Top 26 Bengali Entrepreneurs

Ranking the most successful Bengali entrepreneurs is not an easy task, especially when you consider that most of the Companies they run are unlisted. However, with some market data available, its do-able. Once again, let us re-affirm the fact that the readers of the blog should not use the data on the Blog's articles for any investment decisions. We have surely missed out some names and the authors would appreciate any reader reaching out to us to apprise us of the same. 

Next up: "Top Bengali Entrepreneurs 25-50"


1) Subrata Roy, Managing Worker and Chairman at Sahara India Pariwar is arguably the richest Bengali in the world now; and if reports are to be believed, even he doesn't know the true extent of his wealth! Conservative estimates value the Group at over Rs. 130,000 crores (US$ 26 Billion) spread over its interests in real estate, media, sports, tourism, film, healthcare and hospitality. Whether it is his charitable activities, fleet of private jets or hobnobbing with Bollywood celebrities, almost everything he does is reported widely in media. Even in the times of Mayawati he is one of the most powerful people in Uttar Pradesh. Recently, he paid the most ($370 Million) for the Pune IPL Team, bought a stake into Force India Formula One Team for $100 Million and lent $150 Million to troubled industrialist Vijay Mallya, Chairman of Kingfisher. The Group's pet project is titled 'Aamby Valley", located in Lonavala, Maharashtra. 

Image: the Golf Course at night, Aamby Valley, Maharashtra

2) Purnendu Chatterjee, Chairman of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), heads a private equity fund which has invested over $3.5 Billion in India alone, over the last 10 years. With global business interests ranging from Petrochemicals, Life Sciences, Information Technology, to Real Estate and Entertainment, this man has been a trail-blazer of sorts. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and the University of California at Berkeley; he joined McKinsey in 1976, became a partner at 34 and at one time was mentored by none other than the Billionaire Investor George Soros. He is well known in India, for being the largest private share-holder of Haldia Petrochemicals, being a part of the team that bought global Petrochemicals giant, Basell in 2005 and being one of the Founders of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Image: Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, co-founded by Purnendu Chatterjee


3) Sunil Kanti Roy, Chairman of the Peerless Group, is probably the wealthiest resident Bengali today. He heads the Rs. 13,000 crores (US$ 2.8 Billion) Group having diversified interests in Finance and Investments, Hospitals, Real Estate, Hotels, Travel and Senior Care. Roy received the 'Padma Shri" in 2009.

Image: The Group's Axis Mall in Rajarhat, Calcutta



4) Dr. Kali P. Chaudhuri, Chairman of KPC Group, might be based out of Bay Area, California, but has huge investments in West Bengal and the rest of India. His businesses enjoy a combined valuation of more than Rs. 8,300 crores (US$ 1.6 Billion), and is spread across Healthcare, Pharmaceutical manufacturing, Biofuels and Alternative Energy, ITeS, Education, eal Estate and Travel. He is considered to be one of the foremost Orthopedic surgeons in the world.

Image: KPC Group logo

5) Amar Gopal Bose, Founder and Chairman of Bose Corporation is valued at more than $1.1 Billion according to the Forbes Billionaire List 2011. A brilliant Electric and Acoustic Engineer, Mr. Bose was born to an Indian freedom fighter who escaped to the US to escape prosecution by the British. The Company operates 5 plants, 200 retail stores and an automotive subsidiary in Stow, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1950s and as a token of gratitude donated a majority of the Company in the form of non-voting shares to his Alma Mater to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research mission. His son, Vanu Bose, runs Vanu, Inc. Chances are if you are reading this while listening to music on your headphones aboard British Airways, hearing the evening prayers at Mecca, or enjoying Zubin Mehta's performance at the Colosseum in Rome, you have got to thank Mr. Bose for it!

Image: Bose Corporation HQ in Framingham, Massachusetts 


6) Prasoon Mukherjee, Chairman of Universal Success Enterprises Limited, is based out of Singapore, but has made huge investments into India over the past decade or so. With interests spanning across Ports, Power, Tourism, Hospitality, Townships and Industrial Parks, Chief Ministers of states, from Guajarat to West Bengal have rolled out the red carpet for him. His Group is valued at more than Rs. 5,000 crores (US$ 1 Billion), and his pet project is the Kolkata West International City, a 377-acre township being developed in Howrah, India. Recently he has setup a motorcycle manufacturing plant with TVS in Eastern India. 

