The Blog of HARSH BATRA

An entrepreneur's thoughts on business & life

Is your product for “everyone”?

In the middle of a crowded street at the Kotla market in Delhi, I noticed the above banner. It wasn’t the name that really caught my attention as much as its tag line – “Gym For All”! I couldn’t help wonder how on earth do the Multi-Gym owners go about marketing their gyms to “all”. I believe in the saying that “If everyone is your customer, then no one is your customer.” Targeting the general public is not only expensive but ineffective, which is why I love niche markets.

I have been working in a niche industry for about 4 years now. When people ask me what I do I tell them that I help companies share confidential information. I usually get a blank stare at that point with a look which says – “talk English please!” So I introduce them to the industry by giving them the following example: Continue reading →

Is fortune the answer to life’s riddles?

It is amazing how we are judged not by how we are as people but how much we have. I keep seeing the value given to money and title on a constant basis. Yesterday while I was playing a cricket match I overheard my teammates talking about one of our own. The praise bestowed on this man was that of the millions he has made in his business endeavors, the Mercedes S-Class he drives and how he owns everything one would want to buy. Money, title, social standing, connections, possessions – these are the parameters with which we judge people. Does it not make more sense to judge a person’s character instead of the clothes he wears or the car he drives? Don’t get me wrong, money is not a bad thing! I of all people am a big proponent of making money but money should always be seen as a means to an end, not an end in itself. In a business profit is like oxygen, you need it to survive and be sustainable. In fact I think that you can make a bigger dent in the universe as a businessman than as a non-for profit worker.

Is it really bad to want the finer things in life? No, ofcourse it isn’t! We all want to own a dream house, drive the best cars, wear the best clothes and travel to the most breathtaking destinations in the world. That is why shows on Travel and Living, Discovery or MTV which let us peek into the lifestyles of the rich and famous are so popular; it makes us value those luxuries more than those who actually own them. But ask yourself, is happiness really a by-product of everything they have amassed? Continue reading →

Do your “thoughts” really define your life?

Purpose, positive thinking, attitude, belief, perseverance; they all seem like part of the same side of the coin. Books like “the Secret” and Napolean Hills “Think and Grow Rich” aim to teach the ability to think your way to attaining whatever it is that you desire in life.You want to make more money/have a better relationship/be happy/rule the world? Think about it, believe it and the forces of the universe will make it happen they say.

But what about the flip side? I would actually go as far as to say that uncertainty, insecurity, fear of failure and inhibitions actually take the better of us. Some fear losing their jobs, some are insecure about their better halves and some feel uncertain about the future; fear is actually a very paralyzing feeling! We all have our set of fears. The point is how do you deal with them? I am reminded of one of my favourtie quotes said by an old man – “I have known great many fears in my life; most of which never happened!”. Continue reading →

Can you be happier by looking at life as a system?

Have you ever looked at life as a system? Have you ever considered all the important factors which influence your life and how they relate to each other?

I am a big believer of systems. I have created systems to run the company I work for. It makes much more sense to use pre-established rules than to rely on emotions such as motivation alone. But the use of these rules should not be an excuse to not-think. We must always remember what we are trying to accomplish. When I was thinking of life as a system I tried to break it down into as simplistic a perspective as possible. If you think hard enough you’ll realize that for the majority of us our goal in life is to be happy. Happiness might mean different things to different people but the ultimate goal for most is happiness, however they might define it. When I dug a little deeper on the key factors that influence happiness in life, this is what I came up with: Continue reading →

Is it worth attending Startup Weekends?

Launch a business in 54 hours by meeting a group of people with different skills – developers, designers, business dudes. That sounded like a good way for me to get out of my daily routine and see what others are doing in the city. So I attended the Startup Weekend Gurgaon which happened from the 11-13 of November 2011 (gurgaon.startupweekend.org).

Everyone who had an idea pitched. They did it in front of those attending and then the people attending voted on the top 15. Once the top 15 ideas were picked, teams were formed to build a prototype over the weekend. I pitched the idea of creating an app for cricketers. What problem would it solve? It would make tracking performances amongst all players and teams easy and fun. How would it make money? This is where I was not very clear! So despite getting the third highest votes (13; the first team got 22 and the second team got 15) I was unable to get interest from any developer or designer.

An idea without a clear path to profit is not a business, its a hobby.

And I was certainly trying to work on my hobby instead of creating a business. So I let go of my idea to support a team of developers who were very excited about what they wanted to create but did not have the votes to do so. This all happened on Friday night. Continue reading →

How many lead your team?

I recently heard one of the senior members of the cricket team we were playing against say -

you know our problem is that we have 5 captains and 5 vice captains.

