Whynepal.com » social entrepreneurs

what if, a million job creation was the election mantra of a new common sense party in Nepal

Ujwal — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:30:50 +0000

A couple of What ifs:

a) What if some dynamic young leaders of different political parties decided to come together and start fresh and make a new party (the way kadima was formed in Israel).
b) What if they then, brought all the young social entrepreneurs and economic advisors into their core political team and make “a million man job creation” their primary election agenda
c) What if they turned to the Non resident Nepalis for funding their organization through their website and transparently post their party spendings.
d) What if this youth party decided on “green” and “economic development” as vehicles for change!
e) What if the new “youth” party pitched in to form a dream team of national planning commission to put a successful entrepreneur, a young social entrepreneur, a globalization expert and an environmental social entrepreneur.
f) What if this party restricts its leadership’s age limit to 50 years and below.
g) What if it advocated chinese, english, hindi, entrepreneurship, mathematics and “effective communication skills” as a pre-requisite subjects for all schoolers upto high school.
What if….. (add yours)

Download this e-book full of positive success stories in Nepal

Ujwal — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:46:58 +0000

I am excited to share with you, a free e-book full of positive success stories in Nepal for you to read and download! Here is the link.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33467040/e4nepalbook-Version-1-June

This short book is full of entrepreneurs of Nepal’s thoughts and advices in the course of 2 years. We will improve this book with future versions.Here are some of the collaborators for this work at Entrepreneurs for Nepal. Happy reading and sharing !

Let me know your thoughts on improving this book in future versions.

Swedish IT social entrepreneur in Nepal, Bjőrn Sőderberg

Ujwal — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:24:38 +0000

Bjőrn Sőderberg, 28, is a young social entrepreneur with three successfully running companies, two in Nepal and one in Sweden.

In search of something exciting, challenging and different from that of Sweden, Bjőrn Sőderberg came to Nepal as a volunteer when he was 19 years old and lived in Bal Mandir. During his stay, he saw the potential for exciting new things in the hands of the young people in the country. In contrary to the trend of the youngsters finding their way to the U.S and abroad, Bjőrn started off in Nepal with a paper recycling (Watabaran Pvt. Ltd.) and IT outsourcing venture (Websearch Professionals Pvt. Ltd).

Despite the Swedish Government urging its citizens not to travel to Nepal for security reasons, Mr. Sőderberg was determined and he started approaching for loans in banks for the initial capital of $20,000. But through his struggle in the initial days, what he learnt was exciting!

——> Lesson No: 1, One does not need money to be an entrepreneur, s/he needs customers. You don’t spend money to start a company; you start a company to earn money. And with this learning in mind, he went to Sweden and confirmed two clients by promising them to deliver the same service they were already getting, but in half the price. His first two customers was his market research. In his way of doing things, he believes more in learning by doing rather than trying to focus too much in theory as he says “Most people believe you need to follow a certain process and make business plans to start a company. But the matter of fact is you don’t need websites, business plans or brochures to start your company, just start making money. Once you have your first customer, you have your market research, you have your company.”

Speaking of the struggle people go through to find that one bright idea to start up a venture, he points out that having a good or a great idea is not a guarantee of the success of the business.
—–> Lesson No. 2, Having the drive and the guts is more important than the idea itself.

The passion associated with the work can naturally make any idea a good one. The old formula is if you enjoy your work, you don’t even feel you are working. Adding more on innovation, idea and entrepreneurship, he explains that Entrepreneurship is about getting an idea and working very hard to realize it because it takes time to build up a business. And thus during that time, an entrepreneurs must have two qualities; patience and work hard.

While most people are apprehensive about starting up a business for the fear of failure, he takes a different approach saying,

—–> Lesson No. 3, “Never be afraid to fail. Rather be afraid of never failing. Those who never fail have never tried anything new and never be afraid of creating new things. Because creating new things and translating new ideas to action, even if they are small ones is what entrepreneurs do.”

Some Questions & Answers

What are the problems in starting up a business in Nepal?

Corruption is one of the major discouragements in starting up a business in Nepal. Bureaucrats try to squeeze money out of you here which a different scenario than in Sweden.

Do you think foreign investors are safe enough to invest in Nepal?

Given a few things, a safe environment for foreign investment can be created in Nepal. Some are:
Documents should be in English.
Load shedding should cease.
Hindrances from involuntary Bandhs and strikes should stop.

