Dharmesh shah of OnStartups has written an informative article on marketing strategy for startups. It is a good read as it mentions some smart ways of marketing without spending money. You can read it here.
Cheers
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
What Happened to BJP?
The results of 2009 national elections must have been shocking for BJP. Nobody imagined such a bad performance by BJP. Starting from minuscule numbers in 1984, it went on to rule the country for 5 years and 13 days under Atal Bihar Vajpayee. It looked promising and many thought Indian democracy has matured with the rise of the second party at the national level. Five years of BJP rule were good for India and were expected to return to power sans the “India Shining” campaign in 2004. What happened to BJP?
My first memories of BJP as a party are of Mr. Vajpayee's masterful speeches where I used to go with my Dad. He was witty and used simple language. Later I used to read about many prominent personalities joining the party. It created a lot of promise riding on the image of Mr. Vajpayee. Congress at that point of time was suffering from lethargy. Its leaders looked tired, uninterested in India or too aristocratic. Slowly it started to loose its ground. Emergence of regional parties in northern India also contributed to congress’s fall. Finally it culminated in Congress losing a lot of ground and BJP coming to power.
But once BJP lost in the 2004 elections, it is on a downward swing. What happened to it? In my view, the reasons are as follows:
1) Most importantly, I feel, BJP never prepared the second rung of leaders. Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj etc were visible in media and were articulate but were never mass leaders. They were seen on television and appreciated by intellectuals but India lives in villages and these leaders never connected with the real voters.
2) BJP always tried to use the Hindutva as its main plank. But in a country, though driven by emotions, people don’t remember an emotion for long. It can work once but will not work always. That is where BJP lost the plot. Even in 2009 elections, it tried to rely on that, which proved to be counter-productive. This could have worked, had it been wisely mixed with economic issues and rural development.
3) Rahul Gandhi was the third most important reason. He is a Gandhi scion and India always had a fascination for Gandhi family. He is smart and understood the voters psyche pretty well. The emotional attachment can only be leveraged by connecting with masses. He did precisely that in UP and other places.
This is my two cents on BJP's defeat in 2009 elections. I still feel, it is one of the most organized and important pillars of our democracy and its strength will provide stability and supremacy to the largest democracy of the World.
Cheers
My first memories of BJP as a party are of Mr. Vajpayee's masterful speeches where I used to go with my Dad. He was witty and used simple language. Later I used to read about many prominent personalities joining the party. It created a lot of promise riding on the image of Mr. Vajpayee. Congress at that point of time was suffering from lethargy. Its leaders looked tired, uninterested in India or too aristocratic. Slowly it started to loose its ground. Emergence of regional parties in northern India also contributed to congress’s fall. Finally it culminated in Congress losing a lot of ground and BJP coming to power.
But once BJP lost in the 2004 elections, it is on a downward swing. What happened to it? In my view, the reasons are as follows:
1) Most importantly, I feel, BJP never prepared the second rung of leaders. Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj etc were visible in media and were articulate but were never mass leaders. They were seen on television and appreciated by intellectuals but India lives in villages and these leaders never connected with the real voters.
2) BJP always tried to use the Hindutva as its main plank. But in a country, though driven by emotions, people don’t remember an emotion for long. It can work once but will not work always. That is where BJP lost the plot. Even in 2009 elections, it tried to rely on that, which proved to be counter-productive. This could have worked, had it been wisely mixed with economic issues and rural development.
3) Rahul Gandhi was the third most important reason. He is a Gandhi scion and India always had a fascination for Gandhi family. He is smart and understood the voters psyche pretty well. The emotional attachment can only be leveraged by connecting with masses. He did precisely that in UP and other places.
This is my two cents on BJP's defeat in 2009 elections. I still feel, it is one of the most organized and important pillars of our democracy and its strength will provide stability and supremacy to the largest democracy of the World.
