The Animation Man: DQ Entertainment.

Tapaas Chakravarti loved comics enough to mop up an impressive collection, but for a long time, thought little of making a career out of it. A sales and marketing professional, he had modest ambitions and a low-risk job profile until eight years ago. Then, overtaken by a passion for animation and entertainment, he chucked his job and started DQ Entertainment that has grown into one of India’s largest production houses for animation and visual effects now.

Sitting pretty at his vaastu-designed office in a winding lane off Hyderabad’s posh Banjara Hills area, Chakravarti talks of taking DQE, which started as an animation outsourcing firm, to the next level of creating own animation titles and diversifying into games. Set up in 1999 with an initial investment of Rs 5 crore, DQ Group has today become a Rs 250-crore entity with 3,200 employees. It has expanded its production facilities to China and Philippines and has lined up a number of projects involving the creation of intellectual property. 

But the dream of entrepreneurship was not easy to realise for Chakravarti. When he started, there was no funding available for animation ventures. So, he dipped into his savings from his stints at Sandoz India (now Novartis), Coats of India and Shriram group and started the firm. But within a year, early track record helped DQE get its first equity investor. Four others came on board in 2002. Now, the promoter holding is only 25% with investors including International Finance Corporation, TDA Capital Group, India Value Fund, and IL&FS Investment Managers holding the balance. 

“We focused on outsourced animation work to begin with. But, for the last three years, the thrust is on IP generation. Only 25% of our revenue come from outsourcing now and the rest comes from outsourced work and co-production,” Mr Chakravarti says. 

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) estimates that global animation market will grow from $59 billion in 2006 to $80 billion by 2010. The market for animated content and related services is estimated at $25-26 billion and forecast to cross $34 billion by 2010. Gaming market worldwide is expected to grow from $21 billion to $42 billion, while the gaming content market is estimated at about $7 billion in 2006 and is expected to cross $13 billion by 2010. 

“What makes us different from our competitors is that, we moved from being an outsourcing partner to an IP generator. We also have strong tie-ups in place, which helps us produce quality content,” he says. DQE has partnerships with leading production houses such as Universal, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, France-based TFI, M6, BBC and Italy-based RAI Group. 

The company has also formed joint ventures with two French production houses: Method Films and Onyx Films. “We have picked up 30% stake in Method and 5% in Onyx. Under Methods Films JV, we are looking at producing feature films. And, with Onyx, we have started working on two feature films. Skyland will be ready for release in 2008 while Night of the Child King will be released in 2009,” he says. 

DQ Entertainment is now ready to diversify into the gaming segment, covering the gamut of 3-dimension console games, mobile games and online web-based games. 

In the pipeline is a console game based on Harry Potter. “We already have the content in place as we own IPs. The challenges lies in transforming the art into technology,” he says. 

It is also setting up pre-production and post-production studios in Paris and Los Angeles at an investment of $10 million. While the Paris studio will be a joint venture with France-based Onyx Films, the US facility will be set up by DQE itself. 

The company has also lined up strategies to address the talent crunch, which is a major challenge for companies in this segment. DQ is working with state governments and setting up its own training academies to ready supply of trained manpower. “We are working with Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for setting up animation academies. We are planning to set up 10 academies of our own,” he said. The company has added over 4,000 animation and gaming personnel to the talent pool and it is aiming to train over 3,000 more in next two years. DQE will also invest Rs 19 crore on a new campus in Hyderabad.

Interview with DQE CEO Tapaas Chakravarti.

What's the latest news with DQ Entertainment Ltd?

A major long-term contract for 4 - 26x26 3D TV Series and 2 feature films in 3D have been finalized on 17th of January with a major French producer to be co-produced with Broadcasters from Europe and USA. This production will be completed between 2006 - 2009. The deal is over Rs 180 crores - a major break through for DQ Entertainment! On 2nd of Jan, DQE also went ahead and signed a contract for two 2D TV Series with a European major with a deal over 50 crores to be completed in the next 18 months.