Image: The Main Gate at the KWIC, Howrah, India


7) Bicky Chakraborty, Founder and Chairman of Elite Hotels, Sweden, enjoys two sobriquets, "the Richest Indian in Sweden" and "Sweden's Biggest Hotelier". Not surprisingly, his 22 super-luxury Hotels, across the country welcomes the best of Swedish and International society. He also owns more than 40 English Pubs in Sweden and the Westbank Hospital in Howrah, India. He is building another 275-bed Hospital in Calcutta, increasing his Healthcare portfolio. His personal networth is estimated at more than Rs. 3,000 crores (US$ 600 Million).

Image: Elite Hotel Stockholm Plaza, Stockholm, Sweden


8) Aveek Sarkar, Chairman of ABP Group, owns two newspapers, nine magazines including Fortune India, four TV channels (ABP News, ABP Majha, ABP Ananda and Sananda TV), two publishing houses including Penguin India and a Mobile and an Internet company. With a personal net worth of more than Rs. 2,500 crores (US$ 500 Million), his private art collection is sometimes the discussion of Calcutta's coffee-house addas. Both his son, Aritra Sarkar and daughter, Chiki Sarkar have fledgling careers in ABP Group and Penguin India respectively.

Image: Aveek Sarkar presenting the Anandalok Award to Aishwariya Rai in 2011


9) Bijon Nag, Chairman of IFB Industries, has diversified interests running across Home Appliances, Engineering, Automotive and Agro. Two of his divisions are listed on the BSE while two are not and his businesses enjoy a combined valuation of Rs. 2,000 crores (US$400 Million). 

Image: IFB HQ, Calcutta


10) Kaustav Ray, Chairman of RP Group, has businesses spanning IT, Media, Agro Foods, Ceramics and Sports. With a cumulative value of Rs. 2,000 crores (US$400 Million), the Group's flagship Company "RP Infosystems" produces the "Chirag" brand of computers, the third largest computer brand in India according to DataQuest. In addition, he sponsors two soccer Clubs, located in West Bengal and Kerala respectively.

Image: A hoarding for Chirag Computers in Calcutta


11) Satya Prasad Roy Burman, Chairman of the Khadims Group, is a heavy-weight in the Indian leather industry. Apart from their own leather manufacturing facilities located in Eastern India, the Company has almost 700 retail stores (including 256 in West Bengal alone) across the length and breadth of the country. Recently, the Company has forayed into Jewellery, Departmental Stores and Restaurants and these businesses are cumulatively valued at over Rs. 2,000 crores (US$400 Million).

Image: A print ad for Khadims shoes


12) Gautam Kundu, Chairman of Rose Valley Group, has diversified interests into Real Estate, Insurance, Hospitality, Apparel, ITeS and Media and Entertainment. The Group valued at more than Rs. 2,000 crores (US$400 Million) owns and operates the ultra-luxury the Chrome (Calcutta), the Orbit (Siliguri) and the Marigold (Goa). Overall, the Group owns 22 Hotels, 5 resorts, 2 Amusement Parks, 2 publications and 4 TV Channels, including the current hot favourite, "Rupashi Bangla". 

Image: Chrome Hotel, Calcutta


13) Sudeep Dutta, Chairman of Ess Dee Aluminium, enjoys a listing on the BSE and is valued at more than Rs. 1,800 crores (US$ 350 Million) and is one of the biggest players in the Aluminium Packaging Business. He acquired India Foils in 2008 and got the International VC Sequoia Capital to pick up a 7% stake in the company. He started in 1991 with only 12 employees.

Image: Sudeep Dutta


14) Sagnik Roy, Partner at Txyco Ltd and Yongtong Group, is often called as "China's son-in-law" for being the most powerful foreign businessman in China. Born in Durgapur, India, he heads TXYCO Ltd., a Rs. 1,500 crores (US$ 300 Million) conglomerate. 

