Challenges and opportunities ahead for banks - Hindu Business Line

The banking industry has grown impressively in the past decade at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17-18 per cent in terms of total banking assets.

However, more than the growth story, the last decade stands out for the transformation that the industry has undergone in terms of customer orientation, product offerings, service levels, technology leverages, governance maturity as well as competitive intensity.

Even as the industry gears itself for the next decade of growth and is being challenged by a slower economy, banks will have to recalibrate their focus on “creating” growth and “sustaining” profitability as they respond to an even more dynamic and challenging environment characterised by evolving regulations, increased competition, savvier and value conscious customers, complex operating models and disruptive technologies.

The impact of slowdown is evident at an aggregate level as growth rates have moderated as compared to the past and also shown a dip in certain areas in the last couple of years. Despite economic headwinds, in such uncertain times, it is crucial for banks to maintain a competitive market position. Besides the need to protect their ‘core’ markets, banks would need to be ‘market ready’ for opportunities which such market adversities may offer. The growth opportunities can broadly be categorised as organic growth opportunities, international growth opportunities and inorganic growth opportunities.

In the past decade, India’s GDP growth provided abundant domestic growth opportunities for banks without drastically adapting its business model. Consistent high growth over the last few years has brought economic progress and prosperity — per capita income has increased and the number of millionaire households in India has now soared to 2,86,000, the 18th largest across the globe according to the Deloitte Centre for Financial Services and Oxford Economics Research.

According to the RBI data, India still has 145 million households completely excluded from banking services and this section carries tremendous social appeal and presents a great economic prospect. Banks can serve this customer segment as well as create value for themselves as financial inclusion evolves itself into a business opportunity rather than as a regulatory burden. Public sector and private banks collectively had less than 10 per cent of loans and advances and less than 5 per cent of the deposits originating outside India in FY11. Baring few top banks, most of the banks have very limited presence in major business centres or markets where there are significant bilateral trade flows.

Moreover, most of foreign business is still home-linked targeting Trade Finance and NRI population and not really targeting truly foreign business. According to the World Bank estimates, cross-border remittances stood at nearly $483 billion in FY11 and India has a fair share in these remittances and to start off, Indian banks can target increasing their share of global remittances.

The increasing global footprint of India Inc. provides Indian banks an opportunity to realize their global aspirations.

Even after realising the distant hopes of domestic consolidation, top Indian banks are unlikely to feature in the top 50 largest banks globally in the next five years. Therefore, it is an imperative to shift from the philosophy of “scale up to globalise” to “globalise to scale up”.

The RBI has come out with the phased roadmap for Basel- III framework implementation for the next five years. The need for risk capital as well as growth capital is likely to lead to higher capital requirement for the sector.

Bigger capital cushions would make the system somewhat safer, but it may challenge some individual bank’s profitability and ability to grow.

With the increased pressure on efficiencies and stakeholder demands, consolidation in the industry may provide banks to an opportunity to grow inorganically.

With the growing complexity of the market place, the industry itself may gravitate towards the following broad structure.

• Few large banks or ‘universal’ banks that serve all customers and differentiate themselves by focusing on services and offering a large product breadth. These banks will compete on size and their higher risk taking capability. These banks will develop capabilities to compete globally.

• Several ‘niche’ banks offering specific products and services adapted to the needs of their customers, or focusing on specific niches in terms of geographies, industries or even communities. These banks will compete on their knowledge edge.

• Few ‘discount/direct’ banks may emerge to offer the best prices to their customers and leverage direct channels in a cost-effective approach.

This may be relevant for new private sector banks which we may see emerge over the next few years. These banks will compete on technology edge.

Banks that fail to align to any of above three models or their variants may become marginalised over time and could become ripe candidates for acquisition by stronger banks. Similar capital challenges faced by several overseas banks may provide an opportunity for Indian banks to acquire banking assets globally.

Banking services are shifting from a brick and mortar dominated paradigm to one of integration and balance between multiple channels. With several technology choices emerging, the new paradigm demands a fundamental shift in the business model. New technologies will need to be evaluated in the context of how they can seamlessly integrate to provide a customer experience and last mile connectivity which can equate a ‘near-branch’ experience.

To summarise, while growth potential remains relatively high for Indian banks in the global context, growth is likely to come with its own multifarious set of challenges. Banks that are better organised around their core positioning and identified strategic initiatives will be more ‘market ready’ for realising these growth opportunities.

