Tag: strategy

Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Why Startups Fail?

There are only three things that can kill a startup: Running out of cash: This is the biggest reason why most startups and even some of the large organisations fail. They run out of cash. Startup founders would give themselves a much better chance of success if they are able to figure out a consistent cash flow. Profitability can come later in the life of a startup, cash flow must come first. This is akin to oxygen for humans. No oxygen, no life. No cash, no startup. Cash can come from investors, customers or founders. The most sustainable of the […]

Heart Beat
Strategy

What Can Business Leaders Learn from Our Heart

Situation: My health check and my son Last week, I was at a hospital for the first of my regular (hopefully) health check. The doctor was checking my blood pressure and told me that it was slightly on the higher side and that i need to make sure that it doesnt go higher.  When my 9 year old son came to know about this, he asked me the reason for high blood pressure and this lead to a discussion about the functioning of our hearts. When I was explaining the functioning of the heart, I realized the importance of rhythms […]

Podcast

PBTO1: Launching “Pushing Beyond the Obvious” Podcast

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I had earlier announced that I will launch my podcast shortly. Today, is the day when I would like announce the launch of “Pushing Beyond the Obvious” podcast. This is the first episode of the podcast. In this episode, I talk about what this podcast is about and whom is it relevant for. This podcast is relevant to you if: You are an entrepreneur or a CEO You are a manager responsible for sales, marketing, innovation or strategy function in your organization. The podcast provide you insights and strategies on how to push the boundaries of the following functions: Sales […]

Strategy

Lessons in Designing Strategy from Planning a Road Trip

Yesterday, one of my friend approached me seeking help in planning a road trip across my home state (Rajasthan, which shares a border with Pakistan). So, we did what everyone in such a situation does. We researched all the cities and listed down a long list of places of interest in the state; we researched about the weather during his visit; options for stay; possible routes; places to eat, etc. We then wanted to decide on all the options and found out that the entire exercise was overwhelming to say the least. There were just so many decisions that needed […]

Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Could Online Retailers Be Profitable and Grow?

Most online retailers are not profitable yet and the industry estimates are not looking good either. The online retail industry has so far been competing with each other on price and costly customer acquisition, which in combination does not auger well for profitability. The prevalent belief is that only at scale (aka, a billion dollar or more in revenue) can these retailers believe to be able to amortize their customer acquisition and marketing costs. This belief stems from the assumption that you need to pay (or offer a hefty discount) for people to shop online and to market (aka advertise) […]