Image: Iron Ore supply for one of Txyco's plants in China


15) Asim Ghosh, CEO of Husky Energy, is probably the first non-Promoter CEO on this list. Before taking over as the CEO of Husky Energy in Canada, Mr. Ghosh was the MD and CEO of Hutchison Essar Ltd., from 1998-2009.  During his tenure, the Company grew from a one-city operation to become the country’s second-largest mobile phone provider, with more than 63 million subscribers.In 2007, he presided over the sale of Hutchison Whampoa’s stake in the company to Vodafone in a deal that valued the business at approximately $19 billion. At the time, the sale was the biggest corporate takeover in India's history and, according to a Thomson Reuters analysis, the largest all-cash transaction in Asia up to 2007, with Vodafone agreeing to pay $11.1 billion in cash for Hutchison Whampoa’s stake. His net worth is estimated at Rs. 1,500 crores (US$ 300 Million).

Image: Asim Ghosh addressing Husky Energy shareholders

16) Pritish Nandy, Chairman of Pritish Nandy Communications, was founded by him in September 1993. The Group, collectively valued at more than Rs. 1,500 crores ($300 Million) was one of the first in the Media and Entertainment industry in India to go in for a public listing on the BSE and NSE. Currently, they are into Films, Television Content, Commercials, Events, Wellness and Theme Places. 

Image: "Kaante", produced under the PNC Banner


17) Santanu Ghosh, Chairman of Xenitis Group, has interests in IT Hardware manufacturing, Training, Telecommunications, Motorcycles, Media and a recently launched brand of cycles. The Group is valued at more than Rs. 1,250 crores ($250 Million) and went to the market with an IPO in 2007. Ghosh was nominated for the “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award by Ernst & Young in 2006. 

Image: Indian FM Pranab Mukherjee with Global Automobiles' bike


18) Shanta Ghosh, Chairman of DCPLGroup, valued at more than Rs. 1,250 crores (US$ 250 Million). Founded by Sadhan Dutt, the Group has diversified interests into Engineering and Architecture Consultancy, Civil Construction, Real Estate, Chemicals Manufacturing and IT-BPO services. 

Image: DCPL House, Salt Lake, Calcutta


19) Dr. Prannoy Roy, Managing Director of NDTV, was born to an Indian father and Irish/ English mother in Calcutta in 1949. After completing his PhD from the Delhi School of Economics, he founded NDTV in 1988 and quickly cemented its position as the numero uno television news channel in India. Currently he runs five channels in India, and two abroad. NDTV has nurtured the finest Indian TV journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Vikram Chanda, Pankaj Pachauri and Vishnu Som. NDTV is also credited with running social campaigns such as "Greenathon", "Save Our Tiger", etc. His Company is valued at more than Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million).

Image: Dr. Roy at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos, Switzerland


20) Sumit Mazumder, Chairman of Tractors India Limited, has taken the mantle over from his father, A. Mazumder, who has run the business for over six decades. TIL competes with the big guys in India, such as L&T, by building heavy machinery for construction and excavation at their plant located in Calcutta, the only of its kind in India. They are also the sole dealer for the products of American giant, Caterpillar in Eastern India and Bhutan. His businesses are valued at more than Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million).

Image: TIL Pavilion at the Excon India Trade Show, 2009


21) Arindam Chaudhuri, Chairman of IIPM, runs a Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million) business with his father, Prof. Malay Chaudhuri. With 18 B-Schools across India, four Magazines and a Film Production Company, IIPM is considered to be a heavy-weight in the education sector in India.

Image: Arindam Chaudhuri with his Bentley


22) Tapas Chakraborti, Chairman of DQ Entertainment, is listed on the BSE, and enjoys a market-cap of around Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million). The Company is into Film Production, Animation, Gaming and Licensing and Distribution. With an employee base of close to 4,000, the Company is spread across Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Manila, Ireland, Paris, Los Angeles and Japan.

