Saturday, September 1, 2001
Honesty. Companies have to think honestly about how big their opportunity is. There is nothing wrong with small ideas! But it is wrong to try to scale a small, niche idea into something big, and burn out in the process. An entrepreneur must honestly evaluate whether his company is a painkiller or a vitamin. Again, there’s nothing wrong with being a vitamin and serving a small market. But forcing a vitamin to kill pain will not work.
Common sense: Sounds too common? But unfortunately this is the most uncommon characteristic that we found among a large number of companies that did not make the list. Often, the culprit is too much entrepreneurial zeal, which clouds the sensibilities and intellectual capacity required to put oneself in the shoes of a potential customer and evaluate the merit of the product or service being offered. This is difficult to do, because most often the answer is: This wouldn’t work. That’s when the zeal kicks in, as the entrepreneur becomes determined to make it work — the foundations of a future failed business.
Long-term strategy: Reams have been written about how companies need to be nimble and agile. For startups, that’s in their nature — it’s not a startup unless it is agile! But agility doesn’t help without a solid long-term strategy based on well-researched inputs and, of course, honesty and common sense.
All other necessary and sufficient “requirements” that have been touted as the recipe for a successful company are simply not sufficient, and often not even necessary. Passion, good advisors, determination, capital — all are available today in abundance, if you have the above aspects worked out — without which nothing really works.
It is on these benchmarks that we have based the selection of this year’s si100. Of course, it is not perfect. There will be arguments. And we will be surprised by the performance of some companies in the next 12 months. But we have looked for signs of maturity, sustainability and potential in presenting this year’s si100 to you, our discerning readers.
People say this is a good time to start a company. Sure it is. But it is a heck of a tough time to build one. And it will take a different breed of entrepreneur to get through to future success.
This is also the overriding theme of the upcoming, exciting siliconindia Annual Conference and Leadership Awards, happening in San Jose on October 5 and 6. Of all the more than 25 events we do in a year, if there is one that you must attend, it is this one. Visit www.siliconindia.com/events to get more details. I guarantee that every moment you spend at this conference will be valuable. It will give you access to the people who will make the biggest difference to you and your company’s future. So unshackle your business and career from these not so good times, and spend two days among people who will provide you the honesty, common sense and long-term strategy that you are looking for.
See you there!
Yogesh Sharma
Editor
Write to: yogesh@corp.siliconindia.com
