Out of the country out of the box transforming the world.

one of the lessons

that i learned from my business failure

is that all individuals can

transform the world by simply going

out of their own home country

into the developing world to start a

business

some years back i had an opportunity

to go to ukraine ukraine at that time

had become an independent country

and when i arrived i saw utter

economic chaos people were in misery

their spending power had been hurt

there were no food and basic necessities

in the shelves and the currency

and the money was depreciating every day

i stayed back in kiev not quite sure

what i was going to do

next

one day i was walking on the streets

and i noticed a long line

of course in those days lines were not

uncommon

there were lines for everything people

got into the line

even before asking what the line was for

because they knew that something

valuable was being sold

out of curiosity i got into the line

myself

and when i came to the top of the line i

realized it was for

meat so if you can imagine this

particular scene that i saw

a butcher standing behind a counter

with half a side of beef hanging off a

hook

and with a very large knife he was

cutting up the pieces of meat

wrapping it in an old newspaper and

handing it to the person

on the line the person on the line the

customer

could not ask for a specific cut they

got what they got

as i watched that scene ideas began to

come into my mind

bulbs flashed and i thought to myself

why don’t i get into the meat business

and prepare

good quality meat that is packaged

portion controlled into steaks hamburger

patties

weighed with a brand and then try to

sell it through

a supermarket or supermarket chains that

were springing up at that time

as i thought about it i liked the idea

and that’s what i decided to do

so through friends and relationships

that i had been building while i was

living over there they

kind of steered me to go to western

ukraine

where there was a meat plant that was

looking to modernize itself

and i went over there met with the

director of the meat plant was quite

happy to see us

because it was a critical time in their

history

and we agreed to a collaboration

agreement in the form of a joint venture

where they would provide high quality

beef sides and we would process them

into

products that were of high quality

packaged

labeled and in a brand that we had

registered

at that time all for the first time

happening in ukraine

so with the help of our staff that we

hired

and their enthusiasm we were able to

in the next two years reach every

supermarket in kiev

reached the hotels and restaurants over

there and

even diversified or expanded our product

line

into poultry and vegetables

and in fact at that time the company had

achieved something like 80 percent of

the market share

of high quality meat products

one fine day there was a knock on the

door

several people with kalashnikovs barged

into

our office they threw me on the floor

terrorized our staff pointed a gun at

them

who disappeared out of fear

they had a truck parked below

and they picked up everything that we

had in our office

our filing cabinets even our desks

files put it in their truck and drove

off

we tried to recover our business we

tried

however the powers that were behind this

attack

were a lot more powerful than we had

ever thought

and at one point it became clear that

this would be mission impossible

at that point i decided to throw in the

towel

and go back home i went back

and when i got home i fell into a mental

depression

my midlife crisis was precipitated

earlier

i recovered out of the economic

whole and the mental crisis that i had

faced

and moved on with my life

some years later i was happening to read

a newspaper

and it was talking about ukraine

and ukraine’s meat industry and as i

read the article

i realized that they were talking about

the meat businesses that had been

created over there which were now

employing thousands of people

generating jobs adding to the economy

what were they doing exactly what we had

started

branded meat products being sold through

supermarket chains and being sold

to hotels and restaurants

initially my first reaction was sadness

sadness because we had been denied the

opportunity

to remain over there to participate in

the

country’s success in this particular

industry

that happened but i also felt

positive in some ways positive because

the seeds that we had shown earlier on

in developing the first private network

distribution that included production

and marketing of meat had blossomed into

a major industry for the country

that idea after reading the article

gave me the basis for this talk that we

are having

today at ted which is that

every individual has the possibility

of transforming the world

whether you succeed or whether you fail

i also felt as a result of my own

experiences and failures

that perhaps there would be a better way

of doing this

if i were to advise you today with all

of the

hindsight of experience i have

and i have distilled this into a three

step

methodology if i may say so for

anyone to go out and do this

so step number one is

select the right country and you can

understand

why because based on my own personal

experience this is a critical step

so how do you select the right country

me the right country should have two

characteristics

the first is it should be safe for you

and for your business and the second

it should be low cost of living

why do i emphasize low cost of living

why because if you’re starting a

business on a bootstrap

you don’t want high expensive living

costs to eat away the money

that you would be rather putting it into

your business

and businesses always take longer than

what we have planned in an ambiguous

environment

so where do we get this information well

there are lists of countries

out there by safety and security and

their list of countries

out there by cost of living and you have

to merge these two lists

and shortlist some countries that

catches your interest

step number two go

there in other words go there and see

if the ground reality is exactly

what you have read and things are what

you have

been researching

talk to people visit supermarkets

and find out what exactly do they need

services many times the developing world

countries don’t

need the next big thing that we are all

chasing

after they need basic stuff and there is

believe it or not

a target market that can pay for it that

is growing

as they grow

so once you have done that come up with

a business plan 17 18 page document

that tells you how you’re going to get

from point a to point b

step three and this is the most

important of them all

take the plunge in other words

start the business don’t hesitate

don’t over analyze your data

why because the country is

shifting rapidly because of

globalization

things are happening too quick for you

your data could be obsolete tomorrow

and over analysis is an enemy of

entrepreneurship so don’t procrastinate

you want to start and learn from your

mistakes and you will pivot your

business

based on the challenges you are likely

to encounter

and what are you going to get back in

return something extremely invaluable

for you personally

which is instinct instinct of navigating

in a world

where nothing is clear

now you may be wondering at this point

if i did all of this

what can happen so let’s look at the two

scenarios as to what can happen

the first is a bad scenario and the

other

the other one is a good scenario so in

the bad scenario

you don’t make money your business it

goes bankrupt

or it gets expropriated like mine did

what then well you go back home

your friends and family will still be

there

they’ll appreciate you for what you have

done

and believe me you will be at a lot

higher learning curve by then after this

experience than anyone else

who just stayed back

what is the good side the good side is

you do well

you make money you then scale up your

business

you move to other cities you may move to

other countries

and at some point you may cash out

and decide that you don’t want to

work for anyone else

in both cases the country gets

transformed

whether you lose or you win

so when you have so much of an upside

potential

to make a difference in the developing

world

with so little of downside risk what are

you waiting for

let’s go and transform the world

thank you

you