What is a Business

One of my friend was applying for a Visa and we found that there are so many visa consultancies offering the services. I wonder who goes to them for service. But to my dismay they are doing well in their business. I always wonder how do they start these kind of businesses?

My thought process resulted in......... Business is the ability to give solutions to the common needs and problems faced by the public at large. The problems are umpteen in nature and the solutions become number of businesses. A true businessman can only view the problem faced by you as an opportunity to offer the service and start the business. 

This simple principle applies to all the businesses as we see..... There are people waiting for public transportation to reach office and Autos came up to serve the purpose. We have difficulty in finding vacant houses for rent, so the real estate broker business. You have difficulty in keeping your home clean, so the maid. You want to go on a vacation but difficulty in finding transportation, stay, So the travel agents. You have money and have no idea how to invest, So the financial advisors. You want money and have some reliable friends, So the chit fund companies. You heard of share market but do not know how to invest, So the mutual funds. You have money but no safe place to keep, So the bank. There are many websites on the net but do not know how to search for proper information, So the Google.

So what makes a business successful? If somebody offers a solution to your problems, you will definitely take it. But the solution itself should not bother you as does the problem initially. This means, the solution that a business intends to provide should be a reliable and economical one for people to opt for it. As the time progresses people start forgetting their problems and making use of the solutions as if they were on earth since beginning of time. This is the time your business has become successful. Examples include our tooth paste - Colgate. People used to ask for only Colgate at shops as if it was existing since the birth of earth. The other such brands include Lifebuoy, Horlicks, Ariel, Fair&Lovely, Zandubam, Surf, etc.  But as we know once a business becomes a successful model others start emulating it.

So if you can offer a solution to the problem with impeccable reliability and quality, your business name becomes the name of solution like...... Xerox, Google, and Coca cola.

So if you wanna become a business man, look for the problems being faced by public at large.

Please do not uproot corruption

Everyone knows that eliminating corruption from the society allows it to prosper in a natural way by instilling faith in the individual. But this may not be so when the transparency is absent with administrative mechanism. Getting rid of corruption by enacting stringent laws is not the solution rather it is detrimental to the daily life of a common person. Corruption should be allowed to subside in a natural way by bringing transparency in all the public offices and making the public officials responsible in discharging their duties.
I strongly advocate corruption to be allowed for enabling an individual to get his work done from the present system. In the absence of corruption, we can not expect the file to be moved in scheduled time. For people who have no political background, corruption helps them to get the things done in time. So, without corruption what would be the fate of these people? I know people who got their driving license, property registration, new electricity connection, transfer of electricity connection, transfer of name on house tax property book, new municipal water connection, death certificate, birth certificate, marriage certificate, by paying bribes.
I spoke to my neighbor yesterday regarding the change of name on his house tax property book. I have been trying to do the same for last one year but failed to get the thing done. I wonder how did he get the thing done, because he is 70 years old and hardly goes out of his home. When I asked about the procedure, he said he just gave Rs 1700/- to an employee of municipal corporation who indeed did the whole work. Further, he shares with me that 'money can get you anything'. He has a deep rooted belief that the system runs only on corruption and grandiloquent speeches by the demagogues is only a palliative measure before every election. He then shared his experience of how he paid bribe at Tirupati temple, when he visited 10 years back.
I used to believe that society without corruption would progress well and helps an individual to gain faith in the system. But, this is not so. What is required is transparency. This means, when I submit my application at passport office, there should be a time limit before which it should be disposed of. It should be either rejected giving the reasons there of or it should be processed further with in the scheduled time. So if all the public authorities are forced to follow rules like -
1. Each public authority should display the complete procedure for every type of request that an individual can apply at their offices.
2. A receipt should be issued by the concerned authority after taking the application / complaint from the individual. This process should be computerized or privatized to the extent possible.
3. There should be a substantive statute mentioning the time limit for processing (rejecting/accepting) each request.
4. In the absence of processing the request by the time limit prescribed, the concerned officer should be made responsible and the number of such cases in an year should reflect in his yearly appraisal.

All these things should be computerized to the extent possible. The main cause of corruption in our society is ignorance of the individual about how to get the work done from the public authority concerned. So this can be taken care of by displaying a detailed procedure as mentioned in (1). The second main cause is the inaction on the part of the official to process the file. This can be tackled by making it mandatory on the part of the public authority to issue a receipt and make him accountable by imposing the time limit.

The first step toward uprooting the corruption should be introducing and implementing transparency procedures in public offices. These things should be given a chance before framing statutes to punish the bribe takers. In the absence of a transparent mechanism, it is the individual who has to bear the brunt of inaction by the public authority. In the present scenario every body is hopeful that if you have money to bribe an official, you can get the things done. But nobody would like to wait for his/her passport 1 year and still not knowing the exact status of their application.
The argument that poor can not afford to pay the bribe and continue to suffer because of the greedy public officials is true but they too prefer paying bribe to waiting indefinitely. None likes to wait and allow their livelihood being ruined by the inaction of the public authority. This is true for a daily wage laborer, a vegetable vendor, an auto driver, a car mechanic, a shopkeeper, and for every one who struggle to earn a mere livelihood from whatever job that comes by. This is because, they can not afford to visit the public office umpteen times without the work being done, and loosing their livelihood .
 People are ready to pay the bribe and accepted the corrupt system though it is detrimental to the growth of the society as a whole in the long run. Uprooting the corruption by enacting the stringent rules without attempting to treat the causes of corruption would be a palliative measure and leads to anarchy in the society.

SOS Children's Village - A HOME for orphans

Our recent visit to the SOS Children's village, Bheemili, Visakhapatnam gave an idea about an ideal orphanage center. The concept of home and its importance in determining the overall development of the child is being well taken care of at SOS.

SOS has 140 children in the age group of 1 - 18 yrs at this village. They rear them with the help of 'Mothers' present at each home. There are 14 homes inside the village with each unit having a 'Mother' and 10 children. She has to take care of the children and maintain the home as the way we do at our home. Only the financial support is given by the SOS. Mothers are employees of SOS but they are almost permanent employees. SOS selects a person as a 'Mother' only if she has no children of her own and financially poor. Further, training is imparted to them before they take up the job at one of the SOS villages.

This appears to be a simple concept but the impetus lies in the concept of home. The village has a director (Mr Sam) and his supporting staff like accountant, and counselor. We were taken around the village by Mr. Murthy, an energetic person working at the village since its inception in 1996. We were told that they maintain four files for each child present in the village viz - File relating the history of the child before he joins SOS, Educational file, Medical file, and Sponsor's file. We visited a home called 'Asha Jyothi' and spoke to the Mother and some children. We could see the complete home environment - The mother was busy preparing a sweet for celebrating birthday of one of her children with active help from them. They maintain their own small garden and share the daily chores.

The village has a kindergarten with two teachers and we were delighted by the small yet well maintained class rooms with kids enjoying there. The SOS allows kids into their kindergarten from the local poor families also.

Some of the children from the village are pursuing their B.Tech, M.Tech or even MBBS. For them, the identity still rests with the home that they lived as they visit their home during their holidays. We were told that the village takes care of a girl child still she gets married.

The 10 acre campus has a salubrious weather for the children to grow in a home environment. We hardly felt it was an orphanage rather it appeared as a community setup taking care of the disadvantaged and needy children making them feel at home.