Image: Tapas Chakraborti on a CNBC interview 


23) Gautam & Satyam Roy Choudhury, Chairman of Techno India Group, heads the Education conglomerate valued at more than Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million). The group runs more than 31 colleges across Eastern, Northern and Western India and counts more than 1 lakh student as its alumni. 

Image: Techno India Campus, Calcutta


24) Anjan Chatterjee, Chairman of Speciality Restaurants and Situations Advertising. The latter, which is not even a non-core business for him clocked revenues of Rs. 100 crores in 2010. The former, which has given him the title of "Restaurant King" in India has seen him setting-up close to 100 restaurants across the country, under seven different brands: Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta, Sigree, Haka, Flame & Grill, Shack and Machaan. His businesses are cumulatively valued at Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million).

Image: Inside a Mainland China restaurant 


25) AK Chandra, Group Director of PC Chandra Group, manages one of the biggest conglomerates in Eastern India. They have interests in Jewellery, Chemicals, Plastics, Rubber, Hospitality, ITeS and Real Estate and are valued at more than Rs. 1,000 crores (US$ 200 Million). With almost 30 jewellery retail stores spread across eastern, Northern and Southern India, the division is counted as one of the biggest Jewellery brands in the country.

Image: The Senator Hotel, Calcutta


26) Shankar Sen, Chairman of Senco Gold, owns and operates 30 jewellery showrooms across Eastern and Western India and also exports jewellery to New York, Chicago, Singapore, Washington, Birmingham, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and London. Senco Impex is also into wholesale trading in the domestic markets. The Company enjoys a valuation of Rs. 800 crores (US$ 160 Million). 

Image: Bengali movie actors wearing Senco Jewellery products

Jedi Mind Tricks: 17 Lesser Known Ways to Persuade People

You want to be persuasive.  The power to influence people to get what you want is sometimes all it takes to be successful. These are some tactics, discovered through psychological research, that you have probably not yet heard about, but have the potential to increase your persuasive abilities.

I’m not going to cover reciprocity, scarcity or social proof and all those widely known persuasion principles. You already know all about those (in case you don’t, stop everything and read this book by Cialdini).

1. Be confident, talk fast

The best way to persuade audiences that are not inclined to agree with you, is to talk fast. Fast pace is distracting and people find it difficult to pick out the argument’s flaws. When talking to an audience who is likely to agree (preaching to the choir), slow down and give the audience time to agree some more.

Want to boost persuasive power? Talk with confidence.

Don Moore from Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Behavioral Decision Research haspublished research showing that confidence even trumps past accuracy in earning the trust of others.

We prefer advice from a confident source, even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record. Moore argues that in competitive situations, this can drive those offering advice to increasingly exaggerate how sure they are.

People naturally associate confidence with expertise. Know your product, know the facts about its benefits and believe in what it does – true confidence becomes from knowing and believing what you’re saying. It’s essential that we communicate our confidence to others in order to persuade them.

2. Swearing can help influence an audience

Light swearing, that is. (Go overboard and lose all credibility.)

Researchers divided 88 participants into three groups to watch one of three slightly different speeches. The only difference between the speeches was that one contained a mild curse word at the start:

“…lowering of tuition is not only a great idea, but damn it, also the most reasonable one for all parties involved.”

The second speech contained the ‘damn it’ at the end and the third had neither. When participants’ attitudes were measured, they were most influenced by the speeches with the mild obscenity included, either at the beginning or the end.

The word ‘damn’ increased the audience’s perception of the speaker’s intensity, which increased persuasion. The audience’s perceived credibility of the speaker did not change.

So that’s the secret of Gary Vaynerchuk and Dave McClure. I thought they’re just cool guys, but turns out its the swearing that got me.

Image credit

3. Get people to agree with you first

If you want people to buy into your message, start with something they can agree with.

In a research study by Jing Xu and Robert Wyerestablished, there were lingering effects of messages people agree with. In one of the tests, participants listen to a speech by John McCain or one by Barack Obama and then watch a TV ad for Toyota.

Republicans tended to be more swayed by the ad after watching the speech by John McCain, while Democrats showed the opposite effect, finding the ad more persuasive after the Obama speech.

