The Story of a Shrewd Businessman

Binod Chaudhary is arguably one of Nepal’s most successful entrepreneurs. He has recently released a book entitled Binod Chaudharyko Atmakatha. In this book, he has tried to capture his successes, failures and tactics in business. Binod Choudahry and Wai Wai are now synonymous, as it has since become one of the most sought-after brands in Nepal, and is also expanding into other parts of Asia.

His company, CG, is one of Nepal’s foremost private sector companies with investments of $ 1 billion and 40 subsidiary enterprises operating under its leadership. It has a diversified presence, with stakes in biotech, education, and electronics and white goods, energy and infrastructure, financial services, FMCG, tourism, realty and retail. 

CG is more competent in the market than its competitors due to its visionary leadership, extensive distribution channels, superior brand-building capabilities and effective total management systems.This book offers Chaudhary’s insight on how a company becomes successful and stays successful and it is apparent that his instinct to seize opportunities and compete aggressively against big brands is key to this process.

Divided into four chapters, the book starts off with his positive childhood experiences growing up in Kathmandu in a made community. Like other young people of his age, he too used to wait for hours in front of the Padma Kanya Campus just to catch a few glimpses of beautiful girls. He also explains how his family came into business; his grandfather opened his first shop close to Bishal Bazzar. After his grandfather’s death, his father took over the reins of the business at the age of 23 and took it in a new direction. After this, the rest is known to all.

The second chapter delves into the most important elements of Chaudhary’s business life including his ties with the royal family and political parties. He has credited his business accomplishments to then-prince Dhirendra for his generous support. His acquaintance with the prince also generated animosity among his rivals. After the re-emergence of democracy, he experienced much turbulence in his career including his sudden rise and subsequent resignation from various umbrella organizations of the private sector. Of all the aptitudes and attributes Binod Chaudhary likes to mention as having a proper business mindset, this one is the biggest satire to our political system. “They did politics in my business and I did business in their politics,” he said bluntly in one point in this chapter.

The third chapter describes how he succeeds in building a multinational corporation. The exciting stories about his partnerships with various multinational corporations are worth reading. Discovering his passion for branding gives real meaning to his actions. One can’t help but appreciate his strategic planning and quick decision making skills. Frustrated with the highly unstable political system, he took control of planning processes thanks to ingenious strategic planning and adopting new tools and technologies quickly. In this chapter, he also talks about how he became successful in globalizing his own first multinational product: Wai Wai.

I used to wonder how he became such a successful business magnate.  How did he get through hard times? The final chapter puts this question to rest. Chaudhary discusses the musts-have skills that are required to start, operate and grow a profit-making business. According to him, most of these skills can be mastered with practice and by developing a winning attitude. Some of these attributes include having great ambition, organizational building skills, an ability to critique oneself, as well as being up-to-date on relevant issues and most importantly, discipline. For him, discipline has two components- personal behaviour and strong time management. Having learned of his sense of striking balance, I wonder if such a balance could even exist.

While this book is quite engaging overall, there is something left to be desired. Despite trying to be candid at times, it is hard to ignore that he seems to intentionally hide details at other times.  For example, he had mentioned that then prince Gyanendra described him as a ruthless and shrewd businessman. But, there is no mention of his confrontation with the prince. Other notable weaknesses of Chaudhary include his questionable decisions with regards to human resources. Instead of valuing the strengths of skilled employees, he acted on certain assumptions and fired them instead. While not all are equally competent as individuals, sometimes an ensemble is more than the sum of its individual parts, capable of producing startling results. He seems to have neglected this fact.

A man becomes successful along with his weaknesses. Despite all his flaws, he remains a role model. There is much we can learn from his experiences. His final words are something we can all appreciate, irrespective of our careers. He says, “The dream has no boundary at all, whereas the capacity and the ability of the person have it; those who understands it and embarks towards increasing the horizon of the capability and ability one after another, will make his dream come true and ultimately he or she will have success in life.”  

How CEOs Stay So Productiv

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”-–Paul J. Meyer.

Since the early 1970s, productivity--the amount of output per hour worked--has been steadily rising in America. Between 1973 and 2011, the productivity of the American worker has grown an astonishing 80 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Since 2000 alone, the productivity of average Americans has risen 23 percent. How are we achieving this extraordinary rise in productivity? In large part, it’s because we’re finding new tools and techniques to increase our focus and efficiency.

The average level of productivity for all American workers has shifted upward; but that’s the average American, not the top CEOs, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who are constantly finding creative ways to accomplish more. So what are the strategies and practices that these highly successful people incorporate into their professional and personal daily routines?

