Entrepreneur

How will Entrepreneurs transform Nepal ?

Posted in Entrepreneur, resources on November 20th, 2011 by Ujwal Thapa – Be the first to comment

An Entrepreneur creates opportunities not just for himself but more importantly for others. In Nepal, this is even more important as we have a high number of unemployed Nepalis and opportunities are limited to a privileged few.

There is an ongoing joke in Nepal, that if we produce a politician, we destroy 100 jobs, whereas if we create an entrepreneur, we create 100 jobs. On a serious note, this is why many youths should turn to entrepreneurship as the engine of their personal, professional and soulful growth. We need not look far to realize how entrepreneurship has transformed our neighbors, China and India. A responsible government would bet on producing and helping more entrepreneurs than on anything else.

Here are few ways Entrepreneurs will transform Nepal…

Entrepreneurs solve problems in Nepal

We hear of so many problems in Nepal. Listen to news, and you will hear problems left and right. Entrepreneurs view these problems as opportunities and solve problems for all of us to have a nicer life in Nepal. In the process of solving problems, they create jobs and positivism and efficiency in the economy. Today, many have become dependent on foreign aid and the government to solve our problems. Entrepreneurs don’t wait and will not allow others to solve problems. They grab the opportunity, try to solve it and find a sustainable way to do this (business). Imagine a future in which each Nepali is hungry for problems and jumps to solve each and every problem in our society and makes a business out of it. We could become a very different society.

Entrepreneurs create jobs that benefit low-income families in Nepal

As an entrepreneur, you may help a struggling Nepali family directly, lifting them from poverty simply by creating ‘jobs’. The employment you generate and the salary you pay , helps towards improving the local economy, i.e small shops, farmers, schools, groceries and local towns. You help the local eco-system by the wealth you generate for others. This in turn helps generate a positive cycle of employment. You help continue this positive cycle of growth even as a small entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs creates platforms/ecosystems in Nepal

As an entrepreneur, you will be creating not just one small business but over the course of time build it into a platform, an eco-system so that others can build their own businesses around yours. Thamel became Thamel when businesses started to bloom, servicing around one Hotel, Kathmandu Guest house.

So you will be helping create opportunities for others too, by creating this as a by-product of building their ventures. As a result of an entrepreneur, an industry of like-minded entrepreneurs came into being. Do not under-estimate the power of entrepreneurship to change the world.

Entrepreneurs raise dignity of Nepalis

When we get the opportunity to work in our own country, utilizing materials and human power here and export them, not having to leave our place to work in far away lands, it makes us dignified. It raises our family’s self-esteem, our children’s self-esteem. Entrepreneurs create dignified jobs and dignified professionals as their employees. Entrepreneurship is not about exploiting people. It is about empowering people so that they help run their business better. Hari Bhakta Sharma has scaled his pharmaceuticals company – Deurali Janata – by successfully providing dignified employment and opportunity to work in a place which makes life-saving medicines at affordable prices for the poor.

Entrepreneurs remove the gap between rich and poor in Nepal

A strange statement? Well many confuse entrepreneurs with traditional traders, monopolistic business houses or even evil rich people. Till now in Nepal, the power and wealth has been restricted to a few traditional elites. They earn their wealth, thus power, not by being entrepreneurial on fair competition but by abusing their power, access, status and restricting other Nepalis wish to becoming an entrepreneur. They stifle innovation and growth and encourage practices that benefit just themselves. So they are not entrepreneurs. In-fact, when entrepreneurs come into the equation, they in-fact break monopolies and barriers created by these traditional power elites. The fact that entrepreneurs can come from any background, tribes, age, status is powerful way to transform society from status-quo to progress.