(The author is Senior Director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd. Views are personal).

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William & Mary School of Business Real Estate Conference to Focus on Challenges, Opportunities of Local, Regional, and Global Markets - YAHOO!

To: NATIONAL AND REAL ESTATE EDITORS

2nd Annual Conference at the Mason School of Business Joins Global Real Estate Powerhouses and Pre-eminent Experts

WILLIAMSBURG, Va., April 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary will host "Surviving Today, Succeeding Tomorrow" April 11-12 at Alan B. Miller Hall in Williamsburg, VA, with several of the nation's most prominent commercial real estate leaders.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20051111/DCF019LOGO-b)

"Surviving Today, Succeeding Tomorrow" will focus on the challenges and opportunities in the shifting local, national, and global economies affected by the real estate markets.

CEOs from global real estate powerhouses Cushman and Wakefield, Prologis and Related Urban will be joined by local, regional and national experts in residential and commercial real estate. The conference will provide a framework and context for the real estate professional to make sense of the volatility of the industry.

The role of the ports, often overlooked, will also be examined as a factor for growth in the real estate markets on local, domestic, and international dimensions. Additionally, pre-eminent experts will give their views on the trends shaping the availability of capital to leverage for real estate opportunities.

"Huge challenges remain in real estate. Some of the top experts in the world of real estate will be at the College of William & Mary's Mason School of Business to help conference participants and our students distinguish the mine fields from the fields of opportunity," said Mason School of Business Dean Lawrence B. Pulley.

Dane Brooksher, the retired Chairman of the Board and CEO of Prologis will serve as the morning moderator of the conference. Prologis is a leading global provider of distribution facilities. Kenneth Himmel, CEO of Related Urban Development, will moderate the afternoon session.

The conference will close with a panel of experts addressing and taking questions on the next steps forward. That panel will be led by John Cushman, CEO of Cushman and Wakefield.

The expansive speaker list includes prominent authorities such as:

-- Jackie Amato, the President of Towne Bank Mortgage, LLC -- David J. Beatty, President of Towne Bank Commercial Mortgage, LLC -- Jerry Bridges, Executive Director of the Port of Virginia -- John Cushman, Co-Chairman of the Board, Cushman and Wakefield -- Howard Elkus, founder of Elkus Manfredi Architects -- Charles "Chip" Fedelen, Executive Vice President of Commercial Real Estate at Wells Fargo -- Kenneth Himmel '68, CEO of Related Urban Development -- Youguo Liang, Economist at Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) -- Roger S. Pratt, Managing Director and Chief Risk and Investment Officer for the US and Latin America, PREI -- Walt Rakowich, Co-CEO of Prologis -- Carl E. Reichardt, Jr., Director of Research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting

The lead sponsors of the 2012 Real Estate Conference are Prologis, Related Urban and TowneBank.

For more information and to register: http://mason.wm.edu/re.

The conference site will be Alan B. Miller Hall. Miller Hall, dedicated in 2009, was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP. It earned Gold LEED Certification in 2010. It is deemed the 'western gateway' of the College of William & Mary campus in Williamsburg, VA and is paired to the east with the historic Wren Building, the oldest college building in the United States.

As the second-oldest college in the United States and educational home to many American leaders, the College is revered as the "alma mater of a nation." Its Mason School of Business embraces the entrepreneurial spirit that built the country atop a foundation of business, trade, and economics. Distinctive in its revolutionary thinking and approach to problem solving using a highly experiential model, it welcomes energetic thinkers with a will to lead in creating a strong sustainable economy and thriving society.

Contact:

Andrea Sardone, Business School 757-221-2043/apsard@wm.edu

SOURCE The Mason School of Business at The College of William and Mary

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Workshop spotlights business opportunities, challenges

HAMMOND | The Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center is presenting its business feasibility workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. April 17 at the Hammond INnovation Center, 5209 Hohman Ave.

The workshop details the key initial steps would–be entrepreneurs should consider before launching a business. It will outline the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges involved in ownership.

The cost is $25 and registration and payment are required in advance. To register, visit http://www.nwisbdc.org/, click on seminars and events, the workshop and follow instructions or call (219) 644–3513. 

