Ulhas Kamat is an accomplished business leader who has successfully discharged the P&L responsibility of a variety of businesses and has been instrumental in turning loss-making units into profit-generating entities. His extensive international work has included staff and line responsibilities in both developed and developing countries.   

His professional engagements include Fortune 500 companies like ICI, Unilever, IBM, TATA, and Unisys in India for two decades. The following 20 years, he was associated with a global holding company that owns and operates autonomous units worldwide. He held total P&L responsibility for various business units in different countries. Geographically, this covered the USA, East Africa, West Africa, and Southeast Asia.  

Ulhas, after four decades in the private sector, transitioned to the social sector to use his skills, knowledge and experience for the benefit of the underserved communities. Till his return to India, he was the Director of Program Services at the Washington, DC Minority Business Development Center, a funded project of the US Government.  

He served as a member of the Committee of Courses on Entrepreneurship of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), India.  

Ulhas holds a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay and has undergone specialised training in Small Business Mentoring at Tuck School of Business, University of Dartmouth, USA.  

• In this episode, Ulhas Kamat discusses his book “How to Minimize Business Failure”. The book is based on his practical experience in helping and mentoring grassroots-level business entrepreneurs for the last twenty-five years. He explains how I Create India, the grassroots-focused organisation of which he is the Chief Mentor, has developed methodology and tools to start businesses, succeed and stay successful over time. 
• I HOPE^©, their mantra, helps aspiring entrepreneurs ideate, identify opportunities and research product-market fit, while Vajrastra, their automated tool, helps to take the drudgery out of creating a robust business plan that can be used for planning as well as securing loans. 
• Ulhas Kamat also explains the basics of why businesses fail, and why customer and cash are the key factors to address for businesses to succeed. The measures of success are primarily of two kinds, one is profitability, and the other is survivability. These and other gems of knowledge that apply to all businesses in general but particularly to small and medium enterprises at the grassroots are revealed in this enlightening interview.    

Run time – 52:41 mins.