Case Study: Self Awareness

1. Self Awareness

My attention stage started when my uncle admired the sophisticated and mature capital markets of Singapor and lamented the lack of better investment management providers in my city Kolkata who could successfully tap into the vast unutilised wealth in the hands of an ordinary consumer. Thus started the causal process of my vision to provide my city with an effective Investment Management Company who could successfully carry out their short term as well as long term financial investment needs, I had always thought my entrepreneurial spark would be ignited when I would have the eureka idea and I would then proceed to take action. This called to the risk averse financier in me which was in some way terrified of failure and shame.

Michael Porter’s classical 5 Forces Industry Analysis model is dynamic and has thus given way to a Blue Ocean Strategy. What is a common red herring in the entrepreneurial landscape, among my peers and previously myself is that a Blue Ocean strategy has higher value creation than swimming among the existing sharks or adopting a Red Ocean strategy. My misconception was cleared when we learned about the concept of “first mover disadvantage” and are unable to harness learning opportunities from estabilished competitors. The risk for an entrepreneur is quadrupled when he/she ventures into a new market with a new product thus using the Ansoff Matrix(Exhibit4) I learned, I decided to venture into market penetration. The Red Ocean strategy to position myself to compete in an industry which has a lot of fragmented competitiors but very few competitors who integrate brokerage services with individual asset and investment management practices.My identified strategy of market penetration for my entrepreneurial venture stems from the underdeveloped capital and investment markets of India, the lucrative opportunity of cross selling of existing family business in the financial investment sector and harness estabilished contacts. The mentoring of my family members and contacts who have already been estabilished in the industry will give me an edge to my competitors and also help in rapid growth of my