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Geneva downtown business folks, city officials, talk challenges, opportunities

Geneva business owners eagerly accepted an invitation to bend the ears of city officials Wednesday night about what downtown Geneva needs.

Some of the answers may not have been easy for the aldermen and city staff attending to hear.

And some were hard for their fellow business owners.

The informal session, over pizza at Urban Grille restaurant, attracted at least 60 people. It was organized by the four aldermen who represent the central business district _ Craig Maladra and Ralph Dantino of the 5th Ward, and Sam Hill and Chuck Brown of the 1st Ward.

The group split into small groups of eight to chew on questions about what challenges and opportunities face owners of downtown businesses, and what the city’s responsibility is in having a vibrant downtown.

One challenge raised at every table: the feeling that the city is too heavy-handed with regulations on businesses. Especially, lately, the rules about placement of popular A-frame “sandwich-board” signs.

Many in the room said they had received a letter in the last week telling them they violated city law by not taking the signs down one day last week when winds were high. They said they didn’t know that was a requirement and that the city’s rules were vague.

The other strong message to city leaders: Please don’t layer an extra sales tax (of up to 1 percent) on the district. The current district is expiring, and the city council is considering designating a new one; if it did, it would have the power to charge the extra sales tax, presumably to pay for items related to the downtown.

“Any kind of increase in sales tax in this economy, in this downtown, is a really bad idea,” said Mike Simon, owner of The Little Traveler store and the former Merra-Lee Shops properties.

Other ideas repeatedly mentioned included having merchants staying open in the evenings and on Sundays. Now, some do and many don’t.

Others think the downtown would benefit from the presence of more national retailers. The only big national chains in the district are Caribou and Starbucks coffee shops.

And they want to figure out a way to get Genevans (and Mill Creek subdivision residents) to shop more regularly in downtown Geneva. “What drives me crazy every single day is we talk to people at our kids’ schools (and ask) ‘Do you ever come downtown?’ ‘Yeah, every once in a while,’” said Marty Kane, western Geneva resident and owner of the Great Harvest Bread Co. on North Third Street.

Other suggestions were to offer deals to Metra commuters, to get them to shop in Geneva on the weekends; and to try to attract shoppers in their 20s through 40s. The downtown’s typical shoppers, one man said, tends to be 50- to 70-year-old women.

The written notes from the small-group sessions, and the other comments, will be compiled by the city into a document that will be published on the city’s website, geneva.il.us. They may be categorized by whether the idea is something the city should work on, or something merchants should do. Maladra said he would like to have more such meetings with merchants. He noted the city is close to finalizing a downtown master plan.

And Brown urged the guests to contact the aldermen any time they had a question or problem regarding the city.

“You are the people who are going to create the future, and we will try to help any way we can,” Brown said.

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Facebook Timeline For Businesses Launches: Presenting New Marketing Challenges and Opportunities - Online PR News

On February 29th the social networking giant announced that they were releasing Timeline for business pages effective immediately and that on March 30th 2012 all business pages would be switched over to the Timeline format automatically.

Online PR News – 04-March-2012 –Over the last twelve months, Facebook has become more important than ever before as a marketing tool for businesses large and small. As of January 2012, more than 60% of the small businesses operating in the US alone had a Facebook business page that they updated on a regular basis.

These businesses though got something of a shock on February 29th when the social networking giant announced that they were releasing Timeline for business pages effective immediately and that on March 30th 2012 all business pages would be switched over to Timeline format automatically. That leaves just about a month for businesses to ?get their house in order? and prepare to embrace the sometimes controversial new format.

Timeline - the format change first introduced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg at the Facebook F8 conference in September of 2011 - has been rolling onto personal Facebook pages for some time. It has its fans and a rather vocal number of detractors as well. Although it is rumored that Timeline for personal pages will become the standard very soon making the switch is not yet mandatory, leaving some business owners who dislike the idea altogether angered that for their business pages they will have no choice but to utilize the format.

The Timeline changes will impact businesses more than they will personal pages. One of the functionality that businesses made a great deal of use of on Facebook - fan gating - is no longer available in the Timeline format. Fan gating was the practice of installing an extra application that would display a different landing page to those yet to ?like? the page to the one that current fans saw.

