The New Next step

I often start up with a thought, which blinds me with the depth of its practical application. Imagine a "dreamy" person like me, being held by thoughts like these..

It'll definitely look funny..

Okay, the thought goes like this:

 " Out of every 10 men in this world, 9 work for the 10th.

Prepare to be the Tenth"

Nice..

I wonder who said this, coz it really inspires me too...

A very strong thought indeed!!

Looks like I have the next step to work on, how to climb, till when to climb and be there..and so on..

Change engulfs me, I cant recognise my own self..

:)

Business Startup Successes of 2008

http://www.thestartcompany.com/blog/2008/12/23/business-startup-successes-of-2008/?goback=.hom

In their article from Dec 19, 2008, BusinessWeek, gives a list of 25 most successful startups for 2008. While it was a dismal year  for most, some startups managed to raise significant capital to expand and pursue their goals.  More than $7 billion of venture capital money was invested into early stage companies in 2008 which is “more than any calendar year since the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.” 

Venture capitalists however aren’t prone to just sink their money wherever.  These were proven companies, many with senior management at the helm with decades of proven experience in their industry, and all had products and/or prototypes, and who, in major part, directed their efforts at solving global problems of climate change and disease. i.e. these were not just entrepreneurs with an idea.  

Sorting through all of the success stories, here is a list of principal characteristics which the businesses themselves claim was the key to their success.

1. have a solid business plan and stick to the deadlines
2. look to fill a critical need
3. innovate and collaborate
4. price your product appropriately
5. understand the business and your product
6. seek experts and hire good people
7. focus and use your time efficiently
8. set goals and pursue with passion and dedication
9. be opportunistic
10. think outside the box
11. track your finances and ROI
12. be persistent
13. listen to your customers

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Survey : Day2&3

.....................

I feel I have no words left..

Only to add that we had could get a good number of respondants today. 

I enjoyed listening!!

And...got very very tired.

From yesterday's and today's survey, I've made myself clear to the fact that I should NEVER work as an investigator. There were too many errors and other things which could have been avoided.

Anyways, anything different today?

One thing...noone's happy with the Government, there are all complains. Like, lack of auction houses, where they can hope to sell their goods at a better price.

This is from the farmer's point of view..

The survey, from my point of view, was an eye opener. I could see, how I ask or deliver questions. We were making the errors, which had been mentioned by our prof. However, since we are aware of them, we were trying hard not to commit them! Like, asking questions without looking at the questionnaire, or the tone in which the questions should be asked.

Natural factors, like tired-ness, were affecting things a lot.

To stand in the sun for hours, constantly searching for the respondants, and finding 1 in 600, was a........ (I dnt even have words to explain)

But to be honest, I've decided not to carry out surveys (to be an investigator). Not totally, but the least the possible.

But there is something very unique in the experience we had for the three days. More than the objective of achieveing our targets of the number of respondants to be interviewed(which was easily completed by the end of day3), we were absorbing so much of data and information, which awed us, surprised us, dissapointed us, confused us, angered us and delighted us..

We never hear a "neutral" news in any newspaper, tv channel, etc. Its always a point of view, despite the fact that it should be neutral. 

But what we were hearing there, was right from the heart and soul of the farmer.

Farmers who are still cultivating, because they cannot switch to something else, famers who are making good profits, farmers who failed & left it totally and farmers who want to start but do not get the right information even from the Government sources.

I also heard, that this year, the percentage of farmers was very less as compared to last year. So, I feel that we probably missed out on more such information.

Overall, I'm even more empowered to learn now.

I feel, there's much more to the picture than what apprears!!

Survey of Farmers, day1

I've never been in a Kisan Mela before, and definitely never surveyed people in Hindi/Marathi. So, it is something totally out of the way, something not normal and something not common in any aspect.

"This experience was going to be different" I had thought, and I wasn't wrong..

We first prepared our questionnaire, keeping in mind our objectives, the time limit, the results (in terms of validity and reliablity) and output (to get good data).

And we prepared this questionnaire in 3languages: English, Hindi and Marathi.

We prepared our stall at the destination alloted, and divided our group of 8 into a pair, one girl one boy, and after a pre-check of the whole mela, we decided to start our survey.

The pre-check was done to enjoy the mela, definitely, and to find the possible destinations where we would find our respondant(s).

After we went out as a pair, we first did pretesting on 2-3respondants per pair. This was done, in order to judge our questionnaire, whether it was framed well, if it led to any errors or mis-lead towards a wrong direction and so on...all in all, it was done so that we could make the necessary changes and get better data in lesser time.

Ofcourse, all of this is the theory part of it. Though we followed what I just mentioned, but we had to face a lot of difficulties. 

1. You cannot find the right respondants.

2. You get tired asking and searching for them.

3. Even if you do find them, they get impatient after sometime.

There's more, but I'll restrict myself.

We had a very hard time to find Rose and/or Gerbera respondants. I for once felt,  that they havn't turned up at the mela!!

After constantly asking people for hours, we could only get 15-20 respondants (the whole group) who actually qualified as our "respondants"...

Phew!!!!

Need I tell how delighted I was to question them?!

After the pre-testing, we made some changes and also realised how much a farmer wanted to tell. We felt our questions were not enough. We did not increase the number of questions as our objectives did not require it, but we kept our ears open to all the information.

Infact, while searching for the right respondants, we asked some basic questions to other farmers as well, who did not belong to the Rose Gerbera category, only because "we" were eager to hear more. 

We mostly found Sugarcane or Maize or Neem cultivators.

An interesting experience was, we introducing ourselves in Hindi and getting replies in English. Yes, flattering english from the farmers.

There were Big, Small, Rich, Poor, all types of farmers.

