Beena Kannan and Seemaatti

The success story of a lady entrepreneur from Kochi - Beena Kannan ..

Th story of how a Kottayam, Kerala born and raised girl, Beena Kannan, the only member of the 108 year old Seemaatti family, changed her family business of trading in sarees and other dress items to be one of South India's largest saree designing and sales centres. From about 30 outlets in early eighties and nineties, run through her uncles, cousins etc, the group now has only two major stores of more than 500,000 sq ft each in Kochi and Kottayam in Kerala..

Beena finished her education from BCM college Kottayam, Kerala and very soon got entrenched in the 108 year old family business. She got married early and after the demise of her husband in 2000, got together on her own and set up  one of Kerala's best and best admired ready made and retail textile houses which houses a large collection of silk sarees for which it has already been known for the past many decades in South India. Having developed to many parts of South India through her extended family, she finally decided to keep her focus only in Kerala in Kochi and Kottayam and helped make the present $80 million (INR 500 crores).

Her focus was not on mindless diversification but on focused differentiation ..

The idea was a lean approach

• focusing on centralised large stores for better control
• reducing the waste of needless communication, 
• reducing costs of wasteful logistics, storage, transportation etc. 
• procuring raw materials and sarees of original weave right from the source
• adding repeatedly great value to the customers by
• offering better and focused medium and high value merchandise 
• through limited and 
• well designed outlets ..

Her success mantra has been not of expanding the business mindlessly, but

• being more focused in the offering
• limiting the range on offer
• getting high quality input material and designs for customers straight from the weavers
• being more customer-centric ..

It is indeed a great success story of Beena to be listed in the Forbes mag issue of Mar 2019. The story of going through major hurdles in life, losing her husband early in life and almost single-handedly leading the store from rags to riches in twenty years.

Click here for the Forbes India link ..

George..

Basel Convention ..

Frequently we come across unethical ads in the newspaper that try to sell old iphones at Rs 5000 or so .. Have you thought how this trade happens ?

You are exposed to the wide unethical world of disposal of electronic wastes or e-wastes. If these items are treated as wastes in the country of it's origin, mostly developed countries of the world, it becomes a hazardous waste management problem for the country. Waste disposal involves finding safe disposal practices, finding disposal sites, safe disposal of wastes at these sites, continuous monitoring of these sites for any pilferage or leakage into the environment or contamination of ground water table and so on. The easy way out for them to neglect and go ahead ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OSp8feSWY

Do Co-work spaces offer a sustainable and shared work layout ?

On Sivarathri day, I was at 91 Springboard, the co-work hosting space above Big Bazar, near Forum Mall in Koramangala, Bangalore from 9.30 AM to 4 PM.

A personal office for the needy at low cost 

Why was I there ? My earlier colleague  Raju Gundala had set up a startup to help small and medium sector industries with a dedicated website www.msmeonline.in and wanted me to visit their office at 91, Springboard. 

It was the first time I was visiting a co-work space. I went with two BBA final semester students to give them an experience of co-work spaces and the life of startups.

The office layout properly secured has long tables separated into cubicles which offers private working space, but in view of others, with comfortable chairs. The sides of the huge floor hall has private meeting rooms or private office space for the slightly well off entrepreneur looking for private rooms. Everyone around seemed to enjoy the group co-working environment, yet appreciate the privacy on offer, all at very low, affordable rents. 

For a startup, it is networking and mentoring which is most important. Some times one can get very much depressed and disheartened and is in the gutters it is mingling with others and breaking from routine working that can distract one and give relaxation to the mind to be more productive and creative in the long run. 

What exactly is co-working culture and what are the benefits of such a culture ? These definitions give a better appreciation of the idea which is almost 10 years old globally and is popular in India for the past 6 years.

These definitions of co-work space give the true essence of what one can aim for and how one can benefit from shared work spaces and peer interaction.

