Praveer Shukla is an advertising and marketing professional with 35 years’ experience in India, Hong Kong, the US, and Oman. His clients have included Dupont, ITC WelcomGroup, ITC Golf, Uncle Chipps’, DCM,Escorts, Star TV, Rajasthan Tourism, Kashmir Tourism, The Oberoi, Milkfood, HM The Sultan of Oman, HH Mahesh Maharishi Yogi, among others.

He is sharing some of his “secrets” here and introducing his company, Onetree Content.

He says, “Unlike earlier times, today, a brand is not recognized by its trademark, mission statement, logo or slogan. That kind of branding went out of the window around the time that electricity was discovered. “

Mentor Edge is an initiaitive from CIIE (Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entreprenuership), which was set-up in IIM Ahemdabad and is supported by Government of Gujarat and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Each participating city has a dedicated “City Coordinator” to link Start-ups with a pre-selected groups of Mentors from a variety of domains and verticals.

So far, successful events have been conducted at Ahemdabad, Bangalore & Mumbai. Upcoming events are listed below:

Thursday, November 26, 2009. Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Day 1 of Franchise India 2009. Continued from Franchise India – Entrepreneurship Summit 2009 – Specialty Retail.

Another interesting session was “Business Opportunities in Food & Beverage Sector”. The speakers were:

- Mahmood Khan, Hospitality Expert Virginia Tech, USA
- Pavan Gandhok, CEO, Litebite Foods
- Gary Moore, MD,The Pizza Co., Thailand
- Rakhee Nagpal, MD & Chairperson of DVS (Moderator)
- Luis Daniel, General Manager, KRR International
- Ankur Sharma, General Manager Business Development , Yo China

Thursday, November 26, 2009. Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. Day 1 of Franchise India 2009 saw scores of enthusiastic entrepreneurs eagerly evaluating various franchise opportunities (300 brands) in India.

Billed as “Asia’s Biggest Franchise Show”, the event came alive in various sections – Brand License 2009, Entrepreneurship Summit ’09, Food & Beverage, Fashion franchising, Knowledge Series, Licensing and Retail.

What aroused our curiosity was the “Entrepreneurship Summit 2009″ conference series. Some of the speakers at “Business Opportunities : Specialty Retail” session were:

- Aloke Banerjee, CEO, Rosebys
- Vivek Bali, Group President, Spice Hotspot
- S.Ravikant, COO, Titan Eyewear
- N.P. Singh, Director, Samsonite
- Rajiv Agarwal, The Mobile Store
- Naveen Rakhecha, CEO, Cartridge World

How does an entrepreneur GET CLEAR? Really clear about business, customers, profits and the entire spectrum that makes up an entrepreneur’s life.

How CLEAR are you about your business goals, most profitable market segments, long-term strategy, day-to-day business operations and the integration of all these with your life goals?