We are working on a 3D console game based on the animated TV series Skyland, which is our co production with a French studio and has sold in 77 countries. This 3D console game production has already started in France and in India with confirmation from a major US publisher for sales and marketing by middle of 2007. We are very happy that the second season of Skyland - 26x26 co-production is also confirmed to start by 3rd quarter of 2006.

Last year we worked on 26 projects some of which are continuing into 2006. 20 of these are TV series and 6 are Direct to Home Videos.

We are the largest outsourcing and co-production studio in the world with a total of close to 2700 artists. Amongst these 1900 artists are working at DQ's 2D & Flash animation units in India, South East Asia and Far-East, while over 850 artists are engaged in the 3D division in India. We are looking to grow to 4000 in the next 18 months, which will include maximum growth in 3D Mobile and Online games. 

The gaming division already has over 192 people under training with ambitious plans for rapid growth.

When and how was DQE formed?

Originally in the early nineties we were a software and multimedia company, but I always had a passion for art and cartoons. I had a personal collection of more than 4,000 comics, which I have now donated to a library.

In the Mid 90's due to my international exposure, I knew that something could be done in animation. We wanted to kick-start the studio but nobody was willing to fund it. All the investors then, thought that only Disney and Warner did animation. The Mid 90's witnessed the dot com boom and investors were of the opinion that we should start a dot com company. 

With no funding available for an animation venture I invested my own earnings in 1999 and formed DQE. By the end of 2000, the company got its first equity investor and four more investors came in 2002 after they saw our immense performance and we have never looked back since then.

Managing a vast multitude of creative people must be tough. Please throw some light on your management practices?

We call it superior management skills where artists are empowered with freedom for being creative under the company guidelines. Every employee of the company has a feeling of ownership for the work that they do and also for the company.

The key factor is believing in ourselves and the creation of a core management team that has the same conviction. Equally important is simplicity of operations, corporate governance, where each and every person's role is well defined. Enough freedom is given to an artist to use his/her creativity for quality and we have very effective management for production.

Every project has to be of the best quality and on time. Non-stop training and development for creative people with very well defined HR, Technical and creative programs. We set up the DQ center for learning around six years ago and In house training has been one of our major investments in the last six years. 

We have developed (and patented) a proprietary ERP system, which is the first in the world for production management, people management, and company management. 

What is the most important issue facing the Indian animation industry?

Training.

Gear up for training fresh people, If the government comes forward and takes animation training on their agenda then many studios will be saved from bankruptcy. 

This Industry is growing rapidly; entrepreneurs and big companies are also in the fray. In a long-term perspective this augurs well, it is a good sign and the Indian industry will have more recognition worldwide. But short term such a scenario will mean a severe war to retain talent and human resource.

Today the attrition rate at DQ is just 2 to 3%, however we are gearing ourselves for a higher percentage.

My message is you should invest in training. You must train and invest in training and development. It is a must investment.

Do not crib, cry and fight with competition, we are a democratic country. People can move after their contracts have expired. All good companies must invest in training and manpower. Not depend on hiring people from other studios. All big companies in IT sector have robust training programs and sizeable investments in training, in spite of that there is a 20% attrition rate there, the BPO industry boasts of an even higher rate close to 30%.

The people here don't want to move because they believe that DQ is for them, they are looked after well, still there is some attrition due to the hometown factor. I consider churn as a cross-fertilization of knowledge, this will grow the industry and people do come back, it's a circle. 

30% of investment in our company has been into training. It is a humungous task and only this way one can create a lasting workforce and a company that generates value and world class award winning content.

We believe that the Central as well as State Governments have to take progressive and quick initiatives to promote creation of local content for TV and theatrical markets to further enhance the potential of this industry.

Could you elaborate on the Awards bit?

We have won quite a few International Awards. Toddworld - 56x 11 mins, , a co-production with Mike Young Productions for Discovery Kids was nominated for Emmy. Delta State (Flash animation cum live action) won awards at BAAF, Mumbai and then at Annecy, France. Two of our other TV series will be competing at the 05-06 Emmy Awards. Our company was selected as the top 100 Asian Companies for the year 2005 by Red Herring, California. 

Future Plans?

We are already in the process of creating TV and Theatrical content for India and global markets, produced exclusively by us and assisted by US and French based companies. 