Co-working is a business services provision model that involves individuals working independently or collaboratively in shared office space. The typical user of a coworking facility is self-employed, a telecommuter, or a freelance worker. - www.techtarget.com 

Co-working is a self-directed, collaborative, flexible and voluntary work style that is based on mutual trust and the sharing of common core values between its participants. Co-working involves a shared workplace, often an office, and independent activity. - www.wikipedia.com 

Co-working is a type of work that includes “the use of an office or other working environment by people who are self-employed or working for different employers, typically so as to share equipment, ideas, and knowledge” - www.google.com 

Co-working is about creating a better place to work, and, as a result, a better way to work. Co-working spaces provide more than just office space. They are community centers, friendly gathering places, think tanks. When you rent a desk or an office, you gain coworkers to bounce ideas off and that support you professionally in a way that you can’t find working from home or in the corporate office. Co-working connects you to a global network of professional peers.- Jamie Orr

Spacious, conditioned and quiet focused workspaces

The 3 COs - COoperation, COllaboration and COmmunity .. Millennials really love this working style. 

What is the most valuable resource for a startup and its promoter ? You may say customers, ideas and so on. Actually it is money and time... The startup promoter is full of ideas, he/she is ready to give that idea all the time in the world to see it come to fruition he/she is ready to put in heavy hours of hard work, meeting people and clients, talking to them, ready to check out his ideas and get quick results, success or failure, reorient himself and face the future the next day, till he comes up with a viable business model and gets his first customer.

Click here for TEDx talk on co-work spaces in Thailand .. Excellent ..

Most of the co-work spaces offer the following amenities -

1. Network with high-speed Internet 2. Computer Rentals 3. CCTV Coverage for safety 4. Training rooms 5. House Keeping 6. AC & Utilities 7. Access Control 8. Reserved Parking 9. Power Backup 10. Locker & Store 11. Building Security 12. Landing line phone 13. Restroom 14. Paid Food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) 15. limited access 16. recreational activities 17. Flexible renting plans at excellent costs ..

The renting plans are very varied like monthly, 24 hrs, weekend, closed, open etc .. All of these come with meeting rooms, unlimited tea coffee, silence, proximity to mentors, facility to meet up with other entrepreneurs and CEOs ..

The charges at 91 Springboard ..

Emergent Research has come up with interesting statistics that say that almost 1000 cowork spaces have opened in the second half of 2018 around the world, half of it in US. By 2022, almost 6200 cowork spaces will be functioning in the US. Bangalore being part of the global coworking ecosystem, is an important member. Koramangala in Bangalore hosts the maximum startups in India. The emergence of cowork spaces has reduced the barriers of entry to have one's own startup.

The benefit of joining a popular cowork space is that one can go to their offices anywhere in the country or world (Wework is a global coworking space) free of charge and meet clients or customers. The entrepreneurs need not spend money on meeting halls, refreshments etc, helping them concentrate on their ideas at the initial stages of their company. The hand-holding they get at those critical stages on the company is indeed very valuable.

One great point I wish to make out here is that all the people I was seeing on the aisles, everybody was in a world of their own. Nobody had the time to think of anybody else, with whom he is meeting, who is coming to the building and so on. Nobody was even prepared to acknowledge our presence, everyone was in their own world, chipping away at their laptop keys or engrossed in deep thinking at their small cubicle. At rates very affordable and no caution deposit, it was the right place for entrepreneurs to test out their ideas.

Ad revenue on coffee vending machines
gives  free coffee and tea 24x7 to members

The governments past and present in India have not met their promise on creating new jobs, and have not been able to provide jobs to the youngsters. They have been helping the major industries and businesses to succeed, which is also needed in a country. There are millions of fresh youngsters who are entering the job market every year in the country. If we do not give them jobs, they will turn out to be a great burden and threat to the nation. We need to handhold and guide them to work on their creative startup ideas, if they have any. The initial hand-holding could be given by these co-work spaces. And this is a small way, we can do our bit for the society to help the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

In Alliance University we could offer working spaces and desks for these startups at very cheap rates. This will also motivate lot of our youngsters to think of promoting startups, either partnering with these startups or starting something on their own.