Most other functionalities remain effective however and many people believe that the new Timeline for Business will prove to be great for businesses in the end. Peter Lee, CEO of WireWakersVA, a New York based SEO and Web Site Development company admits that a number of the company?s clients did voice immediate concerns about the change. ?The announcement took a great many people by surprise and although Facebook Fan page owners have ample time to work on their Timeline a certain sense of panic did set in. However, as we have been demonstrating to our clients Timeline has a lot to offer businesses. The larger cover photo alone presents a fantastic branding opportunity.?

Other new features that Timeline offers include the ability to add company milestones from the past to the page, the option to ?pin? certain featured posts to the top of the page for up to seven days and larger photo displays on wall posts themselves.

Says Peter ?The switch to Timeline is certainly something that businesses need to devote some time and thought to. Our social media experts have had a busy week experimenting with its functionalities and there are some difficulties to be overcome. Once these are worked through though the Timeline pages that we have been working on are turning out wonderfully well and I believe that in the end even those who are skeptical about the concept right now will find that the new Timeline offers greater connectivity and branding opportunities than have ever been available before.?

About WireWalkersVA
WireWalkersVA is based in New York, NY and was started by its CEO, Peter Lee and a dedicated team of business, marketing and social media advisors. Their website http://wirewalkersva.com/ provides business, marketing, SEO and social media resources in the form of free ebooks, podcasts, videos, blogs and a business forum.

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The opportunity and challenges of taking Indian TV content overseas - Indian Television

The opportunity and challenges of taking Indian TV content overseas

Viacom18 head - distribution & International Business and Sun18 COO- North

Indian broadcasters earn over Rs 10 billion every year from subscription and advertisement revenues and content sales from the International markets. This number has been steadily increasing over the last decade and should continue to grow.

Since this revenue source has started making substantial contributions to the bottom line of broadcasters, it is important for all to understand this opportunity and its related challenges in greater details.

The opportunity of taking Indian television content abroad can be simply explained with the 3 ‘E’s – Enormity of audiences, Emotional link and Economic value.

Enormity of audiences: The estimates for the NRI and PIO populations range between 25-30 million spread over 100 countries. There are more than 25 countries where the Indian overseas population crosses the hundred thousand (100,000) mark, and close to 60 countries where the population is above ten thousand (10,000) individuals. These numbers make for an attractive business opportunity for broadcasters to tap into this audience base. This becomes even more compelling since the Pareto principle applies here perfectly with the top 20 markets (of the 100+countries where Indians reside) accounting for over 80 per cent of the overseas Indian population, making it relatively easier to reach out to the larger audience pools.

Even regional content finds dedicated audiences with large linguistic pockets in countries like Malaysia and Singapore (Tamil), the Middle East (Malayalam), Canada and UK (Punjabi) for example.

Emotional links: Indian content is a very important tool for these communities to connect with their cultural roots. Thus the emotional involvement with Indian content is very high and Indian channels become a ‘must have’ for most of these families, thanks to shared cultural backgrounds.

Economic Value: The economic opportunity for broadcasters becomes significant as many of these large Diaspora markets have a fairly attractive ARPU (average revenue per user) – especially in the context of what the Indian broadcasters are used to back home. Given such high ARPUs, the license fee per channel (at least for the mainline GECs) in UK, US, Middle East etc can range from $1 per sub to as high as $ 7 per sub (especially on some a-la-carte options). This is a very different scenario from the domestic market (in India) where the consumer currently pays less than $4 for 80-100 channels to the cable operator and only a fraction of that gets passed back to the broadcasters.

The economics become even more attractive as the incremental costs to expand into overseas territories are largely limited to transport and marketing costs with content costs being minimal - largely because most Indian broadcasters own the content IP around the world for perpetuity (or at least multiple years in case of movies and events, etc)

However, this opportunity to get incremental revenues is not without its share of challenges. The big challenges impacting this business today are several.