Skyland was co produced for four Broadcasters and sold in 77 countries including Nickelodeon U.S., that is the kind of business model we are pursuing. We have to create a series that sells in 77 countries!!

Major thrust area for us in the next 3 years will be 3D Online and Mobile Games development on a large scale and enhancing capacities for 2D, Flash and 3D Animation production for Asian and Indian Markets. There will also be a major foray into distribution Merchandising and Publishing. 

Most of the co productions out of India are nothing but dignified reduction of price to get orders, It was true for us also initially but now in the last one year we have a sizeable share in the backend of most of the projects we do. We will move towards real co productions with hard currency investments where we will be involved in the pre production, original property ideas, distribution and merchandising with partners. 

We are also rapidly expanding into high end games development, animated feature film production for worldwide distribution and other children's entertainment related businesses. Many big things will happen in 2006 and onwards.

No plans for opening other studios in Indian cities in the near future, long term we may expand to Mumbai, Bangalore or Kolkatta.

A large fund raising is bound to happen sooner or later, with objective of global growth plans. Vision 2010 for DQ is to be a globally recognized children's entertainment company.

Asking the Profesionals: Capt Gopinath

‘UNLOCK INNOVATION’

I am a 45-year-old businessman from Gujarat. Currently, I have a trading business operational out of Mumbai and Gujarat. However, it is not performing as well as I had hoped it would. Moreover, my worries have multiplied as I have had a string of unsuccessful business ventures before starting this business. This has started affecting my decision making. I am worried that I might fail in this business as well, as I did in my previous experiences. How do I deal with this phase in my entrepreneurial venture? Please advise.

Captain G. R. Gopinath

INDIA today is a country abounding with opportunities and optimism. The 9% GDP growth rate of the past few years, coupled with rising incomes and progressive liberalisation, has inspired a wave of first generation entrepreneurs to the fore. Newage entrepreneurs, both small and big, are making a foray into diverse sectors and pioneering new opportunities and potential.

You can be an entrepreneur and achieve your dreams regardless of where you are right now. Do make sure you have a vision, a well researched plan in place and stay positive? It also helps to take a long view as you may have to take a step back to survive for the next day.
I often tell people that, we cannot let the fear of stumbling make us give up walking and moving ahead. I have not studied management nor do I follow B-School jargons. I believe in taking risks, pursuing challenges and innovating at every step. I largely rely on my gut instinct which is backed by exhaustive reading and discussions.

CAUSE AND EFFECT:

In a business the two most important activities are cost optimisation and increasing profit/income. It is critical to study the market, the opportunities to differentiate your product in the market and provide the consumer more reasons to acquire it than ignore it. To identify what you are doing wrong, you have to come clear on your own strengths, weaknesses and objectives. Specify your goals and the course of action you believe will lead to it. You refer to your trading business spread between Mumbai and Gujarat. You need to understand your business space, your competitors and above all your target consumer. Think for yourself. Disengage yourself from what everyone in your industry is doing or saying. Do your own research exhaustively on your market, competition and the product.

INNOVATE:

Unlock innovation. Start by taking a long, hard look at rules and behaviours inside your organisation that might be scuttling innovation in the first place. Don’t hesitate to challenge outlined assumptions. Do not restrict innovation only to the business product, work on your processes, structure, business model and even the market. Ask questions like “What if we do this differently?” or “ What if we target a different consumer base?” During the course, you can identify processes that will enable you to inch closer to your objective. Look for innovation from diverse and multiple sources. Innovation can stem from employees, partners, suppliers and also consumers, make sure that you are not ignoring any of them.

I was born in a remote village in Karnataka where my father was a school teacher. I studied in a Kannada medium school till class 7 .After graduating from the National Defence Academy I fought in the 1971 Bangladesh war and later served in the Indian Army for eight years. I knew I had to leave my sheltered army life and explore new opportunities but I hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do. I took premature retirement in 1978 and with Rs 6,000 in my pocket left for my village with plans to till my ancestral land. That decision turned out to be the turning point of my life. As luck would have it, a dam built on River Hemavathy had submerged our lands in exchange for which the government allotted us 40 acres of barren land which no one in my family wanted, due to its inaccessibility. I decided to live on the land and give it a try.

