About Me

My photo
Mumbai, India
I run an IT Security consulting firm based out of India. We started off from scratch in 2001 when I was 21, and have offices in Mumbai, Bahrain, and UAE. The idea behind the blog is to share the stories of how we run the business, the deals we make, the deals that break, the heartburn, and the sheer joy.

The Ultimate Startup Guide

The Ultimate Startup Guide is an e-book that provides answers to all your questions related to starting and growing a business in India. Everything you wanted to know about entrepreneurship in India from ideation to registration to marketing to hiring. The book contains a large number of practical examples, anecdotes, interviews, and motivational material to help you get started, and to grow rapidly in a booming Indian economy. If you've got the idea, this book will help you through with the execution and realize your dreams. Here are some of the key questions you will find answered in this book:
  • When starting a business, what are the legal issues involved?
  • What form of incorporation is better suited to which type of business?
  • What tax issues are involved?
  • How do I start a business and what are the pitfalls?
  • How do I market my business in the absence of significant funding?
  • How do I get funded?
  • What are the basic accounting concepts I should be aware of?
  • What is a business plan and how should I build one?
The brief table of contents of the book is as follows:
  1. Getting started
  2. Ideation
  3. Forms of Enterprises
  4. Funding
  5. Basic Accounting and Taxation
  6. Import and Export Licensing
  7. Trademark and Patenting
  8. Rules for NRIs and Foreigners
  9. Building a Business Plan
  10. Marketing on a Shoestring
  11. Website and Branding
  12. Women Entrepreneurs
  13. Templates
To order the Ultimate Startup Guide - email me at kkmookhey@gmail.com.

Details of the book are:
Title: The Ultimate Startup Guide
Author: Kanwal Mookhey
Pages: 150
Additional: Companion CD contains numerous templates for building your business plan, calculating cashflow, preparing profit and loss, and balance sheets, preparing invoices, your resume and profile, marketing material, websites, contracts, and many other useful and motivational material.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Book review - Maverick, by Ricardo Semler

If Ricardo Semler's Maverick does not herald the demise of the patriarchal, pyramidal, authoritarian corporation, then I am not sure what does. This book is brilliant, and if you are an entrepreneur running your own show, worrying about people problems, then this is the book you got to read for some great insights.

The essential message of the book is one of trust in the innate goodness of humanity. No watch clocks, no cameras monitoring shopfloor workers, open profit sharing, salaries set by people themselves, machinery arranged as the workers decide, factory locations decided by the workers, cafetaria and other numerous collective enterprises promoted and run by the employees. Semler says, his happiest days in office are when he doesn't have to make a single decision. If you really want your people to buy into your vision and into your company, there's only one way to do it - let them take over. Step back, and guide/mentor them, but let them try to run the show and benefit from the profits.

While you get the book, hop over to Semco's website, and click on the "SEMCO Management Model".

1 comment:

Kanwal K Mookhey said...

Well, it may be idealistic, but since it comes from a businessman, rather than a management guru, it carries far more credibility. Secondly, Semco is Brazilian, and therefore a much closer resemblance to Indian work culture and ethic than the US, which as you rightly say is quite different from ours.
Thirdly, the Semco model is quite similar to what Porras and Collins show in Good to Great, which is a central core set of principles and everything else can change dynamically and rapidly. So he does mention about various aspects that didn't work out, or he had to fight to make them work. For instance, at our company, there is internal resistance to opening up the book of accounts. I don't see a problem, but for the moment, the people think it might be too much transparency too suddenly.
On the other hand, no other company seems to have replicated Semco as successfully, even in Brazil. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting model to try and replicate. :)