It was all well to feel happy about the news coverage in India, but the real challenge was in brand building overseas, specifically the US, which was our biggest market. Paid media over there was very expensive.

Nonetheless, small businesses seem to find social buying sites to be dream marketing tools. They pay no initial set-up fees and commissions are negotiable.

But global visibility also happens through unexpected quarters. Mid 1999, the head of our subsidiary, Satyam Info way requested me to handle the PR for their ADS listing on Nasdaq. This gave me a major opportunity to work at a global level and to deal with the big guns in the financial sector-Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and KPMG and, of course, the top management at NASDAQ.

They spend too much on research and development, either. In the end. their products do not work! If you worked for their products, they are not engaged in such fierce competition in the marketing and advertising. No, the big mark-up price is only because they can afford to pay big bucks to their advertising agencies and marketing departments.

I’ve been in advertising and marketing all my adult life and I love to hear how other people market. I’m always asking my potential customers how they market and I’m quick to offer tips even when they don’t include selling them my product/service. I ask if I can call back to see how things are going – ask the best days/times to do this. When you do call back, be sure you adhere to their preferred call-back times.

When I joined Satyam, I had never sent an email in my life nor knew anything about something called the internet. It was an alien subject to me. I was basically a mechanical Engineer.

The issue is NOT that an entrepreneur can start his or her day when the mood hits, as studies have long proven that entrepreneurs work longer and harder than their unfortunate fellows who clock in from 9 to 10.