Whats with Bangalore and Juice Joints ?

No where else in India have I seen so many juice shops, as many as I have seen in Bangalore. You have a juice junction, juice stop, or a juice bar in every street you go (and I might not even be exaggerating).  I somehow can not comprehend the reason for this, could be the sudden upsurge of young people with disposable income, but I hear that the juice 'culture' , as I call it, has been there for long.

Bangalore is not a place with hot weather that you need juices to replenish your body fluids so often. And neither is Bangalore a place where we have fruit orchards, and neither is fruit cheap. If at all, fruits are costliest, if you compare with metros and other comparable cities (like Pune, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmadabad) in India.

And neither is Bangalore a place for health freaks. Most denizens here are, in fact, obese people working in IT/ITES/BT/Govt sector and are mostly KFC/McD crunching junta. Don't believe me ? Just go at any McD and see yourself, you will find more crowd than in a juice shop.

So, whats the reason ?

I think it has more to do with the culture than anything else. People in Bangalore have been consuming juices more than at other places and the same continues. Well, this is my theory and I would believe so. When I came to Bangalore 5 years back, I was told Bangalore is famous for fresh fruits and juices.

Another theory could be the status of juice in the society now. Its a 'cult' . You see a juice shop and you are tempted to have a juice. Most juice shops display the fruits (or at least the posters) , some even hang them on the pavement to attract passers-by.And one is sure to be tempted. Add to this the pulling factor when the juice shop is crowded with people sipping juice/milk-shakes/ice-creams/custards etc. Money is no concern, as I believe, you will find millions of people with disposable incomes here in Bangalore. Also the juice does not normally cost much  (6-7 rs for small glass, and 10-15 for a large).

I , in fact, remember falling to this cult culture some 5 years back, when I came here.There is a juice shop (not surprising) on the way to office, and every time I passed by, I was sure to have one glass for sure. Yes, I agree, I was tempted by the fruits hanging all over, and also I liked the taste. I was also lured into trying new fruits which I never tried before like 'butter-fruit', 'musk-melon' et al. Not that its bad to have juices, but for arguments sake, I fell into it and realized why the juice thing is a Big business here and having juice a cult.

3 requirements for a startup success

Watch this video on venturebeat about the three necessities for a startup success. Especially a tech startup.

http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2010/05/28/three-necessities-for-start-up-success/

A small abstract:

- Is there a new market ? Or is there a potentially new market that can be created because of some technological or economic change.

- Essentially, new companies need not exist or need not be created. When starting a new company think about why you think its needed. What is wrong with the current companies that are doing the same or similar things that you need a new one. Because if a market exists then customers are more than happy to continue with same old companies and would unlikely switch.

- So if there is going to be a change, which you foresee, might be because of some technological advancement or economic change or both, how big is the change. Will it create a new market. Will it bring about a 10X change ?

- Think about 10x factor - always think about how fast, how better, how different your product will be than the existing one. Will it be 10x ? A VC might not be interested if its not around 10X.

Entrepreneurs ...

Entrepreneurs aren't born , they are made.

An Entrepreneur is somebody who jumps out of the airplane without a parachute in the hope that he will get some help on the way.

Funny ? Its true and that's the reason only a few take the actual plunge.

[Source : Vivek Wadhwa's interview]

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epaperpdf/29052010/28saturday-pg10-0.pdf

Vivek Wadhwa is a serial entrepreneur and now a academic researcher on globalization.

Follow him on twitter http://twitter.com/vwadhwa

Deciding between a foreign MBA and an Indian MBA

Read an interesting article about how to decide between an Indian MBA and a foreign MBA. A good read indeed. The most important point is about having the right expectations. True !

http://www.mindinsight.com/viewblog.action?blogId=35

Is it the end of the passport size photo ?

Recently visited the Passport Seva Kendra, or PSK as it is now called in Bengaluru. And its modern. TCS has been awarded some 1000 crores for a project to modernize and e-fy passport offices all over India. Bengaluru and Chandigarh are the two places where this project has been implemented to start with. Expectation is to have swift process for passport application which takes a lot of time thanks to erstwhile manual process of application, police verification (which remains but is swift, as claimed) etc.

So coming to the point of passport size photo, you do not need a photograph to be provided with your application while applying for a passport. They have digital cameras which capture your picture, quite hassle free. I had a similar experience at RTO bangalore where I did not have to provide a passport size photo.

This simply means that you no longer need the ubiquitous passport size photo. Well, it is still needed in some cases like when applying for loans, sim card etc but the actual meaning of the photo - 'passport' size will be soon gone.

So will the name need be changed ? Think of it some 100 years from now, will there be an entity called passport photo ? If yes, we will be there to tell tales of how the paper passport photo was taken over by digital photos.

Not to forget the fate of photo studios which survive on passport photos. They might move into other businesses or offer other services like marriage photography, etc ( A lot of them already do this along with regular passport photo business )

Is an MBA really worth it ?

A few months back I wrote a post on "Pros and Cons of doing an MBA" . Now that I have chosen to join a b-school I thought it would be better to revisit and find out more.

In fact, during the interview I had with Sean Rickard from Cranfield, I had asked this precise question - "Is an MBA really worth it ?". Sean answered by saying that an MBA is not a must to succeed. Richard Branson and many other successful businessmen are not MBAs, but they do recruit MBAs. So doing an MBA does improve your chances to succeed.

After doing a little re-thinking, I have found that the most compelling reason for me to do an MBA, is to get out of my comfort zone. This is true, as I have found how anxious I have been in the last couple of years to do something different and do something which interests me. And I think doing an MBA will be the starting of all these things that I want to do.Agree, I will have a loan (not so huge though) to pay off at the end of it, but I think I will be just fine.

Also, since its an international MBA, I think the exposure will be different and probably better. It will be an experience of a different kind. And I am quite excited about it. Also I expect the MBA course to transform me, to a different and more competitive person. And if it really happens, I think it will be really worth it.

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Also read an article on 'should an entrepreneur have an mba'

http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2010/05/12/should-an-entrepreneur-have-an-mba/

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Read an article in economist (link below) on how B-schools are gearing up to change the way they teach, the curriculum etc. [Do not forget to read the comments.]

http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16067747

How my Loan Application reached HSBC, Milton Keynes, UK

Sent my application for post graduate loan via DHL on friday, the 14th. And it got delivered today, on 17th. Really express service, considering it was a weekend in between. But I believe DHL works 365*24*7.

Here is the whole trail of how my shipment traveled from Bangalore to the UK. And you can clearly (or is it too obscure ?), it took less than 72 hours.

Can't see it ? Click on the image to view full version. (Could not make it look better)

Now keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully it will be approved.