Vinodh Soundarajan - Professional Summary by Slideshare

A crisp professional summary by Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/vsoundar/professional-journey-vinodh-soundarajan)

Professional Journey - Vinodh Soundarajan from Vinodh Soundarajan

Key Leadership Tenets

Excerpt from “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek

CHAPTER ONE ASSUME YOU KNOW On a cold January day, a forty-three-year-old man was sworn in as the chief executive of his country. By his side stood his predecessor, a famous general who, fifteen years earlier, had commanded his nation’s armed forces in a war that resulted in the defeat of Germany. The young leader was raised in the Roman Catholic faith. He spent the next five hours watching parades in his honor and stayed up celebrating until three o’clock in the morning. You know who I’m describing, right?

Some of you would have guessed ‘John F. Kennedy’.  Without the timeline specified, it could as well have been ‘Adolf Hitler’…..

Key leadership tenets I would like to amplify:

We all make assumptions in our day-to-day life (and that’s a good thing !!!).  The assumptions we make are driven by our experiences we gained during various learnings/interactions/events from our past. 

• We would be grossly amiss to believe rigidly that our assumptions are always correct. 
• That brings us to a key aspect of leadership, HUMILITY.  Humility is the ability to accept one’s weaknesses publicly. “I DIDN’T KNOW THAT” is a wonderful phrase, next only to “THANK YOU”.
• TRUST is the only concrete binding force between living beings.  And, FALLIBILITY is the basic tenet for building trust. Anyone who believes they are “infallible” will never be trusted, period…

FAQ on Online Retail/ECommerce Startup in India

What were your considerations in the following areas with respect to an online store/ECommerce Startup

Q>Which store-front technology you choose and why? What are the vendor’s in the technology space to evaluate?  
Vinodh> After quickly screening Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, OfBiz and a myriad other shopping cart options (Zencart, MartJack) I chose Magento (and goMagento) initially.  It was an easy framework to setup and allows one to get their catalog up and running within a few hours.  If you are looking to simply publish your catalog, you probably need to look no further.  However, most often, one will want to change User Interface, Payment Gateway options, Business Logic (including Discounts, Coupons, Costs and Taxes, Logistics/Shipping) and other back-end features/integrations.  At this juncture I found Magento lacking in support for Indian operations.  Another major concern was the Code Security options in the Social (FREE) version, given that framework directory structures are public domain knowledge.  Enterprise Edition was over 50K USD.  Given the above characteristics and the need for a cost-effective, scalable, extensible technology/architecture for the longer run, I finalized on the base stack of MySQL and PHP.  There are a number of Open Source and Public Domain add-ons (like Magic Zoom, Rating) available in this stack.  Development community is also healthy for this stack. 

Q>What payment gateway will be best and why?
Vinodh> I looked at Paypal, CCAvenue and EBS.  Finally selected EBS for their better Transaction Pricing (TDR).  Even though AMC is higher, one will realize that transaction-based costs are the bigger hit in a growing ECommerce site.  Their integration kit is comprehensive and provides support to multiple types of Credit/Debit/Cash cards and NetBanking options

Q>Who are the vendors for COD and how does COD add value to the business?
Vinodh> COD has become a norm these days.  This service is provided by Courier companies.  It carries higher charge (atleast twice the normal shipping costs) and has the inherent drawback of last-minute-shopping-repentance.  This is a dent in the Operational costs of a startup.  However, similar to "Amazon Prime" option, such customer-facing features are a must in a growing Ecommerce company.  I would recommend this option for the 2nd phase of operations when you have the ability to optimize Warehousing, Logistics and Distribution.

Q>What are the shipping vendors of choice considering Tier 2 and 3 cities contribute 40% and above of sales?
Vinodh> Logistics is a big chunk of Operational Costs.  I analyzed Blue Dart, Aramex, AFL, DTDC, Deccan 360.  One needs to be careful about the Fuel Surcharge, which is the biggest portion of the cost.  You can negotiate hard on the Fixed portion.  I prefer Blue Dart for the higher-end categories/products.  In Phase 2 of operations, Logistics must be reviewed and optimized (choice of using your own courier boys).  I also observed that it is a no-brainer to pick standard courier companies for local deliveries (absolute low costs), even though hiring your own runners is tempting.

Q>Criteria to select a good Hosting provider?
Vinodh> I chose CTRLS considering the predominant India audience and the value that they provide.  They are touted as the only Tier IV data centers in India.  There is definitely some backing to their claims.  My sites have never gone down yet :-)

Q>Internet Marketing Strategy like SEO, Social Media and Content marketing that worked and did not work for you?
Vinodh> Using Social Channels is mandatory.  As for other digital marketing channels, I suggest a campaign to campaign plan.  Honestly, nobody knows what the ROI exactly is and should be (given that costs are muddled).  Assuming that your technology portal is optimized to SEO, the startup team should dabble with these with careful monitoring of ROI.  You lose some, you win some...