Competition, clutter and bandwidth constraint: Given the attractiveness of the overseas market, most broadcasters after reaching some level of size, scale or maturity in the domestic market look at expanding
operations. However, the platforms (DTH or cable) in most markets cannot dedicate enough bandwidth to distribute all of these services. In many cases the platforms don’t see the need to go beyond offering a few channels and covering only the most critical genres like GECs and Movies. Thus for several channels and especially the late entrants, this reticence is a major entry barrier. And in many markets, very often when platforms add more services to existing packages/bouquets, they are doing so at the same retail price forcing the channels to further divide the revenue pie to accommodate the new players

Advertising opportunity remains limited: For most Indian broadcasters operating in the international arena,
subscription revenues tend to form the larger part of the revenues with the advertising sales revenues playing more of the support role. The key reason for this is the fact that the ‘desi’ channels target only the Diaspora audiences and not the mainstream viewers, thereby limiting the audience base. Given the small base, to keep cost per contact at manageable and affordable levels, the advertising-sales rates are extremely low.

Secondly as competition grows (and fragmentation increases), the same advertising dollar gets divided. And with the considerable slowdown in the global economy in the last few years and the recessionary trends in many of the large markets for Indian channels, that has also impacted the advertising revenues for the Indian broadcasters.

Piracy: This remains a huge and ever increasing threat to revenues for both the broadcasters as well as platforms. Internet streaming as well as the proliferation of many illegitimate OTT services poses a huge
danger for pay TV revenues.

The above challenges, along with the growing cost of local operations in many overseas territories, make it a tough task for many broadcasters looking to expand their international operations.

At Viacom18, in the short span of two years, Colors content has reached audiences in approximately 120 countries using a combination of channel distribution and content sales. For the key markets like the US/Canada, UK, Middle East, South East Asia and Australia/New Zealand/Fiji with their sizeable Indian audiences, we have set up three international feeds and local ad sales operations.

Colors, as a channel, is now distributed in close to 50 countries. This is complimented by our content sales in those markets where our audiences are the local mainstream audiences and not necessarily the Indian Diaspora. With the popularity of Bollywood transcending language and cultural barriers, more audiences are sampling Indian content which is amply demonstrated by the fact that our content is syndicated in 20 foreign languages in over 100 countries and where one of our leading daily soaps will now be produced locally in one of the African countries for the local audiences there – a first for an Indian show. In addition we are also subtitling our feeds in English and other local languages to cater to these mainstream audiences and bolster our subscription and ad-sales revenues.

In the final analysis, the challenges notwithstanding, it is essential for mainline Indian broadcasters to have an international strategy in place, the careful execution of which will result in substantial revenues to compliment their domestic businesses.

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Big Data: How Companies Transform Challenges into Business Opportunities - Soa Wolrd

Did you know that ninety percent of the data in the world has been created in the last two years? Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion (or 2.518) bytes of data, according to IBM.

As corporations across all industries globally are struggling with how to retain, aggregate and analyze this mounting volume of what the industry refers to as Big Data, it also provides a unique opportunity for innovative startups that recognize the business prospects Big Data presents. Big Data is not just unlocking new information but new sources of economic and business value.

Interactivity is driving Big Data, with people and machines both consuming and creating it. Digital companies focused on becoming good at aggregating and analyzing the data created by the end users of their product, who then provide their customers with solid insights taken from that data are at a distinct competitive advantage over others in the marketplace.

The information overload of Big Data presents two distinct challenges. The first is the old "needle in the haystack" problem of uncovering the information you need among the massive amounts of data you have collected. The second is making use of the information once you discover it by developing ways to find meaning in it. The key to overcoming these challenges is to turn the data into understandable information that can be analyzed and made into knowledge that can serve as the wisdom that allows people to make better decisions.

Forward-thinking companies are turning Big Data challenges into business opportunities by helping to find and collect information to improve the quality in decisions, segment audiences and embed data into products to create new opportunities - but what's next? With all of the data out there it's clear that more innovation is needed to make sense of it all.

The next wave of opportunities is more focused around how to assess the quality and impact of the data. Take privacy, for example. Companies need to control who needs or has a right to know the data and ensure the proper protections are in place. There is also the question of rights management and who actually owns the data - the source, the company, the customer? It all begs the question of data integrity as well. Once you collect and uncover the data, how can you ensure it is accurate? Last is the question of relevance and determining what data is really worth knowing and how to filter out the noise.

It is clear that Big Data has gone mainstream and there are countless ways for those who understand the challenges it brings to seize the opportunities. We have entered into the industrial revolution of data, and entrepreneurs ready to be at the forefront must act today or risk being left behind.

