Our Contributing Authors
Ankur Hazarika
Ankur Hazarika is currently studying at the School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology (SJMSOM, IIT B), in Mumbai, India. He has been closely associated with a host of entrepreneurship networks like NEN, TiE and BarCamp, and has worked with the Indian business incubator, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE).
Articles written by Ankur Hazarika
Whether he's writing about marketing, product management or human resources, Ankur manages to capture some great advice that every entrepreneur can benefit from.
- A Structured Approach to Brainstorming - Brainstorming is crucial to start-ups. This is your tool to get all the brains in the organization contributing to the solution of an issue. Traditional brainstorming has its own inefficiencies, such as delays and deadlocks. Structured approaches like Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats can help eliminate these problems with brainstorming sessions.
- Common Employee Complaints at Startup Companies - There are certain common complaints among employees of most start ups. If these major employee complaints are taken care of, quite a lot of good will and harmony can be generated in the startup work place.
- Due Diligence on Business Incubators - Thinking about starting a business with the assistance of a business incubator? Be sure to do your homework before you finalize your business incubator choice.
- Employee Motivation - Talent attraction and retention is a hefty problem at all start-ups. Thankfully, there are some prime motivators that attract and keep start up employees hooked to the company. This article on employee motivation is a must-read for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
- Entrepreneurial Exit Strategies - The mark of a good entrepreneur is that they always have their eye on an exit strategy. We discuss why selling a company should be top of mind from start to finish as you progress through your entrepreneurial adventures.
- Extending Your Product Range - There is the perennial temptation to extend the product range to cover everything in the spectrum. Unless you have sufficient resources at your disposal, increasing your service offerings could brush the customers the wrong way.
- How to Recruit University Students - Google, McKinsey, SUN: these companies that have made it big, have maintained close interaction with the newest talent. How can your small business hire the best and the brightest employees? Stay close to the talent pool at universities.
- How to Save Money When Marketing - Do you want to save money with marketing your business? Here are some tips for how marketing does not need to be expensive.
- Matrix Structure for Technology Firms - Intellectual capital for technological firms is rare and costly; this makes it all the more important for them to optimize resource utilization. The matrix structure of organization helps tap the intellectual capital more efficiently.
- Putting Up a Business Web Site - Whether your business requires online presence or not, it is essential to put up a neat and informative web site by the time business has begun. Three components of the web site -- layout, sections, and content -- should be carefully considered.
- When to Launch a Product - Mega companies can afford to delay product launches and release endless streams of beta editions. They have deep pockets and can take the punch until they perfect the product. Ideally, a start-up too would wish to perfect its product until they are assured that it can sweep the market off its feet. But there is an implicit cost associated with delay: missed market opportunity.
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