So when you try to sell something, make statements or represent a world view your customers can agree with first – even if they have nothing to do with what you’re selling.

4. Balanced arguments are more persuasive

If what you are doing inspires (or can inspire) criticism, resist the instinct to paper over weaknesses. We fear undermining our point of view by talking about weaknesses, but actually it would help our case.
Psyblog writes:

Over the years psychologists have compared one-sided and two-sided arguments to see which are the most persuasive in different contexts. Daniel O’Keefe at the University of Illinois collected together the results of 107 different studies on sidedness and persuasion conducted over 50 years which, between them, recruited 20,111 participants (O’Keefe, 1999, Communication Yearbook, 22, pp. 209-249).

The results of this meta-analysis provide persuasive reading. What he found across different types of persuasive messages and with varied audiences, was that two-sided arguments are more persuasive than their one-sided equivalents.

People are not idiots and they can think. If you don’t mention the other side of the coin in your arguments, people are less likely to believe you.

Perhaps it might be a good idea to mention the shortcomings of your product or service on your website.

5. People believe you more if they sit in the evidence

A research study by Ye Li, Eric Johnson, and Lisa Zaval looked into the belief into global warming and its relation to the current local weather.

Participants in the US and Australia rated the strength of their belief in global warming. They also rated whether they thought the temperature that day was warmer, colder, or about normal for that time of year. When people felt the day was warmer than usual, they also expressed a higher belief in global warming than when they felt the day was cooler than usual.

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In the related study they asked the same stuff, but also asked for a donation to a non-profit combating climate change. The participants in this study donated over four times as much money when the day was much warmer than usual than when the day was much cooler than usual.

If you want people to buy your message, ask for the sale in the situation that supports your claims. Online, use imagery or other visual material to build the stage for your story.

6. Upsell a product that cost 60% less

Once somebody gets to a point that they’ll buy something from you, they have given you their trust and have convinced themselves it’s okay to give you money. In that moment you are able to sell them more.

When somebody buys a shirt, you upsell should be a tie and not the whole suit.

The time-tested 60×60 rule says that your customers will buy an upsell 60 percent of the time for up to 60% of the original purchase price. Any upsell you offer must be congruent with the original purchase.

If you don’t use up-selling in your business yet, it’s a quick way to boost profits (“would you like fries with that?”).

7. Frame it in the positive

Emphasising the positive can be more persuasive than pointing out the negative.

An analysis added up the results of 29 different studies, which had been carried out on 6,378 people in total. The finding was that there was a slight persuasive advantage for messages that were framed positively.

This study had to do with the way people relate to disease prevention, such as encouraging people to use sunscreen, and promoting healthy eating habits, but it might have a wider appeal. The researchers hypothesized the reason to be that we don’t like to be bullied into changing our behaviour.

Try framing your marketing message in the positive (“Gain additional hour every day” vs “Stop wasting time”) and see if it makes a difference.

8. The paradox of choice

The more choice you offer, the less people will take you up on it – says this study.

Researchers set up a jam-tasting stall in a posh supermarket in California. Sometimes they offered six varieties of jam, at other times 24. Jam tasters were then offered a voucher to buy jam at a discount.

While more choice attracted more customers to look, very few of them actually bought jam. The display that offered less choice made many more sales — in fact, only 3 per cent of jam tasters at the 24-flavour stand used their discount voucher, versus 30 per cent at the six-flavour stand.

If you have a ton of products, invest in building better filters that help people make the choice. Read the excellent book or watch the great TED talk on the topic.

Image credit

9. If something happens often enough, you will eventually be persuaded

Repetition of things has a distinct effect on us. Advertisements repeated replay themselves when we see the product. The songs that radios play over and over again eventually grow on us.

Repetition of a word or visual pattern not only causes it to be remembered (which is persuasive in itself), it also leads people to accept what is being repeated as being true.

ChangingMinds writes this about Hugh Rank’s persuasion research (Teaching about public persuasion, 1976):

Our brains are excellent pattern-matchers and reward us for using this very helpful skill. Repetition creates a pattern, which consequently and naturally grabs our attention.

