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Advice Request
Shivendra Sharma
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Shivendra Sharma
Founder & Principal Consultant @ iQCG
iQCG - International Quality Consulting Group
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Shivendra Sharma is a member of:
My Company
iQCG - International Quality consulting Group is an ISO 9001:2008 certified leading Management Consulting and Training firm focused on identifying and bridging the GAP between present and required competencies in talent pool and companies to face the stiff competition ahead.
iQCG is India's one of the largest management consulting & training firm offering Six Sigma training programs in Indian Management & Technical education. Our training programs are running in 80+ Institutions. We aim to be India's largest training firm by 2015.
iQCG boasts a team of highly experienced industry professionals from various industries and reputed companies in India and abroad.
iQCG offers following services-
Corporate Training : Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma, Supply Chain Mgt, Project Management, Business Process re-engineering, Balanced Score Card, ISO, CMMI, ITIL, IT Training.
Academic Training :Six Sigma Black/Green/Yellow Belt, Soft Skills, Balanced Score Card Training to B-Schools/Engineering colleges. Our training programs are running in over 80 B-Schools/Engineering colleges across India.
Corporate Consulting(Business Process Improvement) : ISO, CMMI, ITIL, Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Business Process re-engineering, Balanced Score Card.
iQCG was founded on 21st August, 2009 with two more partners who left within the span of 6 months. Currently , iQCG is headed by Shivendra Sharma who founded it then.
iQCG is India's one of the largest management consulting & training firm offering Six Sigma training programs in Indian Management & Technical education. Our training programs are running in 80+ Institutions. We aim to be India's largest training firm by 2015.
iQCG boasts a team of highly experienced industry professionals from various industries and reputed companies in India and abroad.
iQCG offers following services-
Corporate Training : Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma, Supply Chain Mgt, Project Management, Business Process re-engineering, Balanced Score Card, ISO, CMMI, ITIL, IT Training.
Academic Training :Six Sigma Black/Green/Yellow Belt, Soft Skills, Balanced Score Card Training to B-Schools/Engineering colleges. Our training programs are running in over 80 B-Schools/Engineering colleges across India.
Corporate Consulting(Business Process Improvement) : ISO, CMMI, ITIL, Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Business Process re-engineering, Balanced Score Card.
iQCG was founded on 21st August, 2009 with two more partners who left within the span of 6 months. Currently , iQCG is headed by Shivendra Sharma who founded it then.
My Role
In the initial days, my focus was on setting up the primary things for the company. Registration formalities, website design, preparing brochures, course content design were few of the things. Later on, I started connecting with industry professionals to speak about my service offerings which I still do as a practise. I then started learning Six Sigma to prepare myself for a bigger role as a trainer & consultant. I learned Six Sigma, got certified and started training to B-Schools & corporate. Sales & Promotion activities of iQCG Six Sigma training to B-School & Corporate Houses had always been my primary responsibility.
In last 2 years, when few of the things have settled, the focus has shifted from doing everything on my own to finding right talent for the task up to some extent. I still do a lot of work on my own but also I am also learning the art of delegation in order to prepare a pipe line for the future. My role has moved from a planner, a thinker, a doer to a strategist, a salesperson and finally a management consultant & trainer.
In last 2 years, when few of the things have settled, the focus has shifted from doing everything on my own to finding right talent for the task up to some extent. I still do a lot of work on my own but also I am also learning the art of delegation in order to prepare a pipe line for the future. My role has moved from a planner, a thinker, a doer to a strategist, a salesperson and finally a management consultant & trainer.
Way to reach out potential investors
I never sought investment from outside as a mean to grow from PE’s or banks. I invested my private equity, my entire savings & a great financial help from family made it all. I exhausted all of it in initial one and a half years and was penniless. There were no means to survive or continuing the operations. I then thought of a loan or an investment plan, but as always my instinct denied the idea .I survived the phase and soon iQCG was back to business. Our offerings were accepted in the market and iQCG started.
I feel lucky for this as I have seen many a start ups take up loan in this process and end up heavily indebted to VCs or banks. I still don’t have any loan from any external entity.
I feel lucky for this as I have seen many a start ups take up loan in this process and end up heavily indebted to VCs or banks. I still don’t have any loan from any external entity.
Insights about our culture
I define culture in iQCG from following quote – “Treat others the same way you want to be treated”. People in iQCG respect each other for their work and everyone believes in one single idea of uniqueness. We are a unique company by the nature of our work and creativity & innovation is highly appreciated & is the top priority. I believe in transparency so that everybody should know what I intend to do and see the alignment of our promises to our vision.
Delegating work and empowering employees to think beyond a defined framework or a set perimeter of mind has been my priority from the day one. I welcome ideas from everybody and anybody. As iQCG grows, my focus on creativity & innovation would be broader.
Delegating work and empowering employees to think beyond a defined framework or a set perimeter of mind has been my priority from the day one. I welcome ideas from everybody and anybody. As iQCG grows, my focus on creativity & innovation would be broader.
Faced Challenges
Establishing a management consulting & training firm with no prior experience, expertise, zero money, no contacts & no guidance has been the toughest thing I ever imagined. I come from a service class family where no one has ever dreamt of doing business so there were more doubts than belief in my abilities. Since my childhood, I wanted to create an identity of my own in the world, A unique one. And doing this, needed lot of efforts & perseverance.