Larry Bettino has 19 years of private equity and venture capital investment experience. He is currently a Partner at StarVest Partners, a New York - based venture capital firm focused on technology-enabled business services that take advantage of next-generation internet and information technologies. He was a Partner and Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, joining the firm in September 2001 to lead the firm's investment activities in telecommunications and information technology, and a member of the firm's executive management group.

Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, he was a founding partner at Baker Capital. From 1989 to 1996 he was a partner with Dillon Read Venture Capital where he focused on technologyand data communications investments. An experienced engineer, he held a series of technical and management positions at IBM. He received his B.S. (1982) in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (1989).

Mr. Bettino has been a member of the Board of Directors of several public and private companies: Accept Software (on-demand product innovation and management software), IRON Solutions (Data-as-a-Service provider: The largest farm equipment transaction information database), Accept Software (a solution for Innovation Process Management), Transactis (a leading provider of electronic bill presentment and payment [EBPP] solutions), LSSiCorp. (the leading provider of international directory database services); MACH SA (based in Luxemburg - the global leader of mobile telephony data services); and Telcordia Technologies (the world's largest provider of Operational Support Software to tier-one communications carriers and one of the largest technology leveraged buyouts of the last several years).

Mr. Bettino is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Citizen's Budget Commission, a non-profit civic organization committed to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York State and New York City governments. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Adventis, the global management consulting firm. He lives in Bronxville, NY with his wife and three children.

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Big Data: How Companies Transform Challenges into Business Opportunities - Soa Wolrd

Did you know that ninety percent of the data in the world has been created in the last two years? Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion (or 2.518) bytes of data, according to IBM.

As corporations across all industries globally are struggling with how to retain, aggregate and analyze this mounting volume of what the industry refers to as Big Data, it also provides a unique opportunity for innovative startups that recognize the business prospects Big Data presents. Big Data is not just unlocking new information but new sources of economic and business value.

Interactivity is driving Big Data, with people and machines both consuming and creating it. Digital companies focused on becoming good at aggregating and analyzing the data created by the end users of their product, who then provide their customers with solid insights taken from that data are at a distinct competitive advantage over others in the marketplace.

The information overload of Big Data presents two distinct challenges. The first is the old "needle in the haystack" problem of uncovering the information you need among the massive amounts of data you have collected. The second is making use of the information once you discover it by developing ways to find meaning in it. The key to overcoming these challenges is to turn the data into understandable information that can be analyzed and made into knowledge that can serve as the wisdom that allows people to make better decisions.

Forward-thinking companies are turning Big Data challenges into business opportunities by helping to find and collect information to improve the quality in decisions, segment audiences and embed data into products to create new opportunities - but what's next? With all of the data out there it's clear that more innovation is needed to make sense of it all.

The next wave of opportunities is more focused around how to assess the quality and impact of the data. Take privacy, for example. Companies need to control who needs or has a right to know the data and ensure the proper protections are in place. There is also the question of rights management and who actually owns the data - the source, the company, the customer? It all begs the question of data integrity as well. Once you collect and uncover the data, how can you ensure it is accurate? Last is the question of relevance and determining what data is really worth knowing and how to filter out the noise.

It is clear that Big Data has gone mainstream and there are countless ways for those who understand the challenges it brings to seize the opportunities. We have entered into the industrial revolution of data, and entrepreneurs ready to be at the forefront must act today or risk being left behind.

Larry Bettino has 19 years of private equity and venture capital investment experience. He is currently a Partner at StarVest Partners, a New York - based venture capital firm focused on technology-enabled business services that take advantage of next-generation internet and information technologies. He was a Partner and Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, joining the firm in September 2001 to lead the firm's investment activities in telecommunications and information technology, and a member of the firm's executive management group.

Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, he was a founding partner at Baker Capital. From 1989 to 1996 he was a partner with Dillon Read Venture Capital where he focused on technologyand data communications investments. An experienced engineer, he held a series of technical and management positions at IBM. He received his B.S. (1982) in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (1989).

Mr. Bettino has been a member of the Board of Directors of several public and private companies: Accept Software (on-demand product innovation and management software), IRON Solutions (Data-as-a-Service provider: The largest farm equipment transaction information database), Accept Software (a solution for Innovation Process Management), Transactis (a leading provider of electronic bill presentment and payment [EBPP] solutions), LSSiCorp. (the leading provider of international directory database services); MACH SA (based in Luxemburg - the global leader of mobile telephony data services); and Telcordia Technologies (the world's largest provider of Operational Support Software to tier-one communications carriers and one of the largest technology leveraged buyouts of the last several years).