Have you faced or felt any conflict between the social contribution and economic aspects of a business?

I haven’t faced many clashes as such. I provide scholarships to talented students to study in KU and ask them to work for me for 4 years. Besides, I am always trying to take the middle way in finding profitability and contributing to the society.

In a certain business situation like “If a client asks more and more services and in the end refuses to pay the prices pointing out it was very high, what can one do in such situation”?

To avoid unprofessional situations like these, making everything about the deal clear beforehand is important. Give your client a sample or a prototype of your service and product and ask them to test it. If they like it then mention your prices. But remember some clients are unworkable and sometimes in those cases you have to let them go.

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Previous speakers at “E4N’s Last Thursdays” have been:

Ambica Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotels and Resorts

Ajay Ghimire of Vibor Bank

Ashutosh Tiwari of Himalmedia

Bal Joshi of Thamel.com

Gyanendra Pradhan of HydroSolutions Nepal

Ichhya Raj Tamang of Civil Homes Group of Industries

Jonas Lindblom, a Swedish investor of Isadora Cosmetics on Durbar Marg

Karna Sakya of Kathmandu Guest house

Kiran Bhakta Joshi of Incessant Rain Animation Studios

Mahendra Shakya of Momo King

Min Bahadur Gurung of Bhatbhateni Supermarkets

Tashi Sherpa of Sherpa Adventure Gears

Kiran Joshi, Disney Animator, Animation studio founder in Kathmandu

Ujwal — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:28:07 +0000

This is a summary of our last Thursdays series of “Entrepreneurs for Nepal” group. I am one of the founder of this group which networks entrepreneurs working for Nepal. This first got published in e4nepal.com

————–

Mr. Kiran Bhakta Joshi, the founder of Incessant Rain Animation Studios, left his job of 18 years at the Walt Disney Studios at age 46 to create his own studio in Kathmandu. With a background in computer software, Joshi was working as a graphics software developer for Disney. He was in the team that developed the animation system used for “Beauty and the Beast”, which went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the 1992 Academy Awards. Leaving an 18 year old job, the post of Head of Production and a team of 250 artists and technologists under him was not easy for Kiran. There were doubts among his friends in Walt Disney if an animation studio in Nepal would deliver the quality and turnaround they were seeking.

The year 2007 was the turning point in his life. When he had come to Nepal for the funeral of a relative, his friend Sanjeev Rajbhandari suggested opening a studio in Nepal. He then spent three weeks in small animation boutiques and was impressed to see the portfolios of skilled and passionate young artists. He met a 19 year old boy who showed his portfolio and said that his passion was animation but due to pressure from his parents, he had been studying management. He asked Kiran for help, so realizing the level of this boy’s passion, he decided it was time to open an animation studio in Nepal.

Kiran opines that employees are the most valuable assets of a business. He says that it is very important to coordinate with every individual differently because even a single person with an ego can jeopardize the work process. While working with his employees, the first lesson he learnt was that it is easy to train young people rather than old ones. He feels that young people are very creative, more adaptable and energetic about their work once they are convinced. Since experienced people are more resistant to change, he feels that it is better to have young supervisors and employees in the business. He shares that it is important to make sure the employees are having fun during work but at the same time there should be proper enforcement of discipline. Salaries at his studio are based on the productivity and the quality of the animation that his staffs can create. He even helps his staff to go abroad if they want because he believes those people will gain better knowledge and return back. He admits that hunting for talent is an arduous process and he would love to collaborate with the universities here and start an animation academy to nurture fresh talents inside Nepal.

Kiran shares that setting up of a business is easy but execution is difficult. Since he shuttles between Nepal and the US, is it difficult to execute all the ideas due to time constraints. Challenges he is facing now in Nepal include bandhs (strikes) and load-shedding. He also feels that as his company is growing bigger, the fun element is reducing. Even though he doesn’t have any marketing person, his personal one to one networks and visits to several networking programs contribute to his business development. He stresses that networking is very important for entrepreneurs and no one should underestimate its power. His focus is on brand building and creating their own intellectual property.

