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This weekly quiz from YS tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 33rd edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.

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What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?

Check out YS’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 330 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

Q1: Opportunity in adversity

The pandemic and its lockdowns forced many companies to pivot, build resilience plans, and adopt digital transformation. It also spawned new business models for savvy entrepreneurs in education and healthcare. What’s another sector that innovated during the pandemic?

Q2: Real-life experiences

Much of the digital acceleration during the pandemic focused on content, communication, collaboration, and e-commerce. But there was a big gap in satisfaction with the online channel in terms of experience. How was this gap addressed, and what sectors open up here?

Q3: The innovator’s challenge

Innovators face a number of external challenges, ranging from customer education to competitive positioning. Tech shifts can introduce new players and business models as well. What’s another source of external challenges for innovators?

Q4: New ways of digital work

Digitisation is only the first phase of digital transformation, as many companies have realised. Silos of data need to be integrated, and processes redesigned or automated to yield new business advantage. So what’s one way of achieving this digital edge?

Q5: The leadership challenge

Leadership is about drawing compelling visions, mobilising teams and communities, and staying ahead of the competitive pack. But how can leaders adapt to a world where they may not be experts in the emerging fields, but still chart a successful course ahead?

Answers!

Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!

A1: Opportunity in adversity

Husband-wife duo Umashankar Mishra and Shruti Mishra founded India Cuisine as an ecommerce startup delivering food products from West Bengal across India at a reasonable price. The idea came to the founders when they ran out of their stock of sweets during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.

There are many sweets providers, but the sector is unorganised. “I saw huge potential in this sector and now my dream is that the cuisines of West Bengal reach every Indian meal,” says Umashankar. Read more of their journey here.

A2 Real-life experiences

The consumer mind shifted during the pandemic, and there was more eagerness to try out new virtual experiences to find some semblance to pre-COVID life. “This accelerated the efforts to achieve the ultimate vision of the Metaverse,” observes Hina Dixit, who drives investments in the field of Metaverse at SamsungNext.

“During the pandemic, people ended up spending much more time in front of screens. We started to miss the real-life experience, which created a problem space for tech giants to solve,” she adds. Read more about the opportunity and responsibilities for the Metaverse here.

A3: The innovator’s challenge

“Innovation is always going to be ahead of governance. Everybody knows that. It’s basically a matter of one catching up,” observes Vivek Gupta, EVP and Head of Engineering, CoinDCX.

Many countries like India are emerging as hubs of blockchain talent, but regulations and policies are hindering technology adoption. Read more about Vivek’s appeals for ‘maximum governance, minimum government’ here.

A4: New ways of digital work

“We are in the early stages of a generational shift in how work gets done in the modern enterprise,” explains Sahil Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Rattle. The PaaS (platform-as-a-service) startup recently raised $26 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners.

Companies like Miro and Clearbit rely on its no-code platform as the building block to improve go-to-market transparency and increase sales velocity. This is a marked improvement over earlier “clunky legacy applications,” and overcomes the challenges of data silos. Read more about its solutions here.

A5: The leadership challenge

“Leaders do not need to be experts in every field, but what you need to be good at is prioritising what problem really needs to be solved and who to work with to make it happen,” affirms Swati Bhargava, Co-founder of CashKaro and EarnKaro. Read more about her views on leadership ability to embrace change and navigate ambiguity here.

“True leadership is about building a successful team and making a lasting impact,” explains Asha Kurup, Client Partner, Infosys. Check out her learnings and life hacks in the I am the future series here.

YS has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).