With loans from family and friends I started with agriculture which proved to be a constant struggle leading to perpetual debt. I learnt about sericulture and decided to move away from the traditional techniques and adopt modern sericulture practices which are cost effective, environmentally safe and sustainable in the long run. Finally, the gamble paid off, I made profits and was able to pay off my debts. The eco friendly technique of silk farming also earned me the Rolex International Award in 1996.

While there is no recipe for success, you should keep in mind that sometimes innovation is first met with hardship. Many times there is a lot of push back. It is important to remember why you started the business in the first place. If the dream inspires you keep on fighting, if not, it is better to change course. Most importantly, learn to assimilate failure. No failure or disappointment is a closed chapter. It is an invaluable opportunity to rectify errors, and move forward.

EXECUTE:

While planning is important for progress and success. It is execution which becomes the undoing of great plans and strategies. It is critical to motivate your team to identify with your vision and help them pursue and achieve their potential. A good thumb rule is ‘Ready, Fire, Aim.’

How to Get the Most Important Things Done.

Have you ever gotten to the end of a "busy" day and then realized that you didn't really get anything significant done?

One of the biggest causes of this common problem is what Peter Drucker calls "drifting into trivia." Getting so caught up in all the small
stuff that you forget to do the big, important stuff.

There are many opportunities during each day for you to drift into trivia: remembering a phone call you need to make, coming across a piece of
paper reminding you of some other project, getting an email asking you a question, a call from a colleague, a drop-in visitor, etc.

Before you know it, the important task that you were working on is hijacked by a much less important errand.

If you find yourself routinely working on unimportant things or not accomplishing as much as you want, you may be drifting into trivia more often than you think.

Drifting into trivia is not always easy to spot. Sometimes the work that you drift into seems important, but if you take a step back and reflect on what you are really trying to accomplish, you realize that the work doesn't really serve your
objectives and is merely distracting you from what you really need to do.

The best way to avoid drifting into trivia is to have clear priorities and objectives. When your priorities are clear, you will be able to tell when that tempting distraction is less important. You will realize immediately that by doing it you would be drifting into trivia.

Setting Clear Priorities

Effective time managers quickly realize that they simply cannot do everything. They have to be selective with their limited amount of time and consciously choose to spend it on what is most important to them.

This is why it is so important for you to be the one choosing, rather than just going with the flow and allowing circumstances, interruptions or other people to choose for you.

Prioritizing means taking conscious control of your choices and deciding to spend more time on the projects and tasks that are important and valuable, and less time on the ones that are not as important or valuable.

This may sound obvious, but the fact is that the vast majority of people don't put much thought on how they spend their time. They just flow through life doing whatever grabs their attention next, or repeating the same things day after day
out of habit and routine.

How to Prioritize

The ABCD prioritization method is a simple, practical and powerful technique you can use to prioritize your projects and tasks.

You should start by prioritizing your projects (which represent your outcomes) based on their importance.

I normally assign an A priority to ongoing projects that I'm actively working on, as well as important long-term projects that I want to continue moving forward.

Your A projects represent outcomes that you have decided are important enough to commit time to on a regular basis. So, if you think you should be making progress on a project right now, give it an A priority.

I assign a priority of B to projects that are "under review." They may very well be worth moving forward, but they are not important enough to devote time to them this upcoming week. You can then revisit your decision during your next weekly
planning session.

One common mistake while prioritizing is to automatically assign an A priority to urgent things, and to push back important long-term projects to B or even C priority.

If a long-term project truly is important, you should make it an A and commit time to it on a regular basis.

I usually leave urgent but non-important projects/tasks as either B's or C's, which helps me to productively procrastinate on them until I can truly determine if they are worth doing. Since I review them regularly, I don't have to worry about them falling through cracks or becoming a crisis.

The C priority category represent projects that I may want to do at some point in the future, but definitely not right now. Once I've decided that a project is a C, I won't even consider committing any time to it during the upcoming week.

