have an understanding of different roles under the umbrella of digital marketing. An opportunity to work with Webenza India Limited was what was needed to placate my straying mind.

I was selected as digital marketing intern, Webenza gave me an opportunity to work on various accounts for all the departments. I started off with social media marketing, learnt various aspects on major social media platforms. I contributed in terms of planning social media campaigns for various renowned brands and also gave my best shot in execution of those campaigns. I also learnt about external seeding and how is it an important element of online marketing to spread the word across various channels.

I also got a chance to develop content for various clients. It helped me in understanding the notion of creative and content and the necessary resonance between the two. I was also involved in Keyword Research and Influencer's Research, as Influencer outreach’s importance is increasing with emergence of Influence Marketing.

While working on online research and social media quotient I learnt how to compare one brand with respect to other competitors and how to assess the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. The most interesting part was to track social media background trails left by individuals and brands. After analyzing I used to prepare a SMQ analysis report by summarizing online behavioral traits of brands/individuals. To reduce business disruption by preventing damage to the brand, the companies are opting for social profiling reports these days. I got an opportunity to prepare social profiling reports for various clients.

Client pitching is a crucial aspect of any business. As part of my internship, I also learnt about business development as how to convince client to invest in digital marketing and the approach one should follow while preparing a digital marketing strategy for a brand. I also got wind of how to understand client’s requirement and come up with appropriate suggestions.

Webenza also works in the domain of web development so I  also got an opportunity to work in the domain of Quality Assurance, to ensure the deliverables were of superior quality and fulfilled the client’s requirement. My work was to ensure no gap between the client's requirements and the final deliverables.

Altogether, it was really enriching experience as I got to work on various verticals like social media marketing, content development, quality assurance, business development and web analytics. All I was expecting from my internship was to get a clear picture of what working in a digital marketing agency is like and Webenza stood true to its promise.

Apart from all the learning, I would also like to mention about its fabulous culture. Interns are treated at par with permanent employees. It’s not just about work, we used to have a Cricket, Badminton and Football day every week. My time at Webenza was full of fun-filled trips and celebrations. I made lifelong friends and worked with the coolest CEO ever. It is definitely an experience to cherish for a lifetime. 

Internship Diaries #15

V. Karthik Reddy

McCann Erickson India

  

I was once told Summer internship is meant to identify what one want to and not want to pursue as job responsibilities in future as one kick starts his/her professional career. Keeping that in mind I embarked my journey as Marketing and Brand Strategy Intern at McCann Erickson India in the month of May 2015. From our campus three students (including me) got selected for McCann. We were put under the Strategic arm of MRM Worldwide, McCann WorldGroup . This department is meant to create brand strategies and digital media solutions for its clients. The office environment was energetic and designed to let the creative juices flow around.  We had flexible working hours but at times it would stretch quite late as well.

The best part of my internship at McCann was working on different projects every week. It kind of helped kill the monotonicity of a corporate job. Fortunately, we were directly involved in the live assignments at MRM Worldwide, McCann WorldGroup. It also meant that we didn’t have the luxury to work at our own pace but to meet the deadlines given by McCann’s clients. The first deadline that we got on our first day itself was of 4 hours. It helped us adjust to the demands of the job at hand and within a week we got used to the work pressure. Another enriching experience working at McCann was that most of the clients of MRM Worldwide, McCann WorldGroup are big brand such as Airtel, American Express, General Motors, Lufthansa, IFFCO etc., which meant we were involved in making real time business strategies for such huge brands.

Following were few of the assignments we were involved during our stay at McCann.

1) Consumer insights & market research for CRM program of Chevrolet

2) Strategy formulation and business insights for Lufthansa

3) Strategic Planning for Digital Media Platform for American Express

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my mentors whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled me to perform my job to the best of my abilities. The innumerable knowledge sessions about the Industry and MRM Worldwide, McCann WorldGroup in particular was enriching. The constant feedback and daily interactions ensured our stay at McCann fruitful.

In the end, my advice to juniors is look for opportunities where the job profile is enriching and mentor-ship is supportive.

Internship Diaries #14

Jiviteshpreet Singh Bawa

Trident Group

Trident Group is a USD 1 Billion Indian Business Conglomerate headquartered in Ludhiana (Punjab). The group operates in five major business segments: Yarn, Terry Towels, Paper, Chemical and Captive Power. Incorporated in 1990, the company continues to grow under the dynamic leadership of Chairman Mr. Rajinder Gupta: a first generation entrepreneur.

Internship experience at Trident was really exceptional. I got the opportunity to work with different people having experience in Sales, Marketing and Analytics. I was one of the 3 Research Interns that Trident hired from PAN India through their web portal. My Internship project was to identify strategies to increase market share of Trident Copier paper in Delhi NCR region. Working on Copier paper project gave me exposure to FMCG sector & Channel Sales via Distributor Retailer network. It was a great learning curve for me interning at Trident Group.

Internship Project learning's:

•  Market sizing strategies & Sales data analysis to identify market share of Trident Copier Paper. 
• Sales Trend analysis to evaluate Market Potential of different locations & dealers of Delhi NCR.  Product Portfolio analysis, Competitor pricing & Packaging strategies. 
• Need-based & Behavioral Segmentation, Porter 5 Forces to evaluate segment attractiveness.
• Product & Brand positioning based on Consumer & Dealer research.

I am glad that I got to work on Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) system. TPM is a system of maintaining and improving the integrity of production and quality systems through processes that add value to the organization. I was involved in Quality competitive analysis vis-à-vis R&D parameters. Detailed analysis on TPM process for identifying bottlenecks in increasing market share of Trident Copier included the following:

•  Fish Bone diagram analysis
•  Why Why analysis
•  Pareto analysis (80/20 rule)

Such in depth analysis helped me find insights about Copier paper market. Detailed analysis helped me define strategies for Sales, Distribution, Marketing, Branding and Packaging. I worked on Ansoff matrix to define strategies for Market Penetration, Product Development, Market Development and Diversification.

My project of identifying strategy to increase market share was appreciated by CMO – Mr. Naveet Jindal & my mentor Mr. Srikanth Markonda. They were pleased with the research and analysis done by me on the given subject. The strategies for increasing market share was categorized into the following:

• Share of Preference
• Share of Voice
• Share of Distribution.