For economic equality and prosperity in Nepal, we need not more politicians or job seekers but more entrepreneurs who rise from obscurity, cutting across tribes, economic past, castes and age. In other words, that entrepreneur could be you. If we are looking for the profound changes we want to see here, help yourself become an Entrepreneur. Take the example of Rudra Pandey, the founder of D2Hawkeye. He comes from a simple humble background in remote Nepal, rose through sheer hard work and ambition, started and grew D2Hawkeye into a powerhouse. He grew the firm to a global healthcare analytics firm and helped put Nepal on the map of world-class companies. Many Nepalese have taken inspiration from him and are trying entrepreneurship in Nepal and outside in their own ways.

Entrepreneurs creates positive cultures

“Yes we can”- This is the feeling that prosperity brought by Entrepreneurship evokes. It improves the self-confidence of all Nepalis. With this positive attitude, it helps replace the current “blame-game” culture of “yestai ho”, “ke garne” attitude in which we are stuck and can no longer create a win-win situation in villages and towns across Nepal. It helps usher us towards a fair meritocratic culture in which every Nepali, irrespective of background, gains the attitude – ‘yes, I can meet my dreams.’

Positive culture in Nepal is essential if we want to create an economically equal, fair, accountable, responsible society. And as an entrepreneur, you will be helping us make this faster than any other professional. Prithivi Pande, current CEO of Nepal Investment Bank, was responsible for creating a a positive culture trend in the Banking sector. Many of the current heads of Financial institutions in Nepal have worked with him and followed his lead to be successful bankers themselves.

So how will YOU benefit as an entrepreneur in Nepal?

1) A dignified status

Nepal has changed. Now your peers, your followers and many Nepalis will regard an entrepreneur as a leader. And some will even think of you as a visionary. They will read about you, hear about you and follow your steps. You will be inspiring the next generation of Nepalis to become creative entrepreneurs and help create great entrepreneurial centers right here in Nepal like the Silicon Valley in the United States. Entrepreneurs like Anil Chitrakar, Karna Shakya, Ambika Shrestha, Min Bahadur Gurung are respected, admired and thanked for the opportunities they have created in Nepal.

2) A comfortable life

In Nepal, an entrepreneur’s life is much more comfortable as your ability to succeed is higher because there is less competition here. Once you are successful, you carry great leverage. As an entrepreneur, you can leverage your success to have access to more opportunities to work on a bigger level, may it be with the government or on bigger lucrative projects.

3) A satisfying life

The satisfaction of having helped many will be extremely gratifying for your soul. In Nepal, you can actually see your effects directly. Leading an honest life as an entrepreneur and providing for others – what a satisfying way to live here than in the already developed country where your impact may be minimal compared to here. How best to help others – by innovating a fishing industry, not just teaching how to fish, or worse just giving them fish.

4) Live your life

As an entrepreneur, you can live your life passionately, not your parent’s life, or your friend’s or your spouse’s, but yours. I believe this is one of the best ways to live where you decide on your path. In other words, you lead a passionate life. As an entrepreneur, I have enough time and energy to follow my different passions in life, to experiment on projects and to mentor others. It allows me to make time for myself and my family while finding ways to serve the society better.

 

by Prasanna Dhungel and Ujwal Thapa. This is a series of articles on Transforming Nepal through Entrepreneurship. Stay updated in this website for more articles.


Last Thursdays with Dileep Agrawal, internet provider pioneer in Nepal

Posted in Entrepreneur, Last Thursdays on November 10th, 2011 by Ujwal Thapa – Be the first to comment
Dileep Agrawal, Internet Industry pioneer

Dileep Agrawal

Mr. Dileep Agrawal, the Chairman and Managing Director of Worldlink Coummunication Pvt. Ltd., is a recognized leader in Nepal’s IT industry. A graduate from Bates College in the US, he started his entrepreneurial journey in 1995, while he was a third year student at college. He has created several successful enterprises over time. He was awarded Best Young Entrepreneur by Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) in 2004 and Best IT Entrepreneur by BOSS Magazine in 2006.