Finally, I reserve the D priority for projects and tasks that I'm not planning to do at all. They are simply not worth my time right now.

Prioritize Your Tasks

Prioritizing tasks is slightly different than prioritizing projects. In general, projects are things that you are going to work in parallel during the week, so the project priorities help you decide which projects to work on, as well as
how much time to devote to them.

On the other hand, you normally work on tasks for a given project sequentially. You work on the most important thing first until completed, and then you move on to the next most important thing, and so on. Task priorities help you decide the
ordering of tasks within a given project... which task to do first, which task to do second, etc.

You don't need to worry about any other projects or tasks you may have, just consider how important the task is for its project.

When prioritizing tasks, I usually start by categorizing them into one of the ABCD labels without providing a rank.

Ranking the Items

Once I have assigned a priority label to all tasks, I focus on the A's and assign individual priority rank values to the top five to ten tasks:

A1 for the most important, A2 for the next most important, and so on.

You can usually tell which of two items is more important just by looking at them.

If you are having trouble deciding, just ask yourself: "If I could only complete one of these but not both, which one would I choose?"

If you think two tasks are equally important, just assign the same priority value to both of them.

If you have more than ten tasks for a project, you don't have to assign rank numbers to all of them. Just rank the top five to ten tasks and leave the others with their general labels (A, B etc.)

One important benefit of prioritizing is that it allows you to focus on your most important tasks without getting overwhelmed by everything that you need to do.

That's why I suggest you only rank five to ten tasks: it allows you to focus on a small number of tasks at any given time.

Achieve Planner makes it super easy to filter your task list by priority so you can stay focused on your most important tasks.

If you still find your large task list overwhelming or distracting, simply move more of your tasks to B or even C status.

Working with Priorities

The key to making the ABCD method work for you is to develop the habit of using your priorities to guide your work.

Whenever you start working on a project, start with the top priority task and work on it until it's done (or it's time to work on some other project).

If you consistently choose to spend your time on your most important projects and tasks, you'll be making great use of your time and you'll feel much more productive.

Here's What You Can Do Now

1) Look over your projects and categorize them into A's, B's, C's and D's

2) If you start working on a project and you haven't prioritized your task list, spend a few minutes prioritizing your tasks and then get to work on your most important task first.

3) Whenever you start working on a project, start with the most important task first - develop the habit of using priorities to guide your work.

Here are some additional resources and tools that you might find useful...

1) Achieve Planner Software

Achieve Planner software for Windows helps you get organized, increase your productivity, and make better use of your time. Here's what one user had to say...

"After trying Achieve Planner for nearly two months I can honestly say that it has
revolutionized the way I work. I have an incredibly busy schedule so I need something that can cope with a multitude of tasks, projects and appointments whilst at the same time keeping me focused on what is most important. Achieve Planner does all of this and much more besides.

Over the years I've tried pretty much every system on the market and nothing, absolutely nothing, comes anywhere close to this. It looks great, works superbly, comes with excellent instructions, is a pleasure to use, but most important of all - IT REALLY WORKS!

For anyone who wants to get organized and take their productivity to the next level Achieve Planner is an absolute must. It's one piece of software that I'm certain I'll be using for many years to come."
Paul Smithson

2 ) The Journal" Diary Software

Keeping a journal or diary on your computer has never been easier! If you've ever wanted to start a journal or keep a diary, take this opportunity to get started today!

"I just wanted to thank you for writing such a useful program. I use it daily to record my thoughts, which I later review as I write my poetry. The easy reviewing of my previous thoughts from other days has alleviated much of the writers block I experienced in the past. Thanks again for the great software!"
Gregory Allan Clark

Chetan Bhagat: Keep the Spark Alive

Keep the Spark Alive.

Excerpts Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program, Pune - 23rd June, 2008.By Chetan Bhagat.

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you.

This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated.

The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.

Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party - several months in advance - just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.

I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So, how to save the spark?

Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.

To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.

Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn't the
purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already.
Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.

Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.

I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marbles. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.

I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are Disappointment, Frustration, Unfairness and Loneliness of purpose.

Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return, if things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? Is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades - how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.

Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release.

Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved - movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result - at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan - I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.

Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it - not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an
opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is Isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time
they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.

There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.

I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history.

And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.

Thank You!!!

Making Money with the Click of a Mouse.

MAKING MONEY WITH THE CLICK OF A MOUSE

Ads remain the main model of making money from the Net. But, now the advertiser is demanding more tangible benefits from the site owner

IN THE heady days of the dotcom bubble, when the flow of venture capital burst the plumbing, online businesses started in every street corner with the idea of deriving revenues from advertisements. To say that ads will bring in the money was easier than designing a cash flow model for the raw business. Though the ensuing bust thankfully put an end to such websites, Internet businesses and online advertising have continued to evolve. Today, at least half a dozen portals and websites in India have demonstrated that successful business models can be built around advertisement revenues. And some estimate online promotional spending has grown 100 times in the last seven years. Good time to toe the line? Yes... well, may be.

Industry players say the Internet industry in India as well as the advertisers who patronise it have matured, leaving room for only serious players to succeed. It will be a hard and tortuous path to build a sustainable revenue flow and it takes more than a mere IP address to get advertisements. While there are ventures that offer a unique value to customers and thus justify the ad spend on them, there are many who are in the bandwagon just for the heck of it and run the risk of failure.

From bloggers leveraging Google AdSense to techies running YouTube clones to entrepreneurs innovating ever newer online business models, a lot of people are starting web ventures depending on advertisement spending as their principal revenue source. Take Bloozler, for instance. It is a tool that puts blog posts into an e-paper form, story placements prioritised on the basis of user ratings. Or, consider Vakow, a web and mobile-based service dedicated to forwarded text messages. Bloggers and SMS forwarding users are not likely to be vigorously interested in paying subscription fees and these unique ideas must depend on online advertising to have a chance at becoming big businesses.

Yet, go online and you would find several me-too websites that are also tapping the ad world. There are at least 20 ‘Indian’ YouTubes — dekhona, meravideo, videochutney, videocurry, merovideo, punjabitube and so on. Most seem to be driven by dreams high valuations like the $1.6 billion Google dished out for the video sharing service it bought.

In India as in many places else, advertising is the most popular revenue model for Internet businesses. Subscriptions and commissions on transactions are difficult to enforce or represent a much smaller potential market. The new rules of the game require the website owner to present a tangible benefit to the advertiser and be accountable for results. Industry experts list a few of the rules as most crucial:

DEFINE AUDIENCE

Too many online businesses try to capture as many visitors as possible and end up diluting the appeal. A successful website clearly defines its audience and is able to sub-divide its visitors into packages for advertisers. These subgroups are redirected to pages that suit both sides. “The entrepreneur needs to know clearly who his audience is, what is it that he is providing and how is he going to source it… Service the audience right and everything else is a byproduct,” says Dinesh Wadhawan, MD and CEO of Times Internet.

Sometimes, the solutions purportedly offered by online businesses is fuzzy and advertisers don't see a point in communicating through them. “People are trying to fix problems that the consumers don’t even know about,” says Suvir Sajan of Nexus India Capital. “They first come out with a solution and then try to educate people about the problem. For instance, we were once presented with the idea of a start-up that came up with a single page to manage their whole lives. My question to them was ‘why would anyone want to use that?’ After all it isn’t so difficult to check your mail on one site and news on another.”

KEEP ADVERTISER IN MIND

Websites often create content that cannot be matched with relevant advertisements within a page and presented to the reader. Often, they do not have content that go along with the advertisements in hand. The online property must be designed not only with the readers in mind, but also factor in the interests of advertisers, experts say. Advertisers can be fastidious. “They want to see that the content, the look and feel of the pages goes with their brand. For instance, the page which suits an Asian Paints ad, will be very different from one that suits Goldman Sachs,” says Pratap Bose, CEO of Ogilvy and Mather. In websites offering a rainbow of content, classification and clear separation of modules will be crucial to attract advertisers.
Sulekha.com, which began during the dotcom years and survived to tell the tale, suggests a modular approach. “For instance, if you clearly categorise the film section, or the book section or the classified section, this would be beneficial for the advertiser,” says its founder Satya Prabhakar. This will be particularly useful for small businesses, because it is cost-effective for them to advertise online than in conventional media. Leverage this advantage.