Below, some of the most productive people--from successful investors to “always-on” executives--share their secrets on how to be your most productive self, despite the overflowing in-boxes, the constant buzz of the phone and the never-ending ping of meeting alerts.

Clear Your Mind, Define Your FocusWendy Lea, CEO of Get Satisfaction and principal at The Chatham Group, shared two tips that keep her focused, energized, effective and productive both personally and professionally. “There are two things I do to get the energy, capacity and focus I need to not only be efficient, but effective. Personally, I take 15 minutes every morning for contemplation and to empty my mind. I take a bag full of thoughts I need cleared and each morning I pick one out, read it, and send it down the river near my house. Watching the thought float away really helps clear my mind, reorient things and increase my focus for the rest of the day,” said Lea, who successfully juggles several roles across various companies including CEO, investor, advisor, mentor and principal.

“Professionally,” Lea added, “I send an email to my team each Monday morning with the top five things I will be focused on for the week. This really keeps me on track and gives me the focus I need. These two things set the pace for me every day, both in my personal and professional life.”

Cut Back On MeetingsRandy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB), said he keeps productive by being diligent about meetings--sticking to the allotted time and only scheduling in-person meetings when it’s absolutely necessary. “I leave meetings at their allotted end time regardless of whether they are finished,” said Komisar, who authored the book, Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model. “I do not reschedule an appointment for a more important one unless it is an emergency. If an email will do, I don't make a call; if a call will do, I don't have a meeting; if a 30-minute meeting is sufficient, I don't schedule an hour.”

All About EvernoteDylan Tweney, the executive editor at VentureBeat, said Evernote, the popular note-taking and archiving service, is his go-to productivity tool. “I use Evernote to collect everything I might possibly need to save for later, with the exception of emails--Gmail is fine for that. I store all of my important documents--from notes to interviews--in Evernote. I also use Evernote tags as a kind of to-do list: I have a set of tags that I can use to prioritize things that need to happen immediately or that I'm waiting for someone else to finish: ("1-next," "2-soon," "3-later," "4-someday," and "5-waiting"). When I get an email that I need to act on but can't respond to immediately, I forward it to my private Evernote address and then prioritize it,” said Tweney. “Finally, I use Instapaper liberally to save articles that I run across during the day, but don't have time to read during the busy hours. It sends stories to my Kindle automatically, so I always have something interesting to read on the train ride home or in the evening. That helps keep me focused on work, even when people are sharing fascinating things on Twitter and Facebook all day.”

Get Tunnel VisionKevin O’Connor, the serial entrepreneur who founded both DoubleClick and more recentlyFindTheBest, a data-driven comparison engine, said he makes an effort to focus on only the top few things that really are going to move the needle. “Most people tend to focus on the 100 things they should do, which can be overwhelming and result in the failure to actually accomplishing anything of importance. I try to focus on the three to five things I absolutely have to do. I don't get distracted by those ninety-seven other unimportant things that don't ultimately contribute to my success or the success of my company.”

Get Physical Patrick Dolan, the EVP and COO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), said what keeps him productive, focused and energized is going for runs in the morning. “I love to run in the morning before I get into work. Running clears my mind, gets the blood flowing and ultimately makes me much more focused and productive. During my morning runs, I try to come up with solutions to any unresolved problems at work, brainstorm new ideas, and really prioritize my work in terms of the top things I want to accomplish that day. By the time I get into work, I already have a set of focused priorities, and I also have the energy to make them happen.”

Police Your Own Internet Habits: Notifications Are EvilFred Bateman, the CEO and Founder of Bateman Group, said he uses a tool called StayFocusd to keep track of how much time he’s spending on various sites. “To stay ‘in the zone’ and increase productivity in today's digital age, I strongly recommend blocking all audio and visual notifications from Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I think all notifications are evil because they typically have both audio and visual distraction triggers, which can wreak havoc on your concentration. This extends to my iPhone, which is always, always set to vibrate with all notifications on all email accounts and mobile apps turned completely off, said Bateman. “I also have a tendency to begin earnestly researching something online with the very best of intentions and then get lost viewing irrelevant content and wasting way too much time. To limit this, I turn on a browser extension to Chrome called StayFocusd where I maintain a list of sites I can get lost on for hours--the New York Times and Facebook are my top two. StayFocusd alerts me after ten minutes have passed and then blocks the offending sites to help me resist temptation and stay focused on the task at hand.”

(This article is written by Grace Nasri and picked from fastcompany.com)