We do not know when and where the next GOOGLE or FACEBOOK will come out !!

Wework is also another popular international co-work space in Bangalore. International networking and meetings are possible with a wework subscription ..

George..

The way forward for India and China ..

It is a fact that the Southern Hemisphere countries are getting involved in major conflicts aroubnd the world and often these conflicts are settled violently by arms and ammunition supplied by the countries in the Northern hemisphere. We find this causes great pain and tragedy to the poor and sidelined people of the world. The developed countries in the Northern hemisphere thrive on the hardships and death, misery in the Southern hemisphere ..  Is it the correct global strategy ?

Click here for an interesting TED talk video ..

Can violence ever bring peace, growth, prosperity and development ?

Shouldn't great economic powers like China and India concentrate more on diffusing tensions between the countries of the world, offer a helping hand at timers, than flexing muscles and causing social unrest resulting in loss of life ??  Let our political leaders weigh the options and deliberate ..

Is flexing muscles the right thing to do ? Will a bullet for a bullet strategy work for India ? Especially when India is in a growth trajectory, should we try to defuse tensions with our neighbours or act belligerantly and aggravate the situation letting it go out of our control ? What is the most appropriate thing to do? Shouldn't we think more intelligently and act ?

Can we afford to let our guard down and allow the enemy to hurt us ?  Should we be more alert and peace loving ? Should we concentrate more on development than on destruction ? Should we work  more and talk less ?

Let us really introspect !!

George..

Kaizen ..

10 Principles of Kaizen

The Kaizen method follows ten specific principles, which are described below:

1. Improve everything continuously.
2. Abolish old, traditional concepts.
3. Accept no excuses and make things happen.
4. Say no to the status quo of implementing new methods and assuming they will work.
5. If something is wrong, correct it.
6. Empower everyone to take part in problem solving.
7. Get information and opinions from multiple people.
8. Before making decisions, ask "why" five times to get to the root cause. (5 Why Method)
9. Be economical. Save money through small improvements and spend the saved money on further improvements.
10. Remember that improvement has no limits. Never stop trying to improve.

 

Drop Factor and implications

Drop Factor in last mile delivery in distribution logistics refers to the (average) number of parcels delivered per stop or recipient. It is gaining attention with the growth of e-commerce. 

If this drop Factor is high, there are economies of scale and profits are high. On the other hand if the drop Factor is low, it means, the delivery at each stop or to each customer is low and hence profitability is low. 

The value of the parcels delivered is also an important aspect. Low value items do not bring in the revenues to make the delivery profitable, even though the drop Factor is high. 

Recently I happened to order from the cloud kitchen Zomato. The cloud kitchens usually have a drop Factor of one, as each customer order is from different geographical location and coordinates. Moreover there is no time to aggregate orders for last mile delivery as customers are pampered with under 20 minute preparation + delivery in most cases. It works in most cases. But is it profitable for the provider in the long run? 

Can AI be used to make predictions of future orders ? Can the delivery boy take more items predicted to be ordered by customers enroute without actually receiving orders but with the hope that orders can come on the way and can be delivered very fast. When the orders cross a quantity threshold, Predictive logistics can improve drop factors and bring in more revenues for the organisation. 

George 

Environmental Footprints - Air, Water and Land ..

Human development has many impacts on planet earth. The major impacts are on land, water and air. The impact on land can broadly be classified as ecological footprint, that on air as carbon footprint and finally the impact on water is the water footprint. These three resources are vital to the sustenance of life in general, of the different flora and fauna, especially human life on planet earth.