BE ACCOUNTABLE

At the end of the day, advertisers want their ad spend to convert into business transactions. An online business owner must actively engage to lead this conversion. Gone are the times when advertisers went by the number of visits, or eyeballs as they called it. Now, they insist on measuring the time spent on each page and the number of unique users. “The industry has gotten more systematic. Advertisers now have the ability to track clicks, clickthrough leads, clickthrough conversions and transactions. this has made the industry more accountable,” Mr Prabhakar says.

BUILD TRAFFIC

The raw material for an online business trying to attract advertisers is the traffic. Content business is not about selling content to readers, but selling audiences to advertisers. “Worry about advertising after building the traffic. But the first rule there is to create a solution that solves a lot of people’s problems,” Rajesh Jain, who started Netcore, says.
Traffic won’t come if visitors don’t see value in coming back. Many entrepreneurs have tried to ape models that worked abroad and build copycat sites for Indians. These have now fallen by the way side. Venture capitalists, too, don't touch these clones any more. Advertisers won’t come where even investors fear to tread. One key trick to build good traffic is to let the website be simply organised and easy to navigate. There are many content-rich websites that are a surfer’s nightmare and it shows in their poor advertisement appeal.

INNOVATE

TV show hosting site, Nautanki.TV, has let its platform by used by content creators who, in turn, can make some money too. “People who wish to use our site as a platform for their content, will have to pay us a basic platform fee. Whatever they earn from the advertisers they bring, they can keep,” says Nautanki’s founder Sunil Nair. Look for going beyond the pricing-per-click model and innovate to give better value to advertisers, content creators and visitors.

At an annual spend to just Rs 450 crore, the Indian online advertisement market is still a tiny, nascent segment. But the bitter after-effects of the dotcom bust has forced the industry to grow up quickly. As the economy grows at a scorching pace, the need for web-based solutions and online advertising is headed only skywards. Time was when the bubbly first mover into a web business idea walked away with rich valuations, but the online world has come a long way since. It is now a place only for steady, long-term players with a cool business sense.

Article Resource:
Author: Jacob Cherian is the Chief Editor in the The Economic Times, Mumbai and the article appeared in one of their successful columns on Entrepreneurship/Start-ups called "Starship Enterprise".

There is always a way to do things... if we really WANT to do it

Lessons of the Square Watermelon

Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than shops in the USA and therefore don't have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it.

That is how majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, "How can we provide one?" It wasn't long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons was not to solve as the farmers did not assume it was impossible - and simply asked how it could be done.

They found out that if you put the watermelon in a square box when they are growing, the watermelon will take on the shape of the box - and grow into a square fruit.

This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them.

What does this have do with anything in life or at your job? There are a few lessons that can you can take away from this story which help you :

Don't Assume:

The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question. Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don't even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things. This was one of the most difficult things for me to do because most of the assumptions I make, I don't even realize that I'm making them. They seem perfectly logical on the surface, so I have to constantly make an effort to question them.

Question habits:

The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you work. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them. I have changed a large number of habits that I have had after taking the time to question them and continue to do so. Some of them I have know idea where they came from while others I can trace to certain people or instances in my life. It's a never ending process, but by doing this, you can consistently strive toward making all aspects of your life more enjoyable instead of defaulting to what you have now.

Be creative:

When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems where others can't see them. I am not a creative person, but I've found that the more that you look at things from different perspectives, the more creative I have become. It's a learned art and builds upon itself.

Look for a better way:

The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It's impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. I try to ask if there is a better way of doing the things that I do and I constantly write down the things I wish I could do (but currently can't) since these are usually hints about steps I need to change. Get into the habit of asking yourself, "Is there a better way I could be doing this?" and you will find there often is.

Impossibilities often aren't:

If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error. Take away the lessons from the square watermelons and apply them to all areas in your life (work, finances, relationships, etc) and you will find that by consistently applying them, you will constantly be improving all aspects of your life.

I am sure we can bring about change if we really want to.