On hearing that remark everybody in our team cracked up laughing. Unfortunately, more often than not, that is the reality in a number of teams. There is this constant tussle amongst different players on who should lead. Should it be the person who put together the team? Should it be the senior most member of the team? Should it be the best player in the team?

In cricket, decisions need to be made involving batting, bowling and fielding; they need to be made at every point of the game. What I notice in cricket matches now is that the actual decision of the chosen leader actually depends on popular opinion. In some cases the leader is actually garnering team support for his decisions. Both these cases are bad signs!

It is very hard to effectively play as a unit if there isn’t a leader to follow or if the leader cannot get the other members of the team to follow him. Respecting the leader and his decisions irrespective of the outcome is KEY to getting a team to play as a team. If you are playing a team sport, you should ask yourself two questions: Continue reading →

Batting tips from Sachin Tendulkar

Cricket and Sachin Tendulkar have become synonyms. Its hard to think of the sport without thinking of the man who is loved because of his ability in the sport. So when he gets on TV and gives batting tips you better listen because these words are priceless; they can really help you improve your game. I have tried to transcribe his words as clearly as I could.

Try and keep the ball along the ground

“Nowdays [cricketers] including my son Arjun like to play T20 and they like to see the ball going out of the stadium. I keep telling them that you know if you try to keep the ball along the ground and you mistime a shot you still continue batting. But if you keep the ball in the air all the time, you’ll mistime one. Then you will be back in the dressing room, watching the rest of the match. Try and keep the ball along the ground.”

Batting is about balance

“My favourite shot is playing the straight drive because when any fast bowler or spinner sees the full face of the blaid they don’t like it. I like showing them the full face of the bat. To play a straight drive you have to be perfectly balanced because if your head starts falling to the right then the ball will invariably go to the leg side. If your head is not straight and your weight is on the back foot then you will slice everything to the off-side. When you start playing good straight drives, you know that your head positioning and your body balance is perfect. What you need to do is lean forward with your head straight and transfer the weight forward with a follow-through which shows your back leg.” Continue reading →

How to think about batting like the Indian Cricket Team

As a batsman there are many things which go through your head. You are out in the middle with 11 players from the opposition trying to get you out. What should your strategy be? Should you attack the ball? Should you first play yourself in before you start hitting your shots? Is there a target you have in mind? Do you have a personal target? Should you make use of the powerplays? is your aim to play through till the end?… and on and on and on. If you want to be successful in this sport, you better use your head wisely, or else you will have a few flurries of performances but nothing substantial to show in the long run. Continue reading →

How to deadlift twice your bodyweight in 6-hours

Is strength a skill? I wanted to test this assumption when I attempted to hit my target of 170-kg (375-lbs) in Dead-Lift over a total gym time of only 6 hours! Yes, you read correct – 6 hours! Unfortunately the best I could reach was 150-kg (331-lbs). I failed when attempting my last planned lift of 155-kg (342-lbs) [see chart below].

Why did I choose to focus on deadlifts? Because as Pavel Tsatsouline pointed out, the dead-lift is “a pure “mind lift” that allows one to get very strong without adding much weight.” In other words I did not have to eat like a pig, day in and day out to ensure that I put on enough muscle to be able to reach my target weight. Based on prior experiments, I can say that disciplined eating is the hardest part of any workout program. Without the need to focus on putting on muscle, I could focus on lifting with proper form!

What actually motivated me to try this DeadLift Experiment? Watching a 60-kg girl deadlift 155-kg (342-lbs). She looks like the girl next door and is lifting 2.5x her bodyweight. Isn’t that crazy? When I watched this video (below) I was like “WTF…if she can do it, so can I.”

60kg Melissa deadlifting 155kg
Continue reading →

How you can improve as a cricketer

I came back home upset; upset for being taunted by the opposition for losing the cricket match and upset for being the cause of the loss. I got down to psycho-analysing myself. Writing has a knack of clarifying the mumbo-jumbo in your brain. Once I sifted through the confused mess of interacting and conflicting thoughts, I actually got to the core of what I did wrong and how I can avoid doing the same mistakes again. Yes this is personal and very situation specific, but in the process I found clarity. And what better way to find clarity than to ask yourself questions. Maybe a similar process applied to a different situation will help you sift through your thinking or maybe you can find some insight as well as agree or disagree with my conclusions. Either way, I thought the ideas and conclusions were worth sharing, so here it goes.

My object was clear when I started to write:

1) What? – to identify what I did wrong

2) Why? – to identify why I made those mistakes

3) How? – to identify how I can avoid making the same mistakes again so that I can improve as a cricketer. Everybody makes mistakes but to make the same mistakes twice is stupidity! Continue reading →