One of the most successful young entrepreneurs of Nepal, Mr. Dileep Agrawal, firmly believes that a country’s economy cannot develop without entrepreneurs and only those societies with capitalist approach where entrepreneurs are allowed to lead, will develop. He exemplifies the country like China with communist regime developed only after it adopted the free market concepts. He is very troubled by the Nepali society’s perception of businessmen and entrepreneurs as evil people. He further adds that even in India, until last ten years, people believed that businessman were liars and thieves who enjoyed the luxury by looting the general people. The profit making process was considered an evil act. He argues that this societal view still persists in Nepal and until this perception can be changed, the entrepreneurial development and prosperity is far from reach of many Nepalese.

Son of a professor, he had to rebel against his father’s conception of profit making being evil. And after some struggle he finally made his leap towards entrepreneurial journey that led him to his current position. He had already lived with his father in USA for seven years, when he got a scholarship to study in an American university. Once he joined his college, he shares that he became independent and that helped him in his own development. He gives the credit for his success to his college years, which gave him opportunities to understand about various disciplines, different people and cultures. This shaped his understanding about the world and its ways.

Dileep Agrawal believes that success is not achieved at once, but by challenging ourselves constantly. With such a belief, he constantly challenged himself to pave his path to success. Though a biology major wanting to join the medical school, he didn’t refrain himself from venturing into the world of economics, psychology and philosophy. He believes that his diversification of courses helped him better understand life and helped him grow immensely.

When he was in his third year of college, he was caught up in the debate with himself on whether to carry on with further studies, return back home or find a job after his graduation in about a years time. During this time, he used to communicate with his friends via emails, but when he had to call back home, it was expensive. This very problem ignited the idea of starting the business of providing email and Internet services in Nepal.

He shared his idea of starting an email and Internet service business in Nepal with one of his brother who was then without a job. His brother joined his venture and helped him research the market. But, before the research was finished, his brother got a job and discontinued to work with him. Without any discouragement, he carried on with his work on his own. Though being good with computers and technology, he chose to abandon his path of being a computer scientist unlike one of his brothers. He started his business with a computer and a modem, which was special kind of modem used by NGO’s in the Africa for communication, as the normal modems could not connect US with Nepal via dial up connections. It was a big achievement at that time for him. He did do some advertising of his business too but he had to return to the US to complete his studies. So, before he left, he made two of his cousins partners in his company. At the beginning, the company did get few costumers but it took the first CAN Info Tech of 1996 for his business to grow extraordinarily. The business grew so big that his partners had to ask him to come back from the US to manage it. After graduating from his college he came back and till this day he has been continuously growing the business of Worldlink Communication.

Making Worldlink Communication a successful business was not an easy task. He had to face lots of challenges. When he had started his business, the government of Nepal had not yet recognized the business of Internet Service Provider. Many people told him that he might end up in jail for running a business unrecognized by the government. But, this didn’t stop him.

Success is not achieved without some failures. He is no exception to the philosophy. He terms his first failure as the inability to find good human resource during the rapid growth period of his company. This inability created a huge problem to the management. He suggests to the budding entrepreneurs to plan for finding well trained and committed staffs while planning for their businesses.

He terms his second failure to his inability to transfer himself from a technical person to a manager. More of a technical person then a manager, he had to step in as a manager when the management of the company was unable to handle the immense pressure of the rapidly growing company.

Despite of all the challenges and failures, Dileep Agrawal has proved today that people who continuously challenge themselves and persist on going forward will reach the height of success someday.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (WITH THE PARTICIPANTS)

Last Thursdays session

Q. How can you retain your employees in your company?

A: I cannot, because as you know most of the young people in Nepal want to go abroad. If you ask any employee in my company they would tell you that if they get the opportunity to go to the US they would go instantly. Companies like Microsoft and Apple pay 100 times more salary than what we can afford. So it isn’t up to us to make our employees stay. Any one who gets a better opportunity should opt for it.

