Lateral Sparks: The Business Creativity Quiz, Edition 5

This weekly quiz from YourStory tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see last week’s quiz here). In this fifth edition of the quiz, we present five issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.

What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?

Q1: Growth hacking

Much has been said about growth hacking through compelling content, bite-sized video, search engine optimisation tweaks, and B2B email marketing. However, something else needs to be done first to make sure these approaches work. What’s that?

Q2: Regulatory environment for ecommerce

A country’s regulatory environment plays an important enabling role for ecommerce and logistics, ranging from payment authorisation and consumer rights to FDI and cybersecurity. One more regulatory factor has become important. What new announcement has the Indian government made in this regard?

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Q3: Online education

The pandemic lockdowns have dealt a severe blow to the education system, but online classes have helped to a certain extent. However, merely offering Zoom lessons is not enough – how can the interactive learning experience be preserved?

Q4: Team leadership

A compelling vision, collaborative processes, digital upskilling, and principles of respect and trust are key for ensuring high performance in teams. In this day and age of rapid and uncertain change, one more leadership principle is coming to the forefront for effective teamwork. What is that principle?

Q5: Back pain

Back pain is a torment for workers in settings ranging from factory floors to agricultural labour. Painkillers, physiotherapy, massages, regular breaks, and better workplace or tool design are some solutions. What’s another method that is both innovative and effective?

Answers!

Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!

A1: Growth hacking

“The best growth hacks aren’t siloed. Content works closely with design, UX, sales, and every other stakeholder,” explains growth hacker Vaibhav Sisinty. Alignment and coordination are needed to first understand the objectives and then iteratively execute the plan. “It’s a team effort, and cross-functional insights can help you come up with smarter hacks,” he advises. Read more examples here.

A2: Regulatory environment for ecommerce

Regulations and licences for drone use have important implications for delivery in remote areas of the country, as well as for emergency medical supplies. "Efforts by authorities to integrate drones in the supply-chain ecosystem are a major step towards creating a framework for efficient last-mile delivery,” explains Udaan Product Engineer Soumyadeep Mukherjee. Read more about India’s new drone rules here.

A3: Online education

“Learning through play is as old as humanity itself,” explains Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed, which recently invested in edtech gaming startup Kalam Labs. It offers high-paced-in-game chats and engaging game-play, which in turn can help learn principles of science and coding.

“The 2020s children have been born directly into the age of iPhones, Netflix, and Google. It is impractical to make them sit in front of a blackboard or a Zoom Class expecting them to remember irrelevant information," explains Ahmad Faraaz, Co-founder of Kalam Labs. Read more here.

A4: Team leadership

Empathy, along with empowerment, is becoming more prominent today in the leadership mandate. “I prefer to show empathy. It is not just enough to provide means or tools; what is more important is to support your team members in decision making, moving things forward, and empowering them,” advises Ritu Thareja, Vice President, Software Development, Fiserv.

She prefers not to equate leadership with aggression. Read more about her views on leadership and diversity here.

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A5: Back pain

To tackle the issue of back pain in the workplace, Ganesh Ram Jangir designed the famous ‘Jaipur belt’ that cuts load on the worker’s spine.  His exoskeleton startup, Newndra Innovations, has been a supplier to industrial houses like Maruti Suzuki, BOSCH, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, FM Logistics, Delhivery, and the Indian Army.

Ganesh studied at Jaipur Engineering College and Research Centre, and worked at TCS for three years. The social entrepreneur took inspiration from the renowned ‘Jaipur Foot’ and has set out to create a similar impact with his own exoskeleton innovation. Read more about his inspiring journey here.

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).