The other day, I got invited to Dinner by WCED as a core member of EVC.
This was hosted for delegates from different parts of the world, involved in business incubation - in short, helping entrepreneurs in their country suceed.

I stopped a guy and we started to chat. He was a delegate from Ankara, Turkey who was associated with the Turkish Ministry and helped in the development of small scale industries in his country. He seemed quite excited about India, and we had a good 1 hour chat on education, life in school and his life at Ankara.
He was a heading a Basketball coaching centre in Ankara apart from Ministerial responsibilities, studied for 8 years, married his school mate who was a psychologist by profession, and had a 9 1/2 year old son. Turkey, he said had a similar problem lke India, disequilibrium of income distribution, with 10-12% unemployment rate.
That is why he was helping entrepreneurs set up their business and increase employment. He had been in around Hyderabad and was fascinated by Indian food.
I was in turn lucky to know more about Turkey, the beautiful natural bridge of Bosphorus, the city of Istanbul and a little about his beliefs.
We were joined by a guy from Iran, who hoped to increase the business interaction between Iran and Turkey.
We parted with the hope to meet again...and mutual good wishes.

A great way to spend an evening.
:)

The other day, I got invited to Dinner by WCED as a core member of EVC.
This was hosted for delegates from different parts of the world, involved in business incubation - in short, helping entrepreneurs in their country succeed.

I stopped a guy and we started to chat. He was a delegate from Ankara, Turkey who was associated with the Turkish Ministry and helped in the development of small scale industries in his country. He seemed quite excited about India, and we had a good 1 hour chat on education, life in school and his life at Ankara.
He was a heading a Basketball coaching centre in Ankara apart from Ministerial responsibilities, studied for 8 years, married his school mate who was a psychologist by profession, and had a 9 1/2 year old son. Turkey, he said had a similar problem lke India, disequilibrium of income distribution, with 10-12% unemployment rate.
That is why he was helping entrepreneurs set up their business and increase employment. He had been in around Hyderabad and was fascinated by Indian food.
I was in turn lucky to know more about Turkey, the beautiful natural bridge of Bosphorus, the city of Istanbul and a little about his beliefs.
We were joined by a guy from Iran, who hoped to increase the business interaction between Iran and Turkey.
We parted with the hope to meet again...and mutual good wishes.

A great way to spend an evening.
:)

All in a day!

I attended a talk by Sivakumar Sundaram, the Director of Times Private Treaties Group.
Liked the amazing business model they had in place.
So much like a call option.
Wrote an article on that:-

EVC hosts Mr. Sivakumar Sundaram, Director , Times Private Treaties Group

Mr Sivakumar held a very interactive sessoion with the students and discussed important aspects of Brand building for a company, leveraging the brand to charge a premium from customers and the business model of Times Private Treaty.

He mentioned the “Orbits of Life” concept revolving around Needs, Wants and Gives. As an example he mentioned the shift from Survival (need) to Greed (want) to Guilt (gives). While at the level of need, companies wage a price war, fulfilling a functional desire, at the level of Want, the war is to satisfy the aspirational objectives of the target segment. Brands become important in those cases. The greatest brand, according to Mr Sundaram, was religion because of its high switching costs.

Currently, a mere 2% of the Indian population consumes brands. However this is all set to change and grow to 16% in the coming years. The shifting of the orbits of life was illustrated through change in nomenclature – from barber to hairstylist, from tuition teacher to career advisor and other such examples.

In all this, Communication plays a very important role in enabling this shift and enhancing the value appropriated by a company selling its products. With the help of brands, commodities can be differentiated. The value of the brand is increasingly being recognized in the corporate sphere. In the March last year, P&G bought Gillette for $57 billion of which $ 3 billion were for intangible assets like Brand.

Private Treaty is committed to help enterprises reach the customer through advertisement in the Times Media group and reap the benefits of increased brand awareness and knowledge. While they bear the initial risk of backing a horse, they are able to monetize their investment through a share of equity. When the company performs, the market capitalization soars, and both the company and Private treaty are able to reap the benefits of the brand building exercise.

Private Treaty offers a 3 pronged solution – Advertising support, Branding input and corporate image. Advertising support offers an entrepreneur the flexibility to use all BCCL media properties, Branding provides him with strategic advice while corporate image enables the enterprise to build a profiting business success.
He ended the discussion with the hope to help more entrepreneurs reap the profits of building a brand and help more customers achieve their aspirational desires.