Q. When you started the company was there any competition and how did it change the scenario?

A: There was a company that already existed called Mercantile, which started its operations 6 months before we did. They were charging high rates that were matched by Worldlink. They were charging Rs. 80 per KB. I saw the opportunity and thought to do the same because there was a good profit margin. I charged Rs. 50 per KB, which was still a high price with good profit. My father opposed me doing business because Mercantile was an established business and it would be difficult to compete with them. The scenario changed with NTC joining in the market in 1999 and with the introduction of ADSL services the competition is very high. Similarly, Broadlink also provides similar services.

Q. Do you think it is advisable to have a bond/contract with the employee stating that the company would provide all the facilities but the employee would not be able to leave the job for at least 2/3 years? What would motivate staffs besides money to stay with the company?

A: There have been few practices of contracts in businesses in Nepal. For example, Mercantile used to withhold their employees’ original certificates for a couple of years. Our company does not do that because I don’t feel comfortable doing that. But what we did was we had a contract with the employees that they would commit to work for a certain number of years. The employees were trained initially and were paid but the contract clearly indicated that if the employee did not work for the contracted number of years they would have to return the amount spent on their training, and that kind of contract worked well for us. But eventually, if any employee gets a better opportunity they will leave paying the bond amount because the new pay would be 10 times than what we offer.

Since Nepal is a relatively poor country and the consumption pattern is very high, till date money has been the biggest incentive for people to get motivated. Only after the basic needs are fulfilled, the people will start thinking of other necessities.

Q. What factors do you look for while launching new products? How do you keep pace with the competitors?

A: The purchasing power of the Nepali people is very low. In Singapore, one pays US $100 every month for their Internet, television and mobile whereas in Nepal one pays around Rs. 1500 for the same purpose. Hence, when we launch a new product in Nepal, we always consider the purchasing power of the people and always focus in services with a low cost making it accessible to a larger mass. It happened the same with mobile phones and I believe it should be the same with the Internet.

In the context of competition, we always try to present our company as a standard one. We don’t want to look cheap. We try and become a low cost company but with a value. We aren’t as expensive as some of the companies but aren’t as cheap as NTC. So we have placed ourselves as a medium range company.

Q. What scope do the IT students of Nepal have after graduation?

A:  I won’t generalize. But in my knowledge, most of the IT colleges have been ripping off the students. I am saying this because these kinds of courses need more practical knowledge than theory but the practical knowledge isn’t good enough. So when they graduate, they have all the theoretical knowledge but they lack in practical experience, which makes them unfit for the job. It is also the lack of awareness among the students. So there is a huge potential for the IT students but practical knowledge is necesary.

Q. Is corporate governance necessary?

A: No.

Q. Why do companies in Nepal do not get listed in the stock exchange and why is Worldlink not listed in it?

A: We think that our company should not be valued at Rs. 100 per share. In Nepal until NTC had opened up their shares and they listed themselves in the stock exchange at a higher price nobody had done it before. The concept here is that if the share value is Rs. 100 and if you are charging Rs. 200 for it you are ripping somebody off so you cannot do it basically. Bank and all do that because the law requires them to do so. Another reason is that being listed makes it more difficult to operate because you need to be lot more transparent and there are elements that will come in as shareholders and give you a hard time. It happens with the banks and it would probably happen to us too. The other reasons are that there was no premium asked for the shares.

Q. Is there any way you could be the bridge between the IT graduates and the IT companies?

A: There is an opportunity for people to start a business, which can train the college graduates according to the employer’s specifications. This new business needs to assure that the employers and the employees get what they want.

Q. The daily newspaper The Himalayan Times talks about the ICT price basket and it shows a comparison of South Asian countries and Nepal is by far the highest and more than double the country that comes next that is Bangladesh and it’s not decreasing in the past three years in the same rate as other south Asian countries. So my question is why is Nepal’s ICT price basket not decreasing at the rate as other countries in the region?

