Quality is a People's Process

If one of your team member tells you that job A cannot be done as per the specifics. You, as a manager, try work around a way and seek a submission. If still, he/she gives you a compromised quality deliverable or a reason for not doing the job, assign him/her another job. Shift the job A to a different team member. Highly likely you will get the job done, of the quality you wanted. Thats about Human Resource more than Project or Quality Management!

4 Facts About Market Sizing

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Whether you are an entrepreneur writing a business plan or a recognized firm seeking to introduce a new product or service, you will need to estimate the size of the market you plan to serve. Easy as it may sound, this is the trickiest and most crucial segment of building or growing a business. You can even decide if the project is worth starting or taking further at all. Here is our basic guide to market sizing to help you start right. 


1. What is Market Sizing?

When you quantify your target market on the number of possible users or revenue generation potential, it is called market sizing.

2.  Why Market Sizing? 

• Goal Setting: You need to ascertain the magnitude of required investment and profit or revenue target for a sustained growth. Market sizing helps you with the business planning and budgeting needs here.
• Business Planning: Once you know your target, building your processes to achieve it is easier. Product/service development, organizational structuring, distribution channels & partnership building, prioritizing opportunities, and key employee skills are some key business activities market sizing leverages. This is especially helpful if you are a startup seeking investment from a Venture Capitalist (VC) or Angel Investors. A billion-dollar market is an ideal starting point to generate investor interest.
• Marketing Planning: Market sizing is a detailed analysis, including studying the ‘nature’ of market. You get an insight on upcoming trends and the key demand drivers in the industry. You are also able to foresee any budding competition.

3. How to Determine the Market Size?
To get ‘useful’ conclusions, be ‘realistic’ all along the market study, however cruel or generous numbers may seem. You might be tempted towards optimism or pessimism, but resist. Go factually. Let’s begin now. 

• Step 1: Determine the needs of your target market and how they create demand for your product or service. What problem does your offering help them solve and to what extent? Start with a statement about why your customers need your merchandise.
• Step 2: Understand your target market profile. Identify the data you need to calculate the size of your market. The information requirement will vary with industry and organization’s operations stage. For example, a financial planner’s key target audience would be married people with young children. In his/her target geography, s/he might need to know what is the: age breakup, number of families with children, distribution of household income, home market values, educational achievement & college application rates for graduating high school students, number of direct & indirect competitors, type of planning solutions individuals buy and how much they pay. Broadly, try get the market composition breakup, like the gender, ethnicity, religion, age, stage of life, profession, etc. If executed well, this study helps you get closer to accurate market sizing results.
• Step 3: Now, the golden question, how many people are you targeting? Follow top down approach to identify your ‘feasible’ market size. TAM, SAM, SOM measures help with the better defined solution. Throughout, keep dynamic and static market percentage in consideration.

TAM (Total Available Market): This includes every direct or indirect consumer you plan to reach with your product/service. For instance, if you are looking to provide recruitment services, your TAM will be workforce between 22 to 55 years of age. Let's suppose thisnumber is 100,000 and you offer your service package at $500. Your TAM is $50 mn.

SAM (Serviceable Available Market): This is that part of the TAM, which is targeted by you. In the above example, if your services are limited to a certain region/sector or by experience your serviceable market will much smaller than the total market. Let's suppose you target only C-level executives and the number is 500. Your SAM becomes $250,000.

SOM (Share of the Market): This is the subset of your SAM you will be able to realistically serve. You will know the gap between the business opportunity available and practically what portion of it you will be able to serve within a stipulated time period. The numbers here are particularly useful in the initial few years of your business. Continuing with the previous case, if you estimate that 20% of SAM is achievable, your SOM becomes $50,000. Please note that all the figures are hypothetical.

• Step 4: Identify the resources you need to get all this information. Secondary market research databases and sources, particularly a combination of library and on-line research, are the primary storehouses. Business and market sections are insightful. Sometimes Government data can provide demographics statistics by metropolitan area, county, zip code, census tract, and state. If you're searching for a very specialized info, you might need to conduct your own research.

4. Why do you need help?

Market sizing is not an exact science. With the varied business needs, changing global economic growth map, new emerging markets, and the lack of a standard/aobjective calculation model leading to possible analytical gaps, consulting a market analyst is highly recommended. The analysis is prolific requiring more than one estimate to average out a realistic figure. Setting a fractured or inadequate target can inflict an irreversible damage to your business’ entire life cycle. Delegate right. Get the experts on the job.