He sees bright hope for Nepal as we have cheaper labor force, untapped resources, rich cultures and diversity. His studio’s goal is not just to outsource work from USA, but take the rich folk stories of Nepal to the world. He cites the example of “Jungle Book”, a story from India that became a famous animation. He finds Nepal rich in tales of Yaks and Yetis and he has successfully used the yaks and the one-horned rhino for the animation advertisements of World Food Program (WFP) and Ace Development Bank respectively. He believes these would help to showcase our local identity.

Articles about Kiran Joshi: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-cultural-exchange-20110313,0,7117105.story

need for a “patient systemic process”

Ujwal — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:35:07 +0000

Acumen Fund describes “patient capital” as not to seek high returns, but rather to jump-start the creation of enterprises that improve the ability of the poor to live with dignity.”

Ashu (Ashutosh Tiwari) and I are both fans of Acumen Fund. And we believe what we are doing in our group, “Entrepreneurs for Nepal”, complements their efforts by setting up a “patient systemic process” that helps in the effective implementations of “patient capital”. In our frequent brainstormings, we found ourselves always coming back to this central theme, “being patient, being persistent, and building organizations with this combination of patience and persistence.”

A “patient systemic process” involves spending time patiently but persistently building systems in place in your organizations, into your career or into your businesses. In the context of Nepal, we have got to invest more time and energy into learning how to make resilient systems with processes built by patience but persistence. This means building system of processes in almost every end goal in your business/organization, whether it is dividends, team-building, organizational growths, profits or career growths.

Once you have processes in place, the system will be resilient.

Please post your comments in whynepal.com and continue the discussion in our facebook group, “Entrepreneurs for Nepal”

interaction with Ambica Shrestha , social entrepreneur / Dwarika heritage resorts.

Ujwal — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:40:13 +0000

Ambica Shrestha is a hotelier who is known in and around Nepal for her conservation efforts of Nepali /Newari heritage through her hotels and resorts. I got to talk with her a week ago and it was an inspiring talk about how she got to where she is right now and the difficulties faced. Just visit to her hotel in Battisputali, Kathmandu to check out the preservation of ancient heritage she has done. http://www.dwarikas.com/

Here is a transcript of her interaction with nearly 100 young entrepreneurs. A must listen to all those who are aspiring to make a positive impact in Nepal. (right click to download link).

/files/interaction-with-ambica-shrestha.mp3

hope you enjoy it. let me know what it felt like. I regularly organize such interactions with a few friends for our group “entrepreneurs for nepal“. So welcome any advice you have got !

Waste managment and more: an opportunity for social entrepreneurs.

Ujwal — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:22:12 +0000

As we grow up, we look for ways and patterns in which we can make a ‘deep emotional’ impact on our surroundings besides feeding our desire to be self sufficient. :)

In Kathmandu, i have lately been meeting young entrepreneurs who not only want to make it big, but make a ‘positive social impact’ while doing so.And lots of opportunity is here during this transition period in Nepal, to rise out from the crowd of normal entrepreneurs. I see a big opportunity for entrepreneurs with social conscience’ to stand out and be recognized and preferred by clients, customers and be profitable socially and economically.

here are some small ideas where i see social entrepreneurs in Nepal can make a difference:

a) Angel investing in startups (for other young entrepreneurs who have non existant collatorals, and who have ability to create jobs)

b) Waste into “recyclable energy” . You can be the darling of Kathmandites who are tired of seeing waste littered around day after day while earning from tons of organic waste that falls in the streets each day here. I hear 80% of waste in Kathmandu is organic (and can be thrown into a small garden to make compost).

c) Drinking Water problem: Tapping rain water to replinish households during the dry winter and early spring ( people will thank you while giving you profits from your actions)

d) Incorporate social responsible ethics into any business. here is an example. I just opened a website about responsible way to travel in Nepal site inside the travel nepal portal exoticbuddha.com . Check the tips out here.

e) add your social entrepreneurship ideas and opinions… below!!!

would a cafe only for creatives & social entrepreneurs work in kathmandu?

Ujwal — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:10:51 +0000

An idea roaming around:

would a cafe -lounge with a chilled ambience / atmosphere which invites mostly entrepreneurs/musicians / artists /young passionate people, work as a viable business in Kathmandu ? would it have to be an inclusive place for exclusive type of people (the ones mentioned above ?)

am looking for a place that invities inspiration, passion and an escape away from the mundane and depressing atmosphere in Kathmandu now. Maybe i should open a cafe that does that. Will they come ?

will you come ?