Posts from — March 2009

The Caltech-MIT Enterprise Forum recently asked me to moderate a discussion on India as a market and as an investor in the United States.  You can read the report about it on the India West website.

The reporter picked up on a point that that I often emphasize with clients.  In dealing with India, there’s always a twist.

• India was the first market where Western Union decided to localize/translate it’s logo.
• India was the first country where Amway decided to sell multiple sizes of its mainstream products
• India was the first country where one of major clients decided to setup a local processing facility
• India was the first overseas country where IBM chose to hold its annual stock analyst meeting (in 2006).

The laws of physics and markets still hold in India. But you need an India expert at times to tell you what’s different and where it the difference matter to your business.

If you travel to north India in March, look up your calendar for the date of the full moon or for the Jewish festival  of Purim.  That generally coincides with the festival of Holi, celebrate over two days. The first night is a bonfire to mark the death of the demoness Holika. On the morning of the second day, people have a gala time  by coloring each other with dry and water-based hues. It can’t be readily described in words. Boston.com did a great job in pictures, take a look here.

In this global downturn, more attention is turning to India as a market and as a resource. I see that every day in my consulting practice at Amritt, Inc. But The Economist turned to India to start its talk about Entrepreneurship during the downturn.

In 1997, I joined an organization called The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) as they opened their seccond chapter, in Los Angeles, and am now a Charter Member of organization.  Started primarily by Indian expatriates in the Silicon Valley, TiE has now grown to be a worldwide organization and claims to be the largest group fostering entrepreneuership anywhere on the planet.

I hight recommend that you read the entire Economist story here.  Large companies had a part in getting us into the mess we are in today. Perhaps entrepreneuers will play a part in getting us OUT of it. I think global entrepreneurs in particular will play a special part in the upturn when it come.

Tata Nano, the world’s least expensive car, has been launched.

Costing just 100,000 rupees ($1,979), the Nano will now go on sale across India next month, with deliveries starting in July.

Tata hopes the 10-foot long, five-seater car will be cheap enough to encourage millions of Indians to trade up from their motorcycles. Ratan Tata, chairman, has described the Nano as a “milestone”. Analysts say it will not make a profit for six years.

Click here to read more from the BBC

First time visitors to India’s capital are often impressed with the ubiquity of natural gas as a fuel for transportation. All taxis, local buses, even all three-wheeler “scooters” (aka tuktuks in SE Asia) are required to run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).  Kits to convert “petrol” (gasoline) vehicles to natural gas are common and its become part of the mainstream culture and economy. India imports most of its oil so natural gas is good not only for the environment but also for the self-reliance.

Here in the United States, finding a natural gas vehicle for personal use is a lot harder. Some time ago, my friend Ann Palmer, of American Honda in Torrance, CA told me about the Honda NGV. I was quite excited by the prospect of independence from “Arab oil”. But finding filling stations for natural gas is still a challenge, the nearest one to me is ~8 miles away. Then I heard about “Phil” the device where you can install a filling station at home.

To cut a long story short, I am now the proud owner of a brand new natural gas vehicle as of 10 pm last night.  My company, Amritt, has alway had “green” on its logo.  Now  I have green in my own gas tank.

PS: The experience of talking to American Honda customer service (answered by an American call center in Torrance) and dealing with DCH Gardena Honda was immensely professional and satisfying (Ask for Vince).  Detroit could learn from that, even my friends at Lexus could learn from that.