Repetition creates familiarity, but does familiarity breed contempt? Although it can happen, the reality is that familiarity leads to liking in far more case than it does to contempt. When we are in a supermarket, we are far more likely to buy familiar brands, even if we have never tried the product before. 

Think about the last time you bought a pair of shoes. Did you pick them then put them down several times before trying them on. Did you come back to try them again? If so, you are in good company. Many people have to repeat things several times before they get convinced. Three times is a common number.

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Use repetition of key benefits or value proposition in your sales copy and ad campaigns many times. Effective advertising and political campaigns do that (“Geico can save you 15% or more …”). Use friendly repetition to create familiarity and hence liking.

Another research reveals even if only one member of a group repeats their opinion, it is more likely to be seen by others as representative of the whole group.

10. Men are more responsive to email than face-to-face talk

Guadagno & Cialdini research (2002) showed that men seem more responsive to email because it bypasses their competitive tendencies. Women, however, may respond better in face-to-face encounters because they are more ‘relationship-minded’

This research is suggesting that email could provide a way of side-stepping men’s competitive tendencies. But, this only applies to distant relationships. The closer the relationship between men, the better face to face works.

When you want to persuade a man you don’t know too well, start with an email.

11. Limiting the quantity you can buy makes you buy more

From Brian Wansink’s excellent book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think:

A while back, I teamed up with two professor friends of mine—Steve Hoch and Bob Kent—to see if anchoring influences how much food we buy in grocery stores. We believed that grocery shoppers who saw numerical signs such as “Limit 12 Per Person” would buy much more than those who saw signs such as “No Limit Per Person.”

To nail down the psychology behind this, we repeated this study in different forms, using different numbers, different promotions (like “2 for $2” versus “1 for $1”), and in different supermarkets and convenience stores. By the time we finished, we knew that almost any sign with a number promotion leads us to buy 30 to 100 percent more than we normally would.

So put numbered limitations or anchors on the quantity your customer can buy from you.

12. Story beats data

A Carnegie Mellon University study in 2007 by Deborah Small, GeorgeLowenstein and Paul Slovic compared the effects of story vs data.

Test subjects where asked to collect donations for a dire situation in Africa. The data pitch contained statistics about food shortages in Malawi, lack of rain in Zambia, and the dislocation of millions in Angola.

The second version talked about a particular girl in Zambia, Rokia, who was starving. People were shown her photo and asked to donate to help her directly.

On average, students who received the fact-based appeal from Save the Children donated $1.14. Students who read the story about Rokia donated an average of $2.38, more than twice as much.

In a third experiment, students were told Rokia’s story but also included statistics about persistent drought, shortfalls in crop production, and millions of Africans who were going hungry. While students who had read Rokia’s story alone donated an average of $2.38, those who read the story plus the data donated an average of $1.43.

The plight of Africa, the fight with poverty is too overwhelming and people feel their contribution is just a drop in a bucket, hence feel less inclined to help.

“If I look at the mass I will never act,” said Mother Teresa. “If I look at the one, I will.”

13. Marketing to men? Use photos of women

A field experiment in the consumer credit market found that pictures of women as as effective as low interest rate.

A South African lender sent letters offering incumbent clients large, short-term loans at randomly chosen interest rates. The letters also contained independently randomized psychological “features”. As expected, the interest rate significantly affected loan take-up. Inconsistent with standard economics, some of the psychological features also significantly affected take-up.

For the male customers, replacing the photo of a male with a photo of female on the offer letter statistically significantly increases takeup; the effect is about as much as dropping the interest rate 4.5 percentage points… For female customers, we find no statistically significant patterns.

Overall, these results suggest a very powerful effect on male customers of seeing a female photo on the offer letter. Standard errors however do not allow us to isolate one specific mechanism for this effect. The effect on male customers may be due to either the positive impact of a female photo or the negative impact of a male photo.

The experiment featured a rather dramatic range in interest rates – 3.25% to 11.75%. The effect of a photo of a woman on a loan offer was equivalent 4.5% difference in the loan interest rate.