As I mentioned, there was no money, no contacts & no idea about how a company is formally registered, I went to a finance guy in my previous company where I was working. I also gathered some information from internet and started formalities for company registration. Website was another challenge as it needed some money and i did not have even that. I designed layout of website and then luckily a friend contacted us who was starting his company too, so iQCG became his first client and i paid a very small sum of money for this.
I had no knowledge about Six Sigma so the task of creating & designing training content & course materials was reserved with other partners but as they left in another 6 months, I had to take up this task as well. I started reading about this and with the help of my some new Six Sigma contacts, I was able to create the desired training material.
I never did sales and had been a serial loser in selling college souvenir during MBA and graduation. This was the reason I chose HR though which proved to be a completely wrong decision soon. But conditions were different now. If I could not sell now, my life was at stake. I prepared college database from internet, magazines & newspapers. I started calling colleges and started talking about my company and services. Many of them put down the phone on my way of speaking. It was actually like reading a big paragraph without pauses. Soon, I cut short the introduction and was successful to get some meetings. I did some 70 meetings that year in 2010 but trust me, none of them gave me business and then I realized either I am into wrong business or I still cannot sell. Now was the time to prove something. There were days, when scarcity of money led to hungry nights and covering long distances on foot to save some money.
iQCG got our first training assignment after one and a half year after numerous efforts and revised ways of working. In last one and a half years, I changed my every way of doing business. I was growing as a businessman and moreover as an entrepreneur. The biggest challenge I faced, was the unawareness of product itself. In Indian management & technical education people are still not aware about Six Sigma and its implications in industry. So creating a challenge nationwide was biggest challenge and in this process I was doing business also.
Most of the management consulting & training firms involved in education have regional presence as offering services nationally is a very tricky & expansive affair. But I was determined to make iQCG a national firm. Today, we have office in Delhi, Pune & Bangalore and client presence in over 20 cities in 8 states. iQCG is still a start up and it is evolving every day. I face new challenges everyday and learn new things.
As I mentioned, there was no money, no contacts & no idea about how a company is formally registered, I went to a finance guy in my previous company where I was working. I also gathered some information from internet and started formalities for company registration. Website was another challenge as it needed some money and i did not have even that. I designed layout of website and then luckily a friend contacted us who was starting his company too, so iQCG became his first client and i paid a very small sum of money for this.
I had no knowledge about Six Sigma so the task of creating & designing training content & course materials was reserved with other partners but as they left in another 6 months, I had to take up this task as well. I started reading about this and with the help of my some new Six Sigma contacts, I was able to create the desired training material.
I never did sales and had been a serial loser in selling college souvenir during MBA and graduation. This was the reason I chose HR though which proved to be a completely wrong decision soon. But conditions were different now. If I could not sell now, my life was at stake. I prepared college database from internet, magazines & newspapers. I started calling colleges and started talking about my company and services. Many of them put down the phone on my way of speaking. It was actually like reading a big paragraph without pauses. Soon, I cut short the introduction and was successful to get some meetings. I did some 70 meetings that year in 2010 but trust me, none of them gave me business and then I realized either I am into wrong business or I still cannot sell. Now was the time to prove something. There were days, when scarcity of money led to hungry nights and covering long distances on foot to save some money.
iQCG got our first training assignment after one and a half year after numerous efforts and revised ways of working. In last one and a half years, I changed my every way of doing business. I was growing as a businessman and moreover as an entrepreneur. The biggest challenge I faced, was the unawareness of product itself. In Indian management & technical education people are still not aware about Six Sigma and its implications in industry. So creating a challenge nationwide was biggest challenge and in this process I was doing business also.
Most of the management consulting & training firms involved in education have regional presence as offering services nationally is a very tricky & expansive affair. But I was determined to make iQCG a national firm. Today, we have office in Delhi, Pune & Bangalore and client presence in over 20 cities in 8 states. iQCG is still a start up and it is evolving every day. I face new challenges everyday and learn new things.
Advice for fellow entrepreneurs
I don’t know if I was a born entrepreneur or circumstances brought out the entrepreneur in me. But I have realized one thing is common in all successful entrepreneurs and that is focus. Do anything and everything but never lose sight of your goal. Passion, fire in the belly, determination all these big words lose their meaning when we lose the focus.
My fellow entrepreneurs and would be entrepreneurs, I would like to just give few insight about my own personal experience in last 4 years journey. Reach out as many people as possible, speak about your company & services, don’t be ashamed if someone laughs at you (Infect feel great you did something people noticed), find more ways to do business, find more sources of revenues as one sources may dry up any day, be a sport if you fail and last but not the least, think, behave and work like an entrepreneur. We are rare species and let’s stay unique by doing unique things.
My fellow entrepreneurs and would be entrepreneurs, I would like to just give few insight about my own personal experience in last 4 years journey. Reach out as many people as possible, speak about your company & services, don’t be ashamed if someone laughs at you (Infect feel great you did something people noticed), find more ways to do business, find more sources of revenues as one sources may dry up any day, be a sport if you fail and last but not the least, think, behave and work like an entrepreneur. We are rare species and let’s stay unique by doing unique things.
My thought
I would like to connect with other entrepreneurs who are either in the same business or who think I can help in their business or who want to a part of my business. I like networking and would love if my venture iQCG help somebody to live their dreams.
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