A: That probably includes the cost of telecommunication in terms of cell phones, telephone lines, Internet and probably television. This shows Nepal very high as compared to these other countries. I would disagree with it because there were some studies done in the past by people where they took the standard rates for these services. For example, there are so many options for Internet here. Some packages are as cheap as Rs. 600-700 per month. So the person who did this reporting must have used some of the highest rate packages or they must used the cost that is paid by the offices. In Nepal, people hardly pay more than Rs. 1500 for Internet services. So the packages offered are lower than Rs. 1500. The price of Internet in Nepal has been falling since last couple of years. The price might go as low as Rs. 600 per month but below that it would not make any business sense.

Q. What can be done to provide cheaper and comprehensive Internet access to the people?

A: The number one thing is the network. Few private companies provide services and NTC has monopolized the infrastructure and not unbundled it like most of the developed countries. Even in Pakistan and Bangladesh it is unbundled. That allows people to choose the ISP they want to use for their ADSL line. They are not tied to just one service provider. NTC do not have the capabilities to market their products and services and make new customers. That hampers the optimal use of the available infrastructure.

Q. When were you most scared as an entrepreneur and what should youth like us learn from your experience?

A: Initially my company was providing only email services, but there came a point when my competitors had taken a leased line. The cost of this leased connection was around Rs. 0.7 million a month and it was a big commitment at that time. But at that point if I had not taken the leased connection, I would have had to close down my business. The fear was not of the commitment. During the CAN Info Tech, Mercantile did not flash their prices but I did it and eventually the Mercantile came up with prices half of what I offered. When this happened, I was really scared that I would not be able to collect the 0.7 million to pay for the leased connection. Luckily things went our way and we could do it.

Q. Why is the connection speed not getting higher? How do you tackle the competition from mobile companies and other wireless providers?

A:  The main factor is that there is no network that can support higher bandwidth. Though NTC has such network, it supports only in and around its office and not far off places. The higher bandwidth price has been lowered but it is still not affordable to general people of Nepal. In couple of years the prices would drop further and we would get faster services.

Globally mobile has been the number one method for people to access Internet but this happens in a short basis. It is not used as the primary medium because of it instability and lower bandwidth. So, it is not a competition as thought.

 

Last Thursdays with Om RajBhandari, Real Estate pioneer

Posted in Entrepreneur on September 23rd, 2011 by Ujwal Thapa – Be the first to comment

Om Rajbhandari, chairman of Comfort Housing, Comfort Cares and Brihat Investments is one of the pioneers in the field of community living and planned housing in Nepal. Despite his busy schedule, especially during the current real estate expo in Kathmandu, he opted to talk to emerging entrepreneurs because he felt that sharing his journey with the youth would make a difference in their lives as well as his own. As someone who believes that social capital is much more important than financial capital, Mr. Rajbhandari shared his story of starting as a small-time agent to being an authority in real estate business in Nepal at the present time.

 

While growing up, he wanted to be a lawyer, as immortalized in his primary school classnotes. However, when he completed his secondary school, as it is customary in every Nepali household, his parents wanted him to be a doctor. During his days it was not up to him to decide on what he wanted to do in his life. It depended more on his parents. He acknowledges the difference in this generation compared to his as young people are now able to choose their own career path.  Hence, Mr. Rajbhandari was very close to pursuing a medical degree but it did not happen later owing to different circumstances. Nonetheless, he started his career in 1985 as a medical representative for an American company. This career path was not supported by his family because they wanted him to become a doctor, not a sales person to a doctor. But he was determined to take on the opportunity and pursued the career. His father was an employee at the American Embassy and his sister was living in the US. He also had the opportunity to go to the United States but he opted to stay in Nepal and do something for himself and his country.  He had a very successful career as a medical representative and was promoted to higher levels during the nine years he spent in the company because of his capacity for hard work and his marketing skills. He was offered the post of regional sales manager with the area of work including India, but instead of taking the position, he decided to quit because the position would require him to be away from Nepal.