Mr. Bettino is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Citizen's Budget Commission, a non-profit civic organization committed to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York State and New York City governments. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Adventis, the global management consulting firm. He lives in Bronxville, NY with his wife and three children.

View the original article here

Big Data: How Companies Transform Challenges into Business Opportunities - Soa Wolrd

Did you know that ninety percent of the data in the world has been created in the last two years? Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion (or 2.518) bytes of data, according to IBM.

As corporations across all industries globally are struggling with how to retain, aggregate and analyze this mounting volume of what the industry refers to as Big Data, it also provides a unique opportunity for innovative startups that recognize the business prospects Big Data presents. Big Data is not just unlocking new information but new sources of economic and business value.

Interactivity is driving Big Data, with people and machines both consuming and creating it. Digital companies focused on becoming good at aggregating and analyzing the data created by the end users of their product, who then provide their customers with solid insights taken from that data are at a distinct competitive advantage over others in the marketplace.

The information overload of Big Data presents two distinct challenges. The first is the old "needle in the haystack" problem of uncovering the information you need among the massive amounts of data you have collected. The second is making use of the information once you discover it by developing ways to find meaning in it. The key to overcoming these challenges is to turn the data into understandable information that can be analyzed and made into knowledge that can serve as the wisdom that allows people to make better decisions.

Forward-thinking companies are turning Big Data challenges into business opportunities by helping to find and collect information to improve the quality in decisions, segment audiences and embed data into products to create new opportunities - but what's next? With all of the data out there it's clear that more innovation is needed to make sense of it all.

The next wave of opportunities is more focused around how to assess the quality and impact of the data. Take privacy, for example. Companies need to control who needs or has a right to know the data and ensure the proper protections are in place. There is also the question of rights management and who actually owns the data - the source, the company, the customer? It all begs the question of data integrity as well. Once you collect and uncover the data, how can you ensure it is accurate? Last is the question of relevance and determining what data is really worth knowing and how to filter out the noise.

It is clear that Big Data has gone mainstream and there are countless ways for those who understand the challenges it brings to seize the opportunities. We have entered into the industrial revolution of data, and entrepreneurs ready to be at the forefront must act today or risk being left behind.

Larry Bettino has 19 years of private equity and venture capital investment experience. He is currently a Partner at StarVest Partners, a New York - based venture capital firm focused on technology-enabled business services that take advantage of next-generation internet and information technologies. He was a Partner and Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, joining the firm in September 2001 to lead the firm's investment activities in telecommunications and information technology, and a member of the firm's executive management group.

Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, he was a founding partner at Baker Capital. From 1989 to 1996 he was a partner with Dillon Read Venture Capital where he focused on technologyand data communications investments. An experienced engineer, he held a series of technical and management positions at IBM. He received his B.S. (1982) in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (1989).

Mr. Bettino has been a member of the Board of Directors of several public and private companies: Accept Software (on-demand product innovation and management software), IRON Solutions (Data-as-a-Service provider: The largest farm equipment transaction information database), Accept Software (a solution for Innovation Process Management), Transactis (a leading provider of electronic bill presentment and payment [EBPP] solutions), LSSiCorp. (the leading provider of international directory database services); MACH SA (based in Luxemburg - the global leader of mobile telephony data services); and Telcordia Technologies (the world's largest provider of Operational Support Software to tier-one communications carriers and one of the largest technology leveraged buyouts of the last several years).

Mr. Bettino is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Citizen's Budget Commission, a non-profit civic organization committed to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York State and New York City governments. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Adventis, the global management consulting firm. He lives in Bronxville, NY with his wife and three children.

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Workshop details business opportunities, challenges

MERRILLVILLE | The Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center is offering its business feasibility workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Purdue University Calumet Academic Learning Center, 9900 Connecticut Drive, in Room 246.

Launch Your own Business is designed to help potential entrepreneurs determine their preparedness and ability to launch a business by examining the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges involved in ownership.

The cost is $25, and registration and payment are required in advance. To register, call the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center at (219) 644–3513 or register at http://isbdc.ecenterdirect.com/, click on training events, choose Northwest under centers and follow the instructions. For more information, visit http://www.nwisbdc.org/.

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