Cheers
Monday, May 18, 2009
Indians create great opportunity for Wealth creation
The events of the last few days have been phenomenal. The election results have been unexpected for everyone to say the least. Even the Congress party have the right to be surprised, pleasantly though. The Indian public has voted for stability setting aside the instability of hung parliament and tantrums of the left parties blocking everything. This has created a great opportunity for common men for wealth creation.Since last October, there has been sentiments of gloom and doom and everything was looking bad. Stock markets are just a reflection of the general economy and sentiments. But primarily it is driven by sentiments. From the high of 22000, it had gone down to intra-day low of 7500. People have lost huge amounts of money. Retail investors or FIIs or Indian MFs, everyone is loathe to invest. Economy wise, Manufacturing sector is seriously hit so is the export sector. IT sector is badly hit with exports decelerating in double digits. US economy is in serious dumps showing serious negative growth rates in last few months. Combined all this and you can realize how the two of the serious wealth creation avenues are hit. Property prices are down by 30-40%, stock market was down by more than 50%. The only other avenue was Fixed rate instruments which just cannot create serious wealth.
But the election verdict has changed all of that; first it changes the mood of gloom & doom. The reasons for that are - 1) Stability at the centre 2) Expectation of impetus to reforms 3) Disinvestment of PSU to generate funds for infrastructure & other much needed projects and thereby providing growth opportunity to other sectors.All of the above reasons will improve the sentiments dramatically. Today's market are just a sign of what is in store for us, 2099 points in a day for sensex. Add to that the fact that FIIs, MF money and retail money is waiting on the sidelines and is ready to get invested.
All of this is going to provide a serious opportunity to wealth creation. Invest in Domestic stories like Infrastructure, Banking & Capital goods sector and in next one year, one can make serious money.
Kudos to us Indians. Well Done!!!!!
Cheers
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Binary Mantra Systems Launches its first Healthcare Product
My Company, Binary Mantra Systems(BMS) launched eClinic today – a software developed for small and medium sized hospitals & clinics. The product enables outpatient management including the facility to schedule patient’s appointments with Doctors, capture prescriptions and to record patient case history. The second module of the software automates hospital’s medical store to electronically manage requisitions, issues and inventory of medicines. Designed and customized exclusively for the Indian market, the product is available in two deployment versions – one with 2 user licence and the other with unlimited user licenses. eClinic marks Binary Mantra Systems’ foray into health care. The company has plans to launch more specialized versions of this software over a period of one year. The upcoming modules include specialty wise patient examination, Pathology Module and ICU management. The company has plans to enter into Indian education segment and their first product is expected to be launched by the end of this year. This product is targeted towards school students.
About Binary Mantra Systems
Binary Mantra Systems (BMS) is a Pune based IT products and services company specializing in Healthcare, BPM and Mobility Solutions. The founder members are IT professionals and extensive experience. IT was established in August 2008.
The company is working for Indian and US customers. BMS has started to make inroads into US market as well. They have acquired couple of US customers this quarter. For more information on BMS, visit www.binarymantrasystems.com.
Cheers
Binary Mantra Systems In News
View more presentations from srivasaa2000.
About Binary Mantra Systems
Binary Mantra Systems (BMS) is a Pune based IT products and services company specializing in Healthcare, BPM and Mobility Solutions. The founder members are IT professionals and extensive experience. IT was established in August 2008.
The company is working for Indian and US customers. BMS has started to make inroads into US market as well. They have acquired couple of US customers this quarter. For more information on BMS, visit www.binarymantrasystems.com.
Cheers
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Our First Product Launch
It is an exciting time for me as first time in my professional life, I am directly involved with a product launch. Obviously we had done proper market research and developed the product as per our study and feedback from the experts but the excitement and nervousness is immense. At the time of founding Binary Mantra Systems (BMS), we had dreamt of building a product company. The start of BMS also marked the start of economic slowdown across the world. Accordingly we had to make adjustments in our goals & vision. Last eight months have been pretty difficult in terms of cash flow trying to develop products and finding income streams. It is an ideal scenario for any company to fund the product development through internal cash flow. But that is ideal!!!!
Last few days, we have been brainstorming on different ways of marketing our first product. We talked to a few PR and advertising agencies. The options available are limitless. Each one has exciting proposition and we get tempted by the possibility of using each one of them. However, every time, we have to remember the fact that we are a startup and have limited budget. Nevertheless, we have decided onto some options and will implement it in next few weeks. I will talk about them a little later as they happen and see the result.
Cheers
Last few days, we have been brainstorming on different ways of marketing our first product. We talked to a few PR and advertising agencies. The options available are limitless. Each one has exciting proposition and we get tempted by the possibility of using each one of them. However, every time, we have to remember the fact that we are a startup and have limited budget. Nevertheless, we have decided onto some options and will implement it in next few weeks. I will talk about them a little later as they happen and see the result.
Cheers
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