 

Having come from a non-business family, he did not have the capital to start a business so he had a difficult time opening one. The people’s revolution of 1990 had just ended and the country was in the phase of development. Hence, Mr. Rajbhandary along with his friends then decided to get into construction business. They named it CE Constructions and the initial capital was of Rs 75,000 which was his saving of the Providence Fund. CE stands for Committed Entrepreneurs. They were a committed group of entrepreneurs and thought that entrepreneurs should be allowed to grow and innovate. The first job they won was building transformer poles for Lumbini Development Bank.  Although, CE construction was a newly established company, Himalayan Bank granted them a loan of ten million rupees in two phases, one as capital and the other as overdraft. Mr. Rajbhandari believes that banks need to give loans on entrepreneur’s potential and business plan, rather than on traditional basis of collaterals. He believes that with time, the committed entrepreneurs become competent entrepreneurs and that held true for his own company too. They were approached for more work and people’s expectation on them was growing. However, being a company and following all the procedures, the profit margin was extremely low as the company had to pay the engineers, accountants and other office staffs. In this scenario, as CE construction was thinking of expanding its work, the concept of Comfort Housing was established. More research was done over the internet on this idea and they expanded their knowledge on it.

 

In the early days of Comfort Housing, Mr. Rajbhandari used to visit the sites with his customers several times a day. He used to look after the entire department because of the lack of manpower. He developed a video film explaining the concept of community living and comfort housing. All his hard work paid off but it took around 2 years for him to sell his first project .The second projected started in Budanilikantha. With the help of the data collected in the first project, he invited several potential clients and to his surprise the booking started on the second day itself. But, the problem arose when the booking didn’t turn into sales. This turned out to be a major problem because someone else couldn’t buy the same property because of prior booking. Those properties were sold in around 6 month’s time. The third phase went really well for Comfort Housing with 700 visitors in a week and people ready to buy and pay the money in advance. During this phase, Mr. Rajbhandari had a difficult time as he served his clients on a first come first serve basis and did not offer favors to his relatives over his customers. We developed the system of community living by launching the concept of vertical living which was basically the apartment housing. With the success of comfort housing, Mr. Rajbhandari received due recognition.

Mr. Rajbhandari believes that patience is the key to being successful and getting recognition. Comfort Housing received a quality award from USA and an appreciation letter from the then Prime Minister of Nepal. He helped build the infrastructure for the community police in the area where his project of Comfort Housing was started. Due to his involvement in making the community better, he was awarded the best community service award from Nepal Police. Similarly, he was awarded Best CEO of 2010 by the BOSS magazine. He developed the concept of Strata management for the first time in Nepal, which includes joint ownership and management of common properties, like lobby, driveway, lawns, etc. He also started security business which was basically used for the security of Comfort Housing.

 

Brihat Investment was developed by Mr. Rajbhandari in order to promote entrepreneurship, especially in real estate business. He brought about a policy where any of his staffs who have worked with him for three years would be allowed to start their own business. He would invest in their venture and hence share the profit. His goal was to create 30 entrepreneurs within 5 years. Similarly, he also collaborated with educational institutes in the US and Thailand to start real estate education in Nepal. Currently the institute is producing its 4th batch. Brihat Investment has also been publishing a newsletter on real estate since three years. This newsletter gives the general public a good knowledge on real estate business in Nepal. Similarly real estate course was introduced in the Masters level at Ace Institute of Management and Apex College as well.

 

He feels that to be a business leader one has to get involved with both social and professional institution by balancing both. He is also involved in many social organizations like Nepal Ambulance Service, Rotary Kastamandap and others.

 

He believes that his success is because of his hard working team who has the capacity to run the business in his absence. He believes that knowledge is a very powerful tool, not a private property and hence should be shared with everyone. Knowledge, Trust, Responsibility and Authority comes in process and hence cannot be ignored.

LAST THURSDAYS WITH OM RAJBHANDARI

Date: August 25th 2011  | Venue: Hotel Dwarika’s, Battisputali, Kathmandu

 

 

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