Q>Loyalty program – what works better custom developed or standard module integration?
Vinodh> At this time, "Loyalty" is non-existent except for companies with brick presence.  Price and Promotions determine the merchant of choice.  Do a great job with product, price, shopping experience and customer service - Results will automatically follow...

Q>Is there a need of having an integrated back-end ERP/CRM/Accounting system ? If yes then Why?
Vinodh> This is once again a choice for phase 2, even though good accounting practices is a must from day 0

Q>How important it is to have an in-house technical team – What technical part should be managed in-house and what should be outsourced?
Vinodh> It is important to have access to the right amount of technical resources for the right need.  In the initial stage (0-9 months), it is possible to get everything done by commoditized vendors.  Depending on the growth and maintenance, you can slowly add in-house resources.  Cost of Technology Outsourcing is pretty cheap these days.

Q>How important it is to have a Mobile or tablet app for your store? How do you see the future of these technology in relation to online shopping?
Vinodh> Whether it is an app or an optimized small-factor browser experience, access via mobiles is a must.  When ease of shopping is combined with Mobile Payment options, the result has deadly potential.

Q>Does localization in terms of language help?
Vinodh> Given the growth of 2nd/3rd tier cities contributing to Ecommerce, it is not a bad idea to externalize all resources.  Catalog Development will be a bigger expense when Localization is introduced.  For a startup, English should suffice with the extension to Hindi and few other regional languages in Phase 2.

Q>Any other key learning’s you will like to share?
Vinodh> Remember VAT, CST, Packaging, Return Logistics etc contribute to operational costs.  Include them in your Financials.  Manage Revenues, Capital Expenses, Operational Expenses and Transactional Expenses very closely.  It is easy to miss some of these and project a hefty profit margin within the first year itself...

Most Importantly, spend as much time as possible on the product and its procurement.  Without a good product range, any store (online or brick) is a non-starter.

Planning for International Logistics

What does History tell us?

International Logistics involves flow of materials (raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods) across geographic international boundaries.  This concept has been prevalent since ancient times.  Roman Trade¹ spanned multiple countries, routes and transportation modes.  The following illustration depicts common trade routes in the Roman Empire and corresponding shipping durations.  Usage of water ways was most effective in those geographies.

 

Figure 1:  From http://historylink102.com/Rome/roman-ships.htm

16-21 days	Alexandria to Ostia
9-10 days	Alexandria to Antichia
10-12 days	Byzantium to Gaza
3-5 Days	Ostia to Carthago
9-10 days	Ostia to Gades
20 days	Rome to Caesaria

What is the current scenario?

Fast forward to the current and shipping lanes look similar to the picture below. This does not encompass modes of road, rail and inland waterways.  Combine all the transportation modes available and there are myriad combinations of options.  Is Optimization across modes a realistic possibility?

Figure 2: Shipping Lanes, Anywhere in the Solar System

 

1 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ancient_rome_and_trade.htm

                                                                                                                        

What are the Procedural challenges?

Overseas or International logistics involves a high degree of regulatory compliance.  Considering that the product or material crosses multiple country boundaries and territorial waters, there is usually a lot of documentation involved.  Adhering to different international and national trade restrictions involve a fair amount of knowledge and fees.  Given these complexities, shippers avail services of Freight Forwarders to package, label, document and insure goods.  Some goods are also shipped via express carriers.  Lead-Time and Just-in-Time planning is difficult given these basic constraints.

What does an International Move involve?

International shipping may involve rail, road, air and water modes of transport.  There are often one or more “critical” legs.  Critical legs are usually the longest legs and involve ship/air travel to and from sea or air ports (at origin and destination points).  Getting to and from the ports at origin and destination involves multiple legs and drayage¹ movements.  A complex Multi-Modal International shipment may involve as much as six legs.  The example² below illustrates Intel Corporation’s Inbound Movement of Pre-fabricated IC Chips from South-East Asia to its Fabrication plant in Arizona, USA.

Leg 1: Integrated Chips (ICs) are manufactured at its sub-contractor locations across Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan.  Drayage movement from manufacturer plants to nearest rail-hub

Leg 2: IC’s sent to Penang Malaysia via Rail

Leg 3: Penang Rail Hub to Airport Drayage Movement

Leg 4: Penang Airport to Los Angeles Airport

Leg 5: Los Angeles Airport to Chandler, Arizona assembly plant via Road

 

Imagine picking the right combination of orders to consolidate on each leg, right shipment type (Truckload, Less-Than-TruckLoad, Parcel, Compartment, Container, LCL, Parcel, Express etc), right carrier, right schedules while meeting time and capacity constraints at all of the intermediary transshipment points.  Assuming we pick the most optimal routing choices for a bunch of orders, now imagine the task of executing to the transportation plan and adhering to time selections across multiple cultural differences.  The following diagrams illustrate some other Intermodal movements.

Intermodal Transport, Integrated Global Logistics System

 

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drayage

2 http://www.tiaca.org/images/TIACA/PDF/Intel%20Transportation%20Supply%20Chain.pdf