I'm eagerly waiting for the second day, and hoping to not only complete the target, but also gain more insights...I cherish and thank God for giving me such an invaluable opportunity.

Organic Farming

(The Economic Times : 14th December 2008)

Azamgarh gives a radical thumbs-up

ON A visit to Azamgarh in UP, you expect to find many things radical but hardly a business model that overturns way agri-business companies handle and share risk. Yet there it was — triumphant, recession-proof and wildly popular among the locals. 
    Like all truly smart ideas, it’s blindingly simple. Moreover, it creates value in a way that is sustainable, creative and transforming. The $10-million Lucknow-headquartered Organic India (OI) is one of India’s top manufacturers of organically-grown herbal and ayurvedic health products. It exports proprietary health supplements, brands such as Tulsi Tea Collection, as well as organic spices, pulses, fruits and veggies, and grains around the globe. It claims to be the only Indian company that complies with the toughest US standards. 
    From inception, OI was committed to working chiefly with marginal farmers and tribal villages. Put the two objectives together and you get a farming-based company that requires highly specialised and premium medicinal crops to sell in a ruthlessly competitive international market but has suppliers with few resources. Usually a company planning to export farm produce rarely thinks beyond contract farming — the tried-and-tested formula for halving risk and doubling profit. Low on mutual trust, most experiments end with dismay and defaults as both parties find it hard to keep their side of the bargain. We all know the names. 
    OI took a different approach. It decided it would bear the cost of production, and the risks of crop failure and market volatility. Farmers were to only tend and harvest the crop. In short, each one contributes according to his ability. An OI supplier contributes only what he owns — half-acre plot, labour and farm wastes. He need not worry about investment or prices. OI contributes the seeds, organic fertilisers (converted from farm waste), extension services, organic certification and an assured purchase price. It also assumes the risks of crop failure (this year floods drowned the fields) and market competition. 
    It normally takes a few seasons before a farm can be certified organic. In the interim, a farmer has to grow organically but gets few buyers offering a premium. It’s a risk he is forced to bear in hope of future profits. OI decided to eliminate even this challenge. It starts buying from season one even though the produce can’t be used in its factories. Though it may sound zany, the model worked. On dozens of struggling, rain-fed farms around Azamgarh, where cane, gram and wheat have failed for several years due to water scarcity, this zero-risk business has brought amazing prosperity and peace of mind. 
    “My mother and I have been growing tulsi for seven years. We get the seed and fertilisers free. Plus the company helps look after the crop. After three months, we pluck the green leaves, dry them and sell at a pre-fixed rate. The three varieties — Ram, Shyam and Vana tulsi — are sold at different rates, which are higher than what traders offer. When floods washed away our fields, the company helped us re-plant. I made Rs 28,000 net profit this year from tulsi. It’s less than last year because yields were low but I’m satisfied,” says farmer Ravindra Nath Sharma, who owns half acre, and now lives in a pucca house. 
    It’s a view echoed by most small farmers in the area. They have realised that with missing government support, no irrigation, erratic power supply, and no marketing opportunities, partnering with OI is their only chance of a half-decent life without mortgaging land or migrating. There is an additional benefit. Now trained in organic farming, crops they grow for rest nine months are also certified organic and fetch a premium. The benefits from no chemicals to their soil and their own health is an unexpected bonus. 
    For Organic India, the benefits are equally large and not limited to assured supply of organic products. It allows the company to fulfil its vision of doing business “without greed” in a way that is sustainable and benefits farmers, consumers, and the bottomline. “We don’t do charity. We want to practice eco-friendly agriculture through market-driven sustainability,” says co-founder Bhavani Mitra. OI has replicated this model from Bundelkhand in UP to Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. South India and the North-East are next on the anvil. With 50,000 acres under its belt, OI today has the largest and most widely spread certified organic cultivation plan in India. 
    Interestingly, it’s a model that migrates well not just across crops but industries as well. Suguna Poultry Farm is a classic example. Across 10 states, it has got 15,000 farmers to raise chicken for a fee. It identifies farmers with requisite infrastructure (sheds, water supply and labour). It supplies them day-old chicks, along with feed and medicines. Suguna staff visit the farms daily to check the health of its chicken. After six weeks, birds are weighed and sold. Farmers are paid for growing the birds, apart from incentives. 
    Farmers have no risk because they don’t own the chicken. They don’t worry about feed prices, vets, or chicken prices. For Suguna, the model offers faster scalability as it does not have to buy or lease farms. It keeps costs low, and allows economies of scale while buying raw materials, feed and medicines. By 2013 Suguna says it intends to have 60,000 contract farmers. 
    Indian farmers are mostly entrepreneurs producing for the market. But with small farms, expensive credit, poor margins and high costs of doing business, their ability to take risk is extremely low. Companies like Organic India and Suguna understand farmer psychology. Then they courageously go a step further and harness it to create wealth for themselves, the economy and these farmers. It’s a radically new way to stay ahead of the game in these tough times. 

The next step towards Market Research

First what, I feel, is most amazing is the fact that within 6months, we have learnt a lot about market research. And a lot is yet to come. With the practical project going on side by side, the combi of theory and practical has only helped us think and do more.

What we are doing : A study of Rose and Gerbera cultivators to improvise its cultivation and marketing practices.

How we are doing it: By recognising the following:

1. The managerial brief

2. Our objectives

3. Operational definition

4. Secondary Data

5. Information Needs

6. Characteristics of Information Needs

7. Identifying Survey Technique

8. Questionnaire Formation

9. Field work

10. Post Field work: Tabulation and analysis.

We currently are forming our questionnaire, infact have complete more than half of it.

What is most important, as quoted by our professor is "One verb per question please!"

:)

Job at field, that is to survey famers is coming soon...

Kisan Mela, Dated: 16th December 2008

Lets do it!!