Next time add a photo of a woman to your offer and see your conversions go up.

The above study did not feature sexy women. But would a sexy women wearing bikinis help?

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Research shows that arousal makes men stupid, as they become bad at making decisions. It gives them tunnel vision. The effect seems to be a short-term -one that would be most effective at the point of purchase, for impulse purchases.

The ideal selling situation would be to have the bikini-clad babe selling to the men in person. I guess you could do that also online for products meant only for men.

Studies have shown that sexy ads don’t really make men remember the product. We’re so lasered in on the sexy stuff, we don’t care what brand of product it is.

14. Want to convince leaders? Make them feel less powerful

Don’t bother trying to persuade your boss of a new idea while he’s feeling the power of his position, research suggests he’s not listening to you.

“Powerful people have confidence in what they are thinking. Whether their thoughts are positive or negative toward an idea, that position is going to be hard to change,” said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

The best way to get leaders to consider new ideas is to put them in a situation where they don’t feel as powerful, the research suggests.

“Our research shows that power makes people more confident in their beliefs, but power is only one thing that affects confidence,” Petty said. “Try to bring up something that the boss doesn’t know, something that makes him less certain and that tempers his confidence.”

“You want to sow all your arguments when the boss is not thinking of his power, and after you make a good case, then remind your boss of his power. Then he will be more confident in his own evaluation of what you say. As long as you make good arguments, he will be more likely to be persuaded,” Petty said.

So in a nutshell:

• make the leaders feel less powerful and confident by talking about stuff they don’t know and if possible, talk outside of his office (neutral territory),
• after the pitch, remind them who’s the boss, so they could take action on your request.

15. The Sullivan Nod

Invented by restaurant consultant, Jim Sullivan, the Sullivan nod involves reciting a list of options but just inclining your head slightly when you reach the choice you’d like the buyer to make. The nod has to be subtle, but perceptible and works best in lists of no more than five items. According to Jim Sullivan, it’s successful up to 60 percent of the time.

Whenever servers suggest a beverage, have them smile and slowly nod their heads up and own as they make the suggestion. Body language is powerful, and research shows that over 60% of the time, the guest will nod right back and take your suggestion!

I bet you could use that online in sales videos. When talking about plans or packages, do the nod on the one you want them to buy.

16. Clarity trumps persuasion

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of Marketing Experiments likes to say this: “Clarity trumps persuasion”. Remember this.

Persuasion tricks work when done subtly and skillfully. Overdo it and you lose the sale. When you’re writing sales copy or doing presentations, the best way to persuade people is to use clarity. Give people enough information to make up their mind without being cheesy or using hype.

17. 87% of people believe everything if there’s a percentage in it

That’s what I’ve heard anyway ;)

6 Emerging Trends In Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship

When you live and work in Silicon Valley, it’s easy to get caught up in trends billowing from within the echo chamber. Around here, the availability of capital resources helps trends popularize and commercialize faster than anywhere else in the world. From the outside, it seems today’s latest trend is tomorrow’s IPO practically overnight (discounting, conveniently, the 10+ years of persistence required of entrepreneurs along the way). As Paul Graham has noted time and time again, most successful companies always seem like bad ideas at first. This makes it difficult for entrepreneurs and investors to endure the pain required to turn these seemingly “bad ideas” into successful companies. By that definition of success, those companies wouldn’t even make it onto a list of trends in the first place.

As an entrepreneur, it’s difficult to track trends without getting caught up in them. Trends are usually indicators, albeit imperfect ones, of what’s ahead in part because investors and customers are behind them. Here are the recent entrepreneurial trends from Silicon Valley:

1. Products And Platforms For Engineers

Today, many companies are targeting – at least initially – engineers. Engineers make up a majority of the active and early adopter community online and they can provide the early boost necessary to achieve a critical mass. Your grandma may be on Facebook FB +2.29% but she’s likely not paying for new online services like the more technically-savvy online population. In recent years, services like Github have helped further the needs of a thriving early adopter market that’s technical and willing to spend money. As a bonus, this audience is also well-connected which helps startups and entrepreneurs targeting them gain traction faster than other products. This has become especially true with the help of communities like Hacker News and Reddit. Infrastructure, revision control and APIs may not be “sexy” but they have a paying, trendsetting audience that’s willing to spread the word.