This classification is beneficial as every action or event in planet earth has an impact on either of these three ecosystems, land, air and water. If one is aware of this, his / her actions will turn out to be more responsible and beneficial to the planet earth in the long run.

Air Based : A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.- Wikipedia. I am shocked the damage the industrialised countries of the world are doing on the economy. The example I usually quote is that of the CO2 equivalent gases released by our people who travel in their own automobiles, instead of the public or pooled transportation. Almost ten years back, I did a study on the employees of Infosys.  There is a trend among Infosys employees to be careless about the impact of their actions on the air.

Water Based : Water Footprint :

Blue water footprint :
Volume of surface and groundwater consumed as a result of the production of a good or service. Consumption refers to the volume of freshwater used and then evaporated or incorporated into a product. 

Green water footprint :
Volume of rainwater consumed during the production process. This is particularly relevant for agricultural and forestry products (products based on crops or wood), where it refers to the total rainwater evapotranspiration (from fields and plantations) plus the water incorporated into the harvested crop or wood. 

Grey water footprint :  It is defined as the volume of freshwater that is required to assimilate the load of pollutants based on natural background concentrations and existing ambient water quality standards. It is calculated as the volume of water that is required to dilute pollutants to such an extent that the quality of the water remains above agreed water quality standards.    www.waterfootprint.org

Land Based : Ecological Footprint. The simplest way to define ecological footprint would be to call it the impact of human activities measured in terms of the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated.- courtesy WWF.

Country rank for Carbon footprints, 2015 data
Rank                   Country          Total tons CO2    Per capita, T CO2

                                                        (00,000 T)

1	China	9040.74	6.59
2	United States	4997.5	15.53
3	India	2066.01	1.58
4	Russia	1468.99	10.19
5	Japan	1141.58	8.99
6	Germany	729.77	8.93
7	South Korea	585.99	11.58
8	Iran	552.4	6.98
9	Canada	549.23	15.32
10	Saudi Arabia	531.46	16.85

                                                                                                         www.ucsusa.org

Water Footprint (country rank, UNESCO data 2011)

1. China: 1.5 billion people, 362 trillion gallons annually
2. United States: 300 million people, 216 trillion gallons
3. Brazil: 175 million people, 95 trillion gallons
4. Russia: 143 million people, 71 trillion gallons
5. Mexico: 100 million people, 53 trillion gallons
6. India: 1.1 billion people, 30 trillion gallons
7. England: 60 million people, 20 trillion gallons
8. France: 60 million people, 20 trillion gallons
9. Canada: 33 million people, 19 trillion gallons
10. Australia: 20 million people, 12 trillion gallons , National Water Footprint Accounts 2011.

In the US it takes 12.2 acres to supply the average person's basic needs, in the Netherlands it takes 8 acres and in India it takes 1 acre. What this means is if every person onn planet earth were to live like an average splurging, careless and selfish American, we would need five planet earths to sustain such a lifestyle. Holland already needs a country 10 times its size to support it's lifestyle. India would need just 35% extra land than India has to support their lifestyle.

Ecological Footprints : Countries With The Highest Ecological Footprints

Rank	Country	Ecological Footprint In Global Hectares Per Capita
1	UAE	10.68
2	Qatar	10.51
3	Bahrain	10.04
4	Denmark	8.26
5	Belgium	8
6	US	8
7	Estonia	7.88
8	Canada	7.01
9	Australia	6.84
10	Iceland	6.5

                                                                                  courtesy www.worldatlas.com

Threat of Urbanaization - 

By 2025, two out of every three people on planet earth will be living in a city.

By 2025, there will be 30 megacities exceeding population of 8 million and 500 cities with populations exceeding 1 million. 

Click here for TED talk Sustainability Forward ..

NG video on climate change (click here for NG video )

Click here for a youtube video from Pennstate Univ on Sustainability ..

Ref : 

1. Stuart Hart, Beyond Greening, HBR, Feb, 1990 (click here for pdf copy..)

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