(Original Article Link: Eurion Constellation Blog)

This content was created for Eurion Constellation by Rakhi Sinha, Founder & CEO, The Syntax Systems

The Why And How of An Elevator Pitch

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As a startup founder, you will frequently have to explain just what your company does. This is where the Elevator Pitch (or, Lift Pitch) comes in as a brief summary of your business, the work you do, and why it matters.

It is a short, yet comprehensive, explanation of your business to your customers and investors. The analogy of time involved is drawn with that of an escalator ride ranging up to around 2 minutes. Ideally, every owner of a business, big or small, should be able describe it in 2 minutes or less. For startups, it's even more important because it might be a tool to open the doorway to that meeting with a VC, or it can spark the dialogue that gains you that acquisition deal you were hoping for. The concept is based on the presumption that if you happen to be in a lift with the potential target audience, you should be able to generate enough interest before they reach their floor. Here’s what you should know:

• The Sales Guy: entrepreneur, sales force, evangelists, policy-makers or project managers
• The Format: verbal
• The Location: literally elevator, business events, offices, parties, travel, your target can be anywhere; keep aiming
• The Length: 30 seconds to 2 minutes, delivering approximately 150 words per minute
• The Preparation: keep some variations ready; rehearse them well in front of a mirror or webcam until it seems coming naturally to you

Here is how a Pitch helps

Time and Space Constraint: Decision makers often face information overload and economical yet effective communication stands out. This is especially relevant for startups as the industry spaces are crammed up, leading to a short attention span of your target audience. The challenge is to divert a part of ‘that’ brief focus towards you. A smart elevator pitch helps you do that.

Opportunity Creator: Every instant has to be treated as an opportunity to battle your way to an already busy front. Try to convert the wait time to “claimed”. Be ready for “anytime anywhere” flash explanation of your business. You will hopefully soon be asked for more details.

Numerical Edge: Numbers are the quickest route to conviction. This aligns with the emphasis on the brevity of an elevator statement.

And, here is how to make it stick out

Business Summary: Introduce your agenda. It can be you, your product/service, concept, organization, project, or event. Uniqueness needs to come across right here.

Processes: Quickly mention what you do and the key processes affecting the turnover.

Value Proposition: Entrepreneurs often may do a decent job of explaining what their business or creation does, as well as offer what they think is cool, but then forget to address value. Pivoted on the financial angle, value proposition is the turning point of any business pitch. Correctly describing the value of the business is crucial. The next step is connecting how you resolve an issue to how you earn money. Talk directly of profit or indirectly indicate the potential for the same. Basically, you project what is in it for the investor or the buyer. Boost this section with the numbers that matter, with a logical explanation of why are you investing to grow them.

Objective: Now, clearly state what you are looking for and how your audience can help you get there, while reaping measurable benefits. Basically, the listener should end up concretely informed and their interest should square with yours.

Realism: Don't go overboard. This is the golden rule of pitching. Your investors are experienced industry people and are used to seeing hundreds of pitches thrown their way. They can see through any window dressing. Be ambitious, but be realistic.

Seeking an expert’s guidance helps you understand the strategic what, why, and how of your business. S/he can highlight and enhance your winning points. Strategists inculcate the application angle in the business environment, to help you inch closer to the deal you are seeking. As a result, you get an organized and factual view of your business, backed by your now known strengths & opportunities and an insight into the ways to overcome the weaknesses or threats. Clarity and information empower. Once equipped with them, brief or detailed, you will know how to negotiate your way forward.

  -Written for Eurion Constellation, A Financial Research & Business Consulting Firm based in India

Media Communication Model - A Skim!

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Optimal media planning backed by engaging content are the keys to the digital socializing for profitability. And they 'are' the sustainable trends. Newer platforms are emerging and will continue to surface. Creativity and invention are at an all-time high. So, what we see as trends today may be obsolete tomorrow. But, as long as we know how to communicate, social media strategies will generate a decent ROI. We can simply understand this with my "media communication" model. As per the company's objective, here is the process flow: Identifying: 'who to talk to'----> 'what to talk' ------> 'where to talk' ---------> 'how much to talk'-----> when to talk. As simple as it may sound, the trick is to do it right. Its a thin line and if gone wrong, the possibility of ROI will convert into sunk cost. Understand and remember, the basics of socializing shall stay the same - it will work towards developing a social community. The same fundamental rules of winning over a community apply!

Why Startups Choose PE Funding over Debt or Loan?

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Entrepreneurial endeavors today are a tall block in the financing & investing realms. The possibility of overcoming the biggest obstruction – cash crunch - in a big way through private equity (PE) funding is electrifying for the emerging contemporary business generation. According to a NASSCOM report dated October 2015, US, UK, and India are leading the charts (in that order) for the maximum number of startups in the world last year. According to the Prequin’s Global Private Equity and Venture Capital (VC) report, 2016, 689 PE firms raised a cumulative capital of $288bn. Of these, a total of 9241 VC transactions worth $136bn were conducted by the end of 2015. The ‘dry powder,’ as per the report, shot up by 9% in comparison to 2014. Total dry powder in the PE slab stands at $755bn, as on June 2015. Clearly, a coordinated funding modality has been established between the startups and the investors, which kind of eliminates debt or loans as a financing option. 

Today, many potential micro firms are able to set off and land firmly on the global business space. But, why do entrepreneurs prefer PE funding to loan? Why these newbies are willing to trade the company’s part ownership when a cut and dry, no obligations payback loan tool exists? Without foraging into the mechanics of the types of startup funding, I am delving here purely into the mindset and the possible logic of the entrepreneur’s financing preferences. As per my experience, observation, and analysis, the following are the key triggers: 

1. Large Capital Inflow: PE Funds are granted commensurate with the business potential and the possible requirements for scaling up. Investors understand a business’ ethos, its plan, envision its growth potential, and know that you need to go full force simultaneously to taste success. Bits and pieces, here and there are actually wasted resources. Accordingly, they setup the funding with adequate riches. A neat amount helps startups ride the growth curve with the market strategies implemented in desired spaces and at the right time. The entrepreneurs get financial feasibility to ‘run’ their ideas. On the other hand, banks or informal lenders (friends, family, etc.) may not extend the loan of that quantum and the cash issue may continue to persist.  
2. Management Expertise: Unlike loans, with investment, comes investors control as well. Since returns are driving the whole cruise, the investors go extra mile to help the startup succeed. Besides money, they bring their strategic competence and network to the table. This undoubtedly benefits the business. In fact, if things do not work out, they often even help make you a last strategic decision on exiting or on shut it all down. Though heartbreaking, it does save on any more resources drain at all levels. However, this ‘control’ is often considered as the biggest disadvantage of equity funding even though it may actually be a savior. Apple and Housing.com are concrete examples of things going all wrong between the owners and the investors. Ironically, the founders were made to walk out of their own business. Investment is a thorough financial deal and the involved business owners must understand that on ground, the practicality prevails and not love, emotions, and dreams you have for your business. Numbers and just numbers have to be your sole target when someone has trusted their money in you. Be responsible and try accommodate & honor business experience. Dot.
3. Stress Free Money: With no liability of repayment like a loan EMI or mortgaging a property, PE funding lifts off a huge stress from the entrepreneurs. Whether or not you generate enough revenue, the lent out money has to be paid back as per the agreed schedule. Equity funding generously exempts the entrepreneurs from this angst. They are able to channelize their time, money, and mental space in trying out some innovative strategies as well, since failure will not mean you being a defaulter. The investors will recover their return if and as the business revenues push up. So, you work at growing the business and the ROI is the automatic side product.  
4. Saving the Failing Back: In February 2016, CB Insights featured a list of 156 funded US startups that failed for varied reasons like bad hire, wrong demand interpretation, etc. So, yes, despite all the business acumen and resources availability, several businesses see the setting sun. And this probability of shutting down ‘does’ occupy an indignant, dark corner in most entrepreneurs’ psyche. I think except for the likes of those seeking productive business partnership for scaling up the business, most entrepreneurs unfortunately, subconsciously focus on failure. Equity is their risk free tool in the event of business failing. The investor will not attach their property. All that the business partners on ground give up is a sinking business' equity in the worst case. Not much to lose technically for the entrepreneur if you see. The investors are the key risk takers here. 
5. Clouded Market Demand: When the businesses are not able to ‘realistically’ forecast the demand pattern in the near term, loans come packed with the scare of not being able to payback. There, we see the little analyzed and selfish rush sometimes to equity funding. Of course, the investors thoroughly grill the entrepreneurs and gather all the relevant facts before any financial commitment, still pre-funding, the inside story is best known to those running the show. And this sometimes work to the advantage of such business owners.
6. Lifestyle Upgrade: Equity funding essentially formalizes the business structure. The entrepreneurs get converted to highly paid top management employees with a high stake in the company. If we see this in black & white, the entrepreneurs are able to evolve their living with no 'ultimate' stress of a financial liability. It totally boils down to something very intangible - human virtue - here. While for many, the funded businesses are a tool to lifestyle upgrade until it lasts, the genuine ones stay dedicated to their venture and failure sure is not an option for them.   

The idea is not to be judgmental for or against equity funding or loans. The trick is to understand and sincerely utilize the immense advantage equity funding offers. In fact, this should be the trade in order to transition the global business map to higher gradients.