2. Technical Teams (Still) Rule The Valley

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This is perhaps the longest running trend but it’s worth noting nonetheless. Without a doubt, business acumen is an important aspect when building and scaling a viable long-term business but, at their core, most Silicon Valley companies that build extreme value for customers tend to be technical from the ground up. There are very few other ways to create a lot of value in a short period of time than with technology and software. Technology is hard to get right and execution speed can often make the difference between success and failure. All things being equal, you can typically outdo competition and create larger barriers to entry by applying additional technical prowess than you can with added business prowess (at least in the early days). Technical teams that can execute well will attract and retain more customers and better partners. Of course this depends on your business but here in Silicon Valley it applies to almost every company whether you are selling beauty products or creating next generation databases. Y Combinator’s Paul Graham has repeatedly proven this in practice, focusing his investments almost exclusively in technically-inclined teams that are building “something people want”.

3. “Big Data” And Machine Learning

This trend is another example of approaches that aren’t new and have only recently become trendy again. Today, if you mix big data or machine learning in some way you will certainly get additional attention from investors and the press. Yes, there are many well-known companies (especially advertising related ones) turning these technologies into huge profit-generating businesses i.e. Google GOOG -0.19% and Facebook FB +2.29%. Unfortunately, there are fewer startups that have enough data to turn themselves into a profit-generating machine (at least for now). With that said, there are companies using data to tackle important problems and doing well; companies likeFactual and OnDeck Capital. While many investors remain bullish on this trend, the theory is much more exciting than the reality.

4. Automated Personal Finance

I’ve written about recent financial services trendsbefore so I won’t rehash it further here. As people get more comfortable mixing their hard-earned money and new technology, we’ll see a growth in personal financial technology companies that will attempt to automate our financial lives. Fromretirement investing to paying off debt (our company) and everything in between. We are seeing control and transparency shifting directly to the customer, a trend that will certainly continue strong in the coming years.

5. The “Sharing Economy”

Whether you buy into the hype or not, there is a growing trend around a new “sharing economy.” If you’re an entrepreneur who follows ongoing challenges, you know these companies have often had an early, difficult legal history but are now thriving. Companies like ZipCar (hourly car sharing) and LendingClub(peer to peer lending) had a difficult time getting off the ground initially but have since helped pave the way for newer companies like AirBnb, TaskRabbit,Etsy and Uber. Now there are a variety of “AirBnb for X” and “Uber for Y” companies addressing new verticals. This trend is promising and appealing because it’s based on the same principles that helped turn the Internet into such a success. Arguably, Ebay EBAY -0.36% was the first successful “sharing economy” pioneer helping people connect with, buy from and sell to, strangers on the Internet from all over the world. Here in Silicon Valley it’s unlikely you can find someone who hasn’t tried Uber or AirBnb; the “Sharing Economy” is strong here in Silicon Valley – a powerful trend that will likely continue.

6. Better Communities And Support For Entrepreneurs

Last but not least, this trend is one of the more exciting ones for new entrepreneurs here in Silicon Valley. Accelerators and incubators (like Y Combinator, TechStars and 500 Startups) as well as prominent investors likeFred Wilson have helped open up what was once a world only accessible to industry insiders. Standard investment terms are now publicly available and resources like AngelList and Kickstarter make fundraising more accessible (for both investors and entrepreneurs). Some have even speculated this new, transparent fundraising model could significantly impact the venture capital industry in the years to come. Other resources like Quora provide entrepreneurs with an authoritative online community for entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, building a team around a common vision is hard enough, so the availability of additional insights and a supportive community is powerful. It’s less lonely when you hear from entrepreneurs-turned-investors like Marc Andreesen using their authentic voices to demystify the challenges of an entrepreneur building a successful company. The additional support from Y Combinator and other entrepreneurs who “pay it forward” continues to